Looking for a great gray?
We did a little fixin' up of our guest bathroom last weekend. When we first moved in I painted it this dark brown color and I was really getting tired of it. It looked nice with white accents, but now that we have kids, our towels and washcloths are not all white! With no natural light, it was also really dark. Here are some before pictures:
Love that cross, but it is clearly too small for this big wall! And our towel rod is clearly too small for properly drying more than one towel...
Love that star, but its not working for me there. I don't have a picture of the old light fixture but it was one of those Hollywood Ms. Piggy fixtures... you know what I mean- with the light bulbs sticking straight out?
We decided to paint the bathroom the same color thats in the rest of our house- its called Silver Dollar and its by Olympic Paints. I love that brand because its low-odor and low-VOC which means no nasty/unhealthy paint fumes! When we repainted our living room and dining room this shade over a year ago, we agonized over the decision and probably bought about 10 little sample cans and tried them out all over the rooms. It was a pain at the time, but I'm SO glad we took our time to sample the colors- they all look so different in different rooms and with different lighting! This color is a gray tone with golden or brown undertones. Its not a stark gray. Its definitely still a cool color, but the golden undertones warm it up a bit...
For some cheap and fun art, I made these little prints with some old frames I had and the Bag o' Buttons from Hobby Lobby! I decoupaged the buttons to the frames and then used rub-on letters on scrapbook paper for the print itself. I guess I could have actually printed them from my computer, but I like the way these turned out...
We replaced the towel ring, toilet paper holder, and light fixture with new brushed nickel fixtures.
The little cabinet over the toilet has brought in some much needed storage for us and was only $55 at Wal-Mart! I love the beadboard look, it adds a little cottage charm.
Since the old towel rod wasn't cutting it, I had a vision for this row of hooks and Paul made my dream a reality! We bought a thin board and attached a chunky moulding to the top and a smaller one to the bottom. Then he primed and painted it (high gloss so it would stand up in the bathroom), screwed on the hooks, and screwed the whole thing directly into the wall...
I wish I had pictures of the process for you- it really was a pretty simple project. I love how custom it is and the charm it brings to this little bathroom.
If you are on the fence about painting something or choosing a color- may this be the little bit of inspiration you need to just go for it! Painting the entire bathroom took only about 45 minutes and I was able to get it all done in two days while my kids napped (primed one day, painted the next).
Looking for the perfect gray? Here are the links to the other rooms in my house painted with Olympic's Silver Dollar:
Happy Painting!
