A Striped Bathroom

You may remember that I mentioned in the whole house update post that I had an idea for pepping up our plain white-walled master bathroom.  Last weekend Seth and I painted gray stripes on the two walls surrounding our vanity and I am loving the way it turned out.

We chose Valspar's Gravity, which is the color in our first guest bedroom.  I knew I wanted a gray stripe to sit against the vanity backsplash (since it's white) so I measured the height from the top of the backsplash to the ceiling and divided that out, making sure that there would also be a gray stripe up against the crown molding to set it off.  The stripes turned out to be 6.5" inches wide except for the one at the very top which is only around 6" (you can't really tell when looking at it).  

We used the measuring tape to space out the stripes and a level to draw out lines on the wall using pencil.  I also marked "x"s in between the lines where the gray stripes would go (I like to make things as idiot-proof as possible for myself).  Then I carefully lined up the tape on the pencil lines (making sure to tape on the outside edge of  where we wanted the gray stripes).  

To be super safe and prevent bleeding of our gray paint under the tape, Seth and I first brushed the white wall color over the tape edges.  That way if there was any bleeding under the tape, you wouldn't be able to tell since it would be the same as the wall color.

After letting the white paint dry for about 2 hours (it was a thin coat so it dried quickly), we got to work on the stripes.  Apparently, I didn't get any actual pictures of the process, but I think it's a no-brainer.  We used a brush for the edges and for cutting in around the mirror and a foam roller for the rest.  It took two coats and then we removed the tape. After letting the paint dry overnight, I used a magic eraser to remove a few of my pencil lines that were visible (whoops - I had tried to tape outside of them so that the gray paint would cover them up but I guess that didn't always happen).  

And here is the finished product.

The artwork on the left side of the sink is from my Mom (10-2-10 is the date we got married).  The frame used to be a very light wood so I spray painted it dark blue to go along with our color scheme. We also installed a more modern-looking towel bar and a new robe hook on the back of the door.

On the opposite side, I hung a couple of plates (the top one is from Anthropologie and the bottom one is from a local thrift store).  

It doesn't fix the ugly floor tile, but the stripes definitely cheer me up whenever I see them.