Tuesday, December 27, 2011

I hate Montego Bay Blue

The blue in our bathroom was making me twitch.


I saw that it was a similar color blue as our guest room, so I figured that the previous owners had some paint leftover from their nursery and wanted to freshen up the bathroom to sell the house.  I understood that-- you guys knows I am all about working with what ya got.

Then I found two cans of paint in the basement;  one was labeled "Buzz Blaster Blue" (the guest room) and the other Montego Bay Blue.  This means the previous owners CHOSE that God awful color twice. 

Dear Lord, please grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, change the things I can and the knowledge to know the difference.

Pretty sure the good Lord was saying 'Please grab a paint brush Liz, you can change this'.

Now JEGs had put the kibosh on me painting anything after month eight of the pregnancy rolled around-- he even used his super serious voice that made me realize he would have been pretty pissed if I had.  As much as it killed me (and my nesting) I packed away my paintbrushes for a while.

Once the baby was born and I was mobile, I was granted permission to return to my normal paint-every-surface-possible activities.

...aaaaaand she's back!
  Three coats of primer later, and I had a semi-white wall with the blue color still bleeding through.


My impatient ass decided to forge ahead anyway. I was tired and we needed the paint to dry so we could shower (ewwwww).  In order to cut costs, I used Glidden's Navajo Sand leftover from the baby's room.


I'm gonna put it out there-  I am not a fan of Glidden.  When we moved, we bought a five gallon bucket of Valspar primer to cover the paint in the apartment.  We had some leftover so we used to it in the living room and it did work-  two coats of primer and one coat of paint and you would never know that room used to be red.  But in this room, three coats of primer and two coats of paint, and I can still see the blue bleeding through in some spots.  I have decided that when it comes time to paint the kitchen, I am going to hire someone-- THAT'S how frustrated I am after painting this room.

I digress..  here is the lovely after photo:


The towel bar was replaced for two reasons:  1. it had actually broken in half, and 2. we have the extra wide bath sheets and two would not fit on that dinky little bar.  So we replaced it with individual hooks from Target.



The previous owners had left a shower curtain rod that I really liked.  However, it was brushed nickel and I was slowly replacing all the fixtures with oil-rubbed bronze.  I searched around for a similar rod in ORB to no avail.  So I did what any DIYer would do:  I spray painted it.


It amazes me how well this color matched the shower curtain we already had...

I am planning on DIYing some art for over the toilet, but haven't quite settled on anything just yet.


 Even after all the frustration, I am so happy I took the time to paint this room.  It feels so much more relaxing and less twitch-evoking.  I also feel like the lighter, more neutral color helps to shine a spotlight on my favorite feature of this bathroom-- the black and white checked floor.


The best part is this quick update only cost us a little over ten dollars for the hooks.  Isn't amazing what a little bit of paint can do?  Maybe next time I get trapped in the bathroom, I will be a little calmer ;)

Always & Forever,
  ME

4 comments:

Alison said...

WOW!- it looks awesome. I totally felt calmer after seeing the "after" pictures. First time commenter, long time stalker. Congrats on Hunter and happy 2012. BTW- maybe some bird art over the toilet? I know it's overused in 2011, but birds are calm and would go with the shower curtain.

Oona Johnson said...

Waaaay better. That blue is like the same color as my front door and I HATE it. I'm not sure why, but it really pisses me off. And she painted the back door the same color. Blurgh.

I love the ORB against the sandy beige. Lovely.

Christen said...

Love it! It's amazing how paint transforms everything

Shannon said...

Bam. Done. It looks like a trillion times better. Brava LB! p.s. I love that floor too.