Powder Room Reveal-Part 2

There are times in my life where I am making a decision about something, and there is this teeny-tiny voice in my head that tries to be heard, but it gets completely ignored. In this case, in starting the bathroom makeover, this voice told me it would take longer than two weeks (my initial time frame), to get a finished powder room reveal but I completely dismissed it. “It’s just painting”, I said to myself, “How hard can it be? I should be able to get the painting done in a week!” Let’s just say I was SO INCREDIBLY off track with my time frame and really should have listened to that warning 100%. Hindsight is 20/20 they say, and the honest truth is that if I had JUST stuck to the plan of painting, I could have easily achieved that goal. But I didn’t.

The snowball effect was approaching, and I didn’t even see it coming! Instead, my creative brain decided to hand paint my wall design. I thought to myself, “The wall is small…how long could it take? 4-6 hours maybe?” I thought I’d make my own art. I thought I’d revamp the wall storage unit. I also thought to get a shower curtain and find fabric for a skirt for the vanity.  All during stay-at-home orders where what I needed wasn’t considered a necessity so therefore had to be found and ordered online. Not easy-peasy in any way, shape or form!

To see the before, check out our Powder Room Makeover Part 1, just in case you missed it!

Now that I am on the other side, had I known how long this would have taken, there is a really good chance that I would not have started this Powder room makeover…but I am SO GLAD I did. Painting the walls was the easy part, and really got my creative juices flowing. I had been wanting to have a project where I could use black for a wall color, and one day it dawned on me that it would work in my own house--in my basement powder room--and viola, the vision was born.

Color Scheme

Oh…I just LOVE the colors that I chose, and I am thrilled with how it all turned out! Even my more skeptical husband really likes the finished results! I used Benjamin Moore Black Tar 2126-10, in the Aura Bath & Spa paint that is perfect for bathrooms in a matte finish. The paint went on so smooth, and even with a light cream color to start with, only needed two coats for great coverage. On all the other walls, I used Chantilly Lace OC-65 that had just the right level of warmth to work with our white fixtures, and the cream vanity counter. I looked at several different hand painting options and finally decided this lovely leaf pattern that looked simple enough to execute on the opposite wall. I played with the scale until I thought it would work with the space and started to trace it out onto the walls using graphite paper.

The Process

Like I mentioned earlier, the painting part was pretty easy, but once I started to trace the leaves on the wall, I quickly learned that I had to trace that pattern out 25 times. Just this step alone took me 3 weeks! Keep in mind that I am at-home learning three children, have design clients on the go, and all the life stuff that goes on day to day. I had only a couple of evenings a week and a couple of hours on the weekend to get this done, but I persevered knowing it would be worth it!

When I got to the hand-painting phase, I thought I’d take a shortcut and use Sharpies instead. I had a box upstairs and thought I could save some time and use what I have. Well…after about 5 minutes, as the markers quickly stopped writing smoothly and basically looked like they were running out of ink, I remembered that it was Sharpie Paint Pens that had been recommended by other DIY’ers who had gone before me. So, I quickly shifted back to the hand-painting as I had all I needed for that and got to work!

All in all, this hand-painted wall took me 20 plus hours to execute. It was actually really mentally relaxing and felt so incredibly GOOD to be doing something creative, using my art skills as I painted over each and every leaf. It was quiet; calming; and something that was just for me. It was tiring at times, and my back hurt crouching down near the floor, but it was oh-so-rewarding to see the finished product!!!

As for the other elements that I decided to add, after looking online for shower curtain options, my mom had some fabric in her stash that was exactly what I was looking for and she so generously gave it to me (and sewed the curtain too…thanks mom!). I also had a small piece of vintage chintz that someone had given to me years and years ago that worked PERFECTLY as a sweet little skirt to dress up the plain vanity. I took the doors off, used some stick-on Velcro, and now this vanity is a charming as can be!

I had some grasscloth wallpaper I had purchased for another project I have planned in my house (not yet tackled) and thought I could use it here in this Powder Room Reveal in small ways. I dressed up the storage unit over the toilet by cutting a piece to line the back…a small thing that made a huge difference! I did curbside pick-up at Vintage Charm as they had these super cute black knobs that were so fun for the doors of the cabinet. And *bam* drab to fab!  I also used the wallpaper to create a backdrop for the artwork I wanted to hang. Using a vintage frame I had, I glued the grasscloth to some foam-core and mounted two cards with vintage sofa illustrations. I had held on to these cute little cards for over 20 years as I had purchased them knowing “one day” I would frame them…and they worked out better than I expected!

My handy husband also had to help with a few things, like installing the gold faucet and light fixture that really popped against the dark wall in the most dramatic way.   We initially wanted to hang the mirror that had previously been in our Foyer Makeover, but once the light fixture went up, there wasn’t enough clearance to hang the mirror in that small zone. Luckily, we had an extra vintage mirror we could use as a replacement, and it looks just as good!

So, after all this planning, and pushing hard to get it completed so I could post on time, I am finally ready to show you the finished product of this Powder Room Reveal!

Powder Room Reveal