The Paint Fairies Strike 3

Does this yellow bathroom look familiar to you? If so, thanks for reading about the Curtain Change-up last week, and if not, do you hear "You are my sunshine" in your head too?

We bought our newly constructed home in September 2007. Being first-time homeowners, we followed our builder's recommendation to hold off painting for the first year except for our first floor's half bath and the burnt orange accent wall in our family room. Obviously, we chose this paint color long before we knew what colors we wanted to decorate with, because promptly after painting our garage entry and the grand entrance, we knew this had to go.

So, when my parents visited a few weeks ago, I enlisted my mom's assistance in helping me transform this room. And to make our job easier, before she arrived, I snagged a gallon of primer from good 'ol Home Depot and prepped for her arrival.

However, before we started slapping paint on the walls, I mocked up our game plan. I really wanted this half bath to be different than all other rooms and just like the rest of our house, it has nine foot ceilings, but in this tiny space they are accentuated and sometimes I feel like I'm in a silo. (I've never actually been in a silo, but I can imagine how it would feel.) So, I chose to paint horizontal stripes to make it appear wider, and by painting a dark stripe at the top an bottom of the room, it foreshortens the height. To make matters even better, we used all leftover paint from past painting projects in my home including the light cream from the kitchen, the taupe and milk chocolate brown from the grand entrance, and the dark chocolate brown from the dining table and chairs, meaning that this project cost nearly zip-oh! And as you will see, mocking up the stripes was crucial in determining where to tape and what order to paint the stripes in.

First, I taped off the three largest areas and since I primed the wall, it only took two coats for each color. Priming was a life saver for this particular project because without doing so, the old paint color could have altered any of the new paint colors, especially if the new paint was translucent in any spot.

Unfortunately, after completing just the first step, my mom had to go back to Minnesota and I was left to finish what I started. Nonetheless, I forged ahead, taping and painting the second round during the weeknights after work.

The third round was the most fun for me, not just because it was the last one, but because it was the dark chocolate brown, which added the final dimension to the walls. The dark chocolate brown is also semi-gloss, which makes it slightly shiny compared to the rest, which are all eggshell.

Once completed (many, many hours later), I reaffixed the toilet tank, rehung the art, and popped in the accessories; in no time it was back open for business.

Even though this project was not the quickest to accomplish (it took me 10 days from start to finsh), I couldn't be happier with the result. It is much more mature than the previous sunshine-yellow, and now when going from one room to the next on our first floor, it flows seamlessly.