Last September, when the contractors finished up the work on our master bathroom, there were still some finishing touches left for us to complete.  All of the major work (replacing the fixtures, tile, vanity, countertop, faucets, etc.) was all done, but the room still needed paint.  Kind of odd, I know, but the place we hired to do the remodeling work was a local home improvement center that focuses on kitchens and baths … and not paint.  So, they had no painter on staff and told us up front they would do everything but any paint, wallpaper, stain, etc. that we wanted for final finishes.  We figured painting was a really small portion of the job, so we were ok with that.  The plan was actually for me to paint the bathroom myself … or at least that was the plan that I made when I was 4 months pregnant and painting still sounded like a reasonable activity.  By the time the remodeling work was done (only 9 days before Haley was born), I had different ideas.

So, the bathroom sat in a remodeled, but unpainted state from September until the beginning of January when I finally acknowledged that there was just no way I would find time to paint in the course of a normal day (especially when finding time for a daily shower is sometimes a challenge).  So, we finally picked a paint color and hired someone to apply it … easy peasy.  Anyway, just a refresher – here’s what the bathroom looked like for those 3 long months:

 

The walls were partially the old paint color (Sherwin Williams Sand Dune – SW6086) and partially covered in fresh plaster patches … with lots of mars and dings.  Same was true for the doors and the woodwork – everything just needed a fresh coat.

Picking a trim color was easy since we wanted the room to match the rest of the house, so we picked Sherwin Williams Modest White (SW6084).  For the walls, we figured we could use just about any color since we weren’t really trying to coordinate with anything.  I liked the idea of picking something a little darker to provide some contrast with the tile, and I really wasn’t all that crazy about anything in the same color family as the beige we started with.  Just looking at the room, my first thought was to pick a nice shade of blue, which I’m sure would have looked lovely … but we’ve recently painted our entry way and foyer a couple of different shades of blue and I thought it was probably a good idea to change it up a bit.  So, I dug out my (embarrassingly large) collection of paint samples and started picking some likely candidates.  After living with paint chips taped to the wall for a few weeks, Chad and I both had a favorite – and it was the same color!  So, we figured we might as well just go for it.  In the end, we picked Sherwin Williams Green Earth (SW7748).

 

The painters spent the better part of 3 days putting a fresh coat of paint on all of the trim, doors, window, medicine cabinet, walls, and linen closet, but by the time they left, the room actually looked like it had been remodeled … rather than looking like it was a construction project in progress … finally!

 

In the end, we love the color.  It’s just the right amount of contrast with the white tile without being too stark.  The trim color, too, turned out really well,  I like that it matches with the rest of the house, but I was initially concerned that it would be obviously not white against the rest of the whites in the room and might look dingy.  While it definitely does look creamier, I actually like the contrast.  I think it makes the room seem a little warmer and helps the trim stand out from everything else that’s going on in the room.  I’m so happy it worked out … I really hate painting trim, so I’m glad we don’t have to add updating the color to our list of things to do!

 

Besides the paint, you might also notice that we swapped out the light fixtures since the last set of pictures for something a little different.  That had been part of the plan all along – although we’d planned to install some light fixtures I ordered from Pottery Barn rather than the ones we wound up with … but that’s a story for another time.  Regardless, we’re really happy with the new look.

 

So, now you’re pretty much caught up – this is how the bathroom looks today, although we still have some finishing touches left before we’ll consider it complete.  We need to hang towel bars, swap out the door knobs and hinges for something that matches with the rest of the bathroom (rather than shiny gold!), seal the grout (probably several times!), and work on a little decorating.  With any luck, we’ll find some time to wrap up the last items on the “punch list” in the next few weeks, so stay tuned for more updates!

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