Quantcast

Bower Power

· 55 Comments

Painting then Fainting

Uncategorized

I didn’t actually faint.

I’m not much of a fainter.  I’m more of a cryer.  a freaker-outter-and-dramatic-flailer-while-suffering-from-excessive-snot-kinda cryer.  Not cute.  especially when it runs down over my mouth.  also ‘snot-licker’ didn’t rhyme with “painter”.

So this is the story on how the office bathroom paint color got slapped on the walls, I had a mini breakdown and then came to a conclusion about how white balancing should never affect my life that much.

First – let’s just take a peek at the original plan o’ attack (that’s Irish dontchaknow)…

To me – and you may interpret this differently – but to me, this plan showcased some pretty girly stuff.

Key word: FEMININE.

It’s hard to get girly in a bathroom that looks like this:

It’s hard to get all estrogeny on a bathroom that has slate.  To me, slate screams “BOY”.  So to offset that testosterone, I pulled in lots of chrome (here’s the stuff we bought), and some girly hues (check out our painted vanity here),

and painted the trim a crisp clean white (more details on that here).  I wanted to continue that effort in demasculinizing the room with a neutral paint color that would equally look dashing with the turquoise vanity, the ruddy slate, bright white trim and the cream tones of the floor tiles, the toilet, and the vanity top.  TALL ORDER.

Does a color such exist?

Is it like the unicorn?  like the rainbow’s pot of gold?  like the cellulite cream that is 100% effective and costs the same as a bowl of humus?

I thought I had picked one that blended both the walls, fixtures, trim and vanity…(don’t mind the crazy way the monitors interpret the colors – the swatches are different and the paint is different too!)…

So the cutting in process began.  I diligently painted the entire bathroom in one night.

The pink was actually a really decent primer for this paint color…

So I knocked it all out.  It was ready to be rolled…

So I did.

And as I did it, minute by minute, I started getting deflated.

The second it was done, I moved in the vanity to see how it went with the color and took some photos.

And that is when it began.  I immediately started breathing fast and my heart beat was rattling my chest.

It didn’t look just okay.  It looked HORRIBLE.

Looking at the photos literally made me cry.

Emotional control is not my strong suite…and this paint color was just plain depressing.

Even after I got the white balance adjusted, it still didn’t jive.

I may have thrown myself into Jeremy’s chest and cried and said emphatically “BUT I DON’T WANNA HOLD ANOTHER PAINT BRUSH IN MY LIFE” and snotted up his shoulder.

Jer felt bad I think.  Probably because he said “I feel bad for you”.

To which I snarkly replyed “Feeling bad doesn’t repaint a room” sniff sniff sniff “I need to go to bed”.

That’s my solution for most things…sleep it off.  So I went to bed, and Jer mudded the holes.

In the morning, as I woke with puffy eyes and literally ran to the bathroom to see how it looked.

HOLY HOT GUACAMOLE.

It looks totally different in natural light.

Enter me plus a huge sigh of relief.  What do you get?  This wall color.

It’s a mushroomy gray.  It is like George Clooney – it’s one suave playah.  It plays off the vanity and the slate all at the time and it has a garage full of blonde 20-something-year olds ready in ball room dresses.

So my Georgie will stay.

I love it.

And oh – here’s a little trick for painting behind the toilet tank…just wrap the back and top of the tank with either seran wrap or press n seal, and then after it dries, just peel it off…no mess 🙂

So that’s how I went from a hot-emotional-mess to crying-myself-to-sleep to waking-with-hope to pullin-out-my-purple-pleather-jumpsuit to celebrate.  I even consider tapdancing for a second…except I don’t know how and it turns out looking like me doing a mix between stomp and weird tribal dance with no arm movements.

I really got off the point tonight.  my bad.

 

p.s.  you guys.  you stinkin guys.  you stinkin awesome amazing friends of mine.  you nominated me for the Homies DIY Blog (probably because I told you to)…and I am beyond flattered that at one point you awesome people put Bower Power at #1.  I really want top ten (I believe they take the top ten into the actual vote for the award – so just to be considered is more than this redneck gal can imagine)…and you blew my socks clear across the room and into the hamper.  Thank you thank you thank you.  You really know how to fry my bacon 🙂

0 Shares

Comments

  3. I really like the wall color and I think it looks wonderful with the slate and newly painted vanity! I know you’re not 100% on the slate but at least the previous owner didn’t tile the ENTIRE bathroom with a combo of orangey and greyish/pinkish tiles. Our landlord did and it’s… interesting? Sure, we can go with interesting.

    Congrats on getting so many Homies nominations! Hopefully everyone will vote after they announce the top 10!

  4. lookin’ good!! maybe if you’re snot crying over paint, you could be prego. i cried over spaghetti once. i think i cried over painting walls too, in fact i know i did.

  5. You have crown molding in your bathroom. You are SO lucky. I love that wall color. It really does looks so much better with natural light. Night and Day. Night and Day. …. is that where this phrase originated? Referring to paint colors? Most likely.

  7. You are definately my favorite of the homies. I love how relatable you are, big projects make me freak out and cry too. Exhaustion and paint fumes probably add to the crust and chances of crying. Chin up, it is looking great.

  8. Love it! I think everyone has that snort-cry-can’t breathbecause I’mchoking on my own snot- fit everyone once in awhile…oh no just me? That’s cool too : )

  10. Screens aside, the wall and vanity colors are the paint colors in my house (aside from one bath). The kaki (mine is more of a sand than grey) blends with everything and I just love my almost Tiffany blue kitchen! Your color choices are after my own heart! And I’m glad to are they work well with slate, because yes it looks masculine, but I still love it!

  12. Plastic wrap is such a good idea. When I painted my bathroom, I just taped a free newspaper to the toilet bowl 😐 Your idea is much smarter!

    PS, I love the colour!

  13. LOVE the way the bathroom is coming!!! It gives me hope for mine!!!

    Are you going to be doing anymore of the question/answer posts you did a few weeks ago? Loved them.

  14. So funny! The same thing happened to me when I was building my house. I got to pick 1 color, and when the painters finished my Mom came by to see it because I was working. She started having a panic attack because she thought I would hate it and we all would have to repaint THE WHOLE HOUSE! The color was like a light butter yellow (hey, I liked it at the time). But in the morning, she and I came by and I loved it. Mom said it looked totally different then it did the night before with poor lighting. Moral of the story, sometimes sleep and light makes all the difference in the world! Lauren B.

  15. That plastic wrap idea is brilliant. We are about two weeks from painting our bathroom and I’ll definitely be using that tip. I absolutely LOVE that shower curtain. I wonder if my boss will understand if I need to make an emergency trip to Lowes…..

  17. Katie! I love the bathroom color. It is great 🙂 I also love the way you write… and your honesty. I think that’s what I love most about your blog. And this will really knock your socks off: I had a dream about you last night! I dreamed that you were painting your monster living room and asked me to come over and help you. So. I did. Crazytown, right? You owe me some dream pizza and beer for helping you with your dream painting 🙂

  18. That cling wrap idea is really helpful. If only I’d know it a few months ago (when I managed to get paint all over the back of the tank. Rats.

  19. Silly Katie, it looks wonderful! Once you bring in some fabric it’ll start lookin more like a lady loo 🙂

  20. I love the paint color! I currently have purple bathroom walls (ugh) and they NEED to go.

    Anyways, I thought it was weird that I saw TWO tips this week for painting behind a toilet- what are the odds? House of Hepworths’ blogger Allison said to put a garbage bag over it too and tape it down in the front to make it tight. Love both ideas!

    Looking great- can’t wait to see it finished!

  21. Oooooohmygosh, Katie, you make me laugh!!!! Glad to see that “Georgie” worked out for ya 🙂 I’m really interested in seeing how you took those shower doors out, and fixed the holes… PLEEEEEEASE tell me you took pictures. 🙂

  22. There are so many issues I have with you and your blog:
    1. You’re too pretty
    2. Your bébé is too cute (can I babysit?)
    3. You don’t post enough
    4. You make me jealous =]

    oh, wait….

    Voted for you! BOWERPOWER!!

  25. Lookin good!

    How to you just paint trim in one room? I currently have to paint a door and door trim, which leads into my bedroom and I’m afraid I’ll be compelled to just keep on painting. Now I’ll admit that my entire house needs a fresh coat of trim paint, but I’m not sure I want to take that on in 1 shot.

  27. I had the same problem when I painted my mom’s kitchen at her Bed and Breakfast. We were so deflated. The quick fix that worked for us, was to find a curtain that blended the orange tones of the oak cabinets with the too minty green color that looked much more subtle in the sample swatch we painted. It was amazing how the right fabric brought the whole kitchen together. So happy that things looked a okay in the daylight.

  28. I just found your blog. I will be back because: 1) I am a chronic compulsive painter, I change room color bi-annually, and I need good tips like wrapping my toilet in cellophane; and 2) I do not faint either, I have emotional reactions identical to what you describe in this post. (AND in my recent rash of redecorating, I am going all estrogeny.)

  30. Love it! Love you and love your blog. Voted for you, I hope you get it.!

    You’re real and helpful and its nice that you don’t fill your blog with posts that don’t mean anything just to fill in space. Please keep up being you 🙂

  31. I love the colour! If it makes you feel any better, I was trying to be thrifty and painted our bathroom with a colour we already had on hand…and HATED it. So much that the next day I bought new paint and re-did the entire room. Luckily it was a small room!

  33. Oh Katie, it looks great! We are doing a coastal theme in ours and I just painted ours Sea Salt Blue yesterday. Just put pics up on my blog if you want to peek.

    Funny enough I have picked out Marble Tile as our color for the bedroom. Glad to see how it looks on the walls in all lights! 🙂 You just solidified my commitment to this color!

  34. As of 11:42 ET on 2/28, you’re in the lead on the Homies! (Still lots of time, I know, but in case you didn’t see it…)

    Also: voted. 🙂

    So glad a good night’s sleep made all the difference.

  38. I find it so hard to take a decent photo of a bathroom. They’re typically short on natural light – not a lot of windows. The color looks great, I bet it looks even better in person. Great tip on wrapping up the toilet – I never would have thought of that!

  40. I have done that SOOOOOO many times with paint color. I do think the color changes even after it cures overnight somehow. I think your end result is gorge. You’re a doll and I do love reading this blog. ; )

  42. Oh Katie, I totally feel you on this one. I painted my living room this great light aqua color and it looks so awesome during the day, but at night it’s so ugly. Really really saturated and intense, and not at all what I was going for. Which is sort of sad because I work full time, so I only really see the room at night. Oh well, at least it looks beautiful on Saturday, right?

    Anyway, I think your bathroom is beautiful and the color looks great, and goes with the vanity so well. Can’t wait to see it finished.

  43. Hey Katie!

    You may have listed this somewhere and I overlooked it. But, where did you get your shower curtian for the new office bathroom? I love it!! I’m wanting to update my bathroom soon. Thanks for the inspiration. Keep it up 🙂

  46. Do you know why I love you? Because you compared a paint color to George Clooney. And I totally got it.

  47. Have you peed on the stick recently? We know you had an egg on your o-kit, then you cried at paint….Fingers crossed!

  54. Why have I never heard of the seran wrap trick? All of my toilets have paint on them! It looks awesome! I cant wait to see the finished product!!!

  55. Katie, I had a similar experience but with a shade of “driftwood gray”. it read this chic dusty dark gray, but dried a more brown-dusty dirt kind of way…maybe the “wood” part should have caught my attention??) I did the same look-in-the-morning drill and loved it! It’s the thrill of it I think haha. Or something. PS. When I voted you were #1! And you most def are!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Get the latest via email!