Room Painting! the Downstairs Bathroom

Sunday, September 15, 2019

4 guests came to visit us, and the toilet handle broke and then sink got irrevocably clogged. And so we ended up with this upgrade.

I have decided to embrace the bold bathroom floors, and paint the walls a lighter shade of the same hue. This way I'm barely adding an additional color to the palette, and helps embrace the floor coloring. The 50s were a great time for bold colored linoleum and matching counter tops. It works alright in the upstairs bath, but I just couldn't deal with the dark, cheap linoleum counter-top in this downstairs bath. And so I fiddled around in Adobe Photoshop for a bit, and eventually settled on this look, which splurges a tiny bit on an engineered quartz counter top + undermount sink, new faucet, new cabinet hardware, and cabinet door trim but saves money by not having to replace most of the chrome fixtures or the floor.



The vanity cabinet is the same one, original to the house, just repainted and some 2 inch trim added to the edge of the cabinet doors (like so, but wider trim). The cabinet just looked so cheap and basic beforehand, with uneven doors, odd cabinet knobs, and just super simple. But it is all wood, which is hard to find affordably, and that means it's easy to rehab with some paint and elbow grease.


The original cabinet is apparently not a standard size, as the counter top is just a little too thin for it, and we had to cut some wood out to fit the undermount sink. The sink ended up being offset a bit, but it all still looks much nicer than it did before. I really like how the engineered quartz has little mirror bits embedded, it gives it a cute, playful look which works well for a first floor bathroom. I went with engineered quartz for the counter, which should stain less than marble, but still be a "real" material.


I followed the deep dive painting process exactly, although, as in the upstairs bath, I also taped off everything a little more fastidiously than typical. Small spaces can be tricky. Ceiling paint is Rustoleum PermaWhite in eggshell, which is mold and mildew proof, not just resistant! Trim & cabinets are Benjamin Moore Advance water-borne alkyd paint in the white straight from the can, semi-gloss. Such a pain, but so much smoother than typical latex paint. I even painted the windows completely! I typically greatly procrastinate on this part, but I did the uppers and lowers in one go, and it's done and I don't have to do it again.




Walls are done in Benjamin Moore Aberdeen Green in Regal Select in a pearl finish (once again, more mold resistant than flatter finishes). It is not really a soft neutral as some would have you believe. It's really full-on, in-your-face mint. I love aberdeen green in this space with the white accents, but there's nothing subtle about it.



West Elm's Cloud Shower Curtain really brings home the black & white accents here. The blockprint on the wall is out of print from etsy/RiseandWander. Cement containers in blush and marble are from etsy/CedarandStoneGarden, and the soap dispenser + toothbrush holder are the Mallorca line from Target. I have a severe soft spot for Islamic tile.