Back in 2013, I shared a little project update on our powder room on the first floor of our house. We painted the bathroom a yellow color, thinking it would look with the tile. This was the first time I learned a very important lesson about picking out paint colors… Don’t pick out colors on a cloudy day. It really is not a good indication of how the true color will look in the space with natural light. Seriously, I thought this yellow color was a good idea because it was cloudy outside when we were picking out colors! Then again, the room’s original color was a gold and green sponge paint disaster, so it was an improvement, right?!?!
The yellow color just felt really washed out due to the light tiles on both the wall and the floor. The light fixture felt a little dated in regards to the rest of the house, and the vanity wasn’t a showcase piece because of the light colors in the room. While I’m not a huge fan of the vanity for practical reasons (the bowl sink on top is just a nightmare when it comes to having little ones wash their hands and not getting yourself totally sprayed with water when you turn it on), but that’s another project for another day!
To start the updating of the powder room, we pondered over a paint color that would really work well with the space. We had lots of colors from darks to lights and everything in between. At the time, I was really into total contrast of colors with really dark and really light things together. I wanted to keep the space neutral so that it could evolve as our taste changed. I fell in love with the deep chocolate color from Benjamin Moore called Dark Nut Brown.
Ben spent the night painting the walls. He kept saying it wouldn’t take long, but ended up keeping him up until 3:00 am! Since the color was so dark, he needed to do a few coats of paint to make sure that the paint was even and make a bold statement.
Light fixtures and a mirror were next on the docket. We made a trip to Lowe’s in search of the perfect light fixture and mirror. We ended up settling on an oval, frameless mirror. Honestly, that was a quick purchase because we knew we needed something oval and small due to the space we had to work with based on the light fixtures and where the vanity started.
After looking at every light fixture, we decided on an oil rubbed bronze with two lights like this one. We changed the glass shades to a square shaped shade to keep things more interesting.
Once the paint had settled and the light fixture was up, I wanted to spruce up the space with some shelves and pictures. Since the wall color was so dark, I felt it necessary to use lighter colors on the wall to give it a nice pop. I found white shelves at Target that were the perfect size to fit in the space. I didn’t want something too big that it would take over the wall space, but it also needed to be big enough to be functional if I needed to store things on them.
I found some brown eucalyptus leaves that I thought would be a great addition to the shelves. I found a small vase and put the eucalyptus leaves and the vase on one shelf. That shelf still needed something to pull it together, so I found two green glass bottles from Michaels. I like how the browns and greens mesh with each other in this space.
For the other shelf, I had this old candle lying around the house that I got as a birthday present when I was in middle school. I have kept it because it is really pretty, but at the time, had no where to use it. The shelf in the powder room would be perfect! I also got this cute lantern as a gift from a neighbor that finished off the shelving decor. My final touch to the space was a painting that my sister-in-law made of her washing her hands. I love the colors and think it works really well in the space.
Keeping with the green and brown theme, I couldn’t find any curtains or fabric that I liked. I did end up founding a shower curtain that I really liked from Target. I decided to turn the shower curtain into a curtain for the window in the powder room.
Since I was using a shower curtain as a regular curtain for the space, I had to make some minor tweaks to get it to work just right. I started by sewing the top of the shower curtain over to create a hole to put a rod through. Since I didn’t have a sewing machine at the time, I just whip stitched the curtain to create space to put the rod through. Using a tension rod to hold the curtains up, I made sure that the rod was very snug in the space. With the curtain hanging up, I cut a slit up the center of the curtain, almost to the top. Taking white ribbon, I tied the curtain back on both sides. I used Command hooks to keep the curtain back on either side of the window.
To finish off the space, I had wood flowers and a vase that were given to me as a graduation present years ago. It has been in every apartment and home I have lived in. It’s funny to see random things from your past transform from just something on the wall to being able to finish off a room so nicely! Very glad I held on to it all.
And the updated powder room looks amazing. I am very happy with the end result. I really like the contrast of color with different things in the space. I also love that I was able to repurpose things from around the house to make them act like new decor again. And I love that I was able to use some of my old gifts from growing up. But what I love the most is the artwork from my sister-in-law. I always love art from people I know.
Our next project is to find a different vanity, but that won’t be for a while mostly because I am not sure what I want in there! Off to create another Pinterest board for powder room inspiration so that I can finally decide on a vanity, as it has been two years since we painted this room!