Our projects always blow up and I should not be surprised at this point. This tiny but mighty room (as all extra bathrooms are) has a very tall ceiling and is super narrow which has always made by brain a little cross-eyed. When we moved in the walls were light gray with white bead board on the bottom half, and large dark gray square stone tiles. It was a bit cold, the floors were never inviting, and the tiles and grout just started to look dirty no matter how much you cleaned them.
We brightened up the space with some seafoam green paint in April 2017 and did not make any other changes until last May after we finished our kitchen renovations. What started with just updating the bead board color transitioned to a new door knob, light fixture, accent wall, mirror — to literally almost all new everything (although the all new everything came due to a leak and broken appliances). This is not a complaint, albeit a bit more of an expensive refresh than anticipated.
To give you an idea of the transition, here is how the bathroom looked to begin with up until right before the latest refresh.
To be honest? It still did not feel right at the last update in October 2020. We knew we were going to change out the tile. The ceiling for me, still felt too high and as much as I thought my accent wall was cool at the time, I was not feeling it come the beginning of this year.
Brent and I liked the idea of having the room feel a bit coastal. I started collecting some coastal prints: pictures from our Outer Banks vacations, vintage seaside digital downloads, and some fun Facebook marketplace finds. I probably took a whole week trying to determine what color walls I wanted and finally narrowed it down between Benjamin Moore’s colors “West Coast” and “Teal” using their app (which is really helpful).
I decided to go bold or go home, and settled on Teal but definitely was not certain that it was the right decision until I finished painting and hung up the pictures. I also decided to paint the ceiling the same color to assist with our too tall ceiling issue and it was also a choice I sweated for awhile as well. BUT I believe that the finished product makes for such a more interesting and inviting space and much like most spaces we’ve changed, I love it.
Painting the ceiling made the room feel smaller and actually cozier, along with the wall color change and the tile. I also liked combining modern and farmhouse features to make this room feel a bit more eclectic much like the rest of our house. I am sure at some point I will want to edit something in this space but there’s nothing at the moment which bothers me.
The things I really love about this room? The friggin new tile floor. It feels so amazing on my bare feet (unlike the prior tile) and the Facebook marketplace framed prints I found. In reflecting on the project, I really enjoyed taking more risks. This has certainly been a theme for me during the past year and I can tell how much I am more willing to take design risks than I did before. It certainly continues to pay off and I love how much I am growing,
Until next time, I hope that you are all enjoying the spring days! For me, it feels like I have stepped out of a my winter cocoon and ready to attack the world.
xx, M
Sources //
A Shaker & A Mover 