Baby steps

We finally had some free time last weekend to jump start a few projects, and I wanted to share the finished product.

I have been toying with the idea of painting our bedroom the color in this photo:

but I was worried it would be too dark (we don't get much natural light in there), so I decided to try it first in the smallest room in the house, the powder bathroom.

The color we chose was Sherwin Williams Deep Sea Dive (the middle color).  It's a dark teal that has a little more blue to it than the teal in the inspiration picture.

We took the swatch to Lowes and had it color matched in their Olympic Premium paint with no VOC's.  It's about $5-$10 cheaper than a gallon of SW paint, and has almost no odor - very nice when working in tight spaces and around small kids.

Our powder bathroom before (sorry about the angle, it's tight in there):

And after (ignore the arm):

Here's a better shot of the color

Notice anything different other than the paint? I'll give you a hint....it rhymes like packsplash. It's hard to tell because the picture is so dark, but the backsplash is gone.  The idea came from a blog I am not-so-secretly obsessed with called young house love (thanks Lindy for getting me hooked!). I do not love our bulky built in sink/cabinet in that tiny room and have been pricing out pedestal sinks. I decided if we'd be demo-ing the whole buit-in  someday, it was worth removing the backsplash to see if it made the sink look any less built-in. Plus, it gave me a little room to hone my DIY skills (catch the pun?). I must say....we hit a few road bumps like the hole that was hiding behind one of the pieces of granite.

It took three tries, lot's of cursing and questioning if it we should just put the backsplash back on, but I finally got the hole fixed. You can check out the tutorial I wish I had watched before my first two unsuccessful attempts here.



Between the backsplash, hole repair and paint job it's shocking how many lessons were learned in updating such a tiny room and I'm glad it's over with, but I'm also glad we took a leap of faith and tried something ourselves for a change instead of paying someone to do it. And the verdict on the color?  Well, I love it, but it's way to dark for all four walls of our bedroom, so I'm thinking of trying it as an accent wall much like this photo.

Stay tuned! :)