paint

And here’s an in progress shot to show you the drastic difference! The Colorhouse gray paint makes the walls look so much cleaner, brighter!

The mini gallery wall is still a work in progress. I love love love the mirror, also a World Market find, and the wall clock and mini gray frame are cheapos from Ikea. The framed Chicago print was one of my first post-college purchases from good ole’ Art.com. The buffalo check throw is from Schoolhouse and the Union Jack pillow was one I picked up in New Orleans a couple of years ago.

My beauuuutiful and very WHITE Society Social bar cart arrived-yes, I went with white. Creature of habit to play it safe-and now I realize it just doesn’t work against the all white walls. It gets lost. This whole wall in general is just… meh. So I’m thinking of painting the wall black. Again, creature of habit (office in first apartment, bedroom in second apartment).



I posted on Instagram asking people what they thought and a lot suggested a deep navy, (Benjamin Moore’s Hale Navy in particular, which is awesome) but I am just not sure how that would work since the rest of the room is neutral greys, blacks, beiges, and whites. Thoughts?



Others are suggesting deep charcoal.



Or… what about bright pink?! Inspired by this and this.



Some say high gloss.



What say you?!



And for the record, 9 times out of 10 I kind of hate accent walls. But because this apartment is so small, it’s more its own section of the room – the bar/library, if you will. It would hardly even be photographed with the “office” or the “living room” parts, both of which kind of have their own looks going on.

I spent all yesterday painting my office Musical Myst by Behr. And let me just tell you… fail. I went into Home Depot and selected a color I thought resembled Middleton Pink (they couldn’t match Farrow and Ball’s perfectly blushy hue since it’s a new color and not in their system). I was confident in my “no need to test it on the wall, I can tell what colors I like just by looking at the swatch” because that’s what I did in my old apartment with Behr’s Dolphin Fin grey and it came out perfect. And the Black Jack by Bejamin Moore paint I used on the wall in my old home office. Apparently I lost the magic touch.



When I finished last night, I thought it looked ok. Maybe it needed a second coat since you could barely notice the pink in a photo. But when I woke up and saw it in daylight, I realized it must have been the yellow incandescent lights making it look bearable. In the morning daylight, Musical Myst is looking purpley, almost w/ a neon glow in some light. Apparently my office has a lot of natural blue light. Not good. Don’t know what to do next… hate that I wasted an entire afternoon. C’est la vie.

so the living room is coming along…

we tested out a few colors, some new, some old. of course we both loved dolphin fin the best, but considering the entirety of my last apartment was painted in that color, we agreed we should try something new.

our many test swatches including our winning choice: classic silver. it’s amazing how many “greys” are actually shades of blue or green. all of the colors shown here are by behr at home depot.

i had to work saturday morning (everygirl photoshoot, no surprise). when i came home at 1pm with lunch, mike surprised me by having painted almost the entire living room. he’s pretty amazing like that.

So my weekend went a little something like this…



Friday

– trip to Home Depot to get new paint

– organize the entire mess of apartment // feeling good



Saturday

– 7am wake-up call for an Everygirl styling shoot

– 1pm returned home with lunch to find sweet boyfriend had painted almost the entire living room while I was gone, but he was running out of paint… (living room photos will post tomorrow!)

– I take to the wood pannelled bathroom (aka the giant sponge that took over a gallon of primer to cover) while he finishes the living room…

– queue second trip to Home Depot to get more paint and then stopped to pick up take-out for dinner

– 10pm we finally finish up, but the bathroom still isn’t complete



Sunday

– finally finish moving stuff out of my old apartment (three years, you’ll collect a lot of crap)

– grab lunch

– come home, reorganize and clean up the apartment again since everything was moved for painting

– try and finish bathroom painting // made great progress, but there are still some tiny grooves and corners that need to be touched up



So fun, right?



Fortunately, the bathroom is going to be so super kick-butt. Without further ado… I present to you: Bathroom Progress.



INSPIRATION:

Inspiration struck when I met my dear friends Bailey and Pete for lunch at GT Fish and Oyster, a fabulous restaurant downtown. I immediately took note of the paneled walls and decided that black, white, and gold would be perfect for my wood paneled bathroom.



So I began gathering more inspiration on Pinterest and adding it to my “Living with a Boy” board:

we might not have a claw-foot tub, but you get the idea…



PROGRESS:

Painting wood paneling is a real pain in the patoot. Not only is the wood like a sponge – like I said, it took a GALLON of primer and paint to cover this little room.

One full coat of primer – we used Kilz primer from Home Depot.

So. Much. Primer. So tedious…

That took way too long. One more coat to go…



BEFORE and almost-AFTER:

Our sweet, sweet not-so-little bathroom. I’m not going to lie, in the few weeks since we’ve been here, every time I brushed my teeth, I kind of felt like i was in a little cabin on a quick weekend getaway… but that… charm, shall we call it?, was quickly wearing off and it was time to make a change. At first I dreaded this space, but after everyone’s comments and excitement to see what i would do with it, I began to love the challenge of making this room over.

paint colors: Powdered Snow by Behr and leftover Black Jack by Benjamin Moore (from my previous home office)

Here it is after two long days and the painting STILL is not finished… we still need new shower curtains (white with black lining), a rug (this striped Dash and Albert number from Layla Grayce), polished brass towel racks, and some styling (I’m thinking a plant!)… and as you can see in the ceiling, we’ll have to get a piece of plywood to cover up the hole where there was once an overhead light. but overall, I’d say MUCH better!

there isn’t much bathroom storage, so my expedit shelves that were previously in my dining room found a new home in the bathroom! love how versatile this piece is. speaking of which, did you see my updated dining room in The Everygirl feature on 10 Favorite Ikea Finds?

and we are filling the cubbies with white and black storage containers – the white bins are from ikea, the black wire baskets are from tjmaxx

cabin fever.

it looks gloooorious.

cabin fever take 2.

Helloooo black support beams!



Mike and I are loving it (victory!). I secretly hope you are too!



Thoughts? Accolades? Suggestions and ideas? Any great sources for CHEAP polished brash fixtures?



…and don’t forget to come back tomorrow to see the updates in the living room!



View the full before tour of Belle here!



Happy Monday!



For more great bathroom ideas check out Bathrooms 365!