New Bathroom

So last Saturday, Husband and son left to go get one daughter from school far, far away and bring her home. School is done! (for her) Yay! I am so glad to have her home!!

They were gone for four days, and I had a surprise project planned...

(I am so sneaky.)

While they were gone, we painted the upstairs bathroom. It had been white since we moved in and cracks had formed along the ceiling and down some of the corners of the room as the house settled. It looked dingy. It was high time for a freshening up.



We sort of passed "freshen up" though, and painted it deep purple. It looks dramatically different and I was really glad (relieved) that they liked it when they came home.

I knew we could put dark color in this room because there's a lot of white already: on the floor, the tub, the shower curtain, plus a white-curtained window at the end of the room lets in a lot of light, and there's a huge mirror to reflect all this. I figured we'd be ok with a deep tone.


My biggest concern was the old border of pink hearts along the top of the wall -- I didn't know how to get it off. It's dated and ugly and stuck really well, and so I called my brilliant carpenter son and his family to come help us.

Meanwhile, as they ate breakfast, we got things out of the way and stirred the paint:
It looked bright red when we got it out of the closet. It's been resting there since last summer when I bought it and had time to settle. Sweet girl and I thought it looked pretty cool as she stirred.

I masked off the mirror and put a little paint on the wall. I was a little anxious about the color. It was quite a change! Putting that bit of paint on the wall did not help me feel better about this.

This son of mine really knows what he is doing, and insists on doing it right. As a result, the project took longer, but turned out way better than I'd anticipated.


He brought all the right tools , and got that border off, though it did take some time. Clearance wallpaper border, cheap and hard to get off.

(Two light bulbs burned out in the process... water dripped on them.
I was told they sizzled and smoked real cool! ... simple pleasures, I guess.)

As he worked he noticed the cracks. We'd talked about it before, he and I , and he knew I wanted to put up crown molding, but I just didn't have the extra money for it right now. So the plan was to paint and make it look as good as possible, and I would add the crown molding later. He also noticed the ceiling had never been painted.


But they surprised me! For Mother's Day, he and his wife bought the crown molding I wanted and also white paint. He put up the crown molding and painted that and the whole ceiling pure white!! So nice!!

(Getting more paint on the walls did not help my anxiety, either. The first coat looked terrible.)

He also took down the ceiling light and cleaned it, and then repainted it... it looks like new!

We had a great time painting all together.
Joking, teasing, and some good, fun music made it a good time.

Even after getting the second coat all on, I was still nervous and not sure if I liked it. I figured I could change the whole room with a quart of paint on the far wall if I needed to. Maybe a lighter shade, or even something contrasting if I wanted. It was not till we got everything back on the walls and I accessorized the room that I really liked it. And when the family came home and they liked it, I felt much better. Now I love it!

And this is how it all turned out!

(The other end of the room.)

I bought pretty washcloths, a candle, and this little silver thing that says "family" to go up on the shelf... and that's all (besides the paint which I bought last summer). So I did not spend too much on this project, and that feels good, too.

I'm glad we did this.