I Need Your Thoughts: Half Bath, Round II

I recently received a new bathroom faucet to review, courtesy of American Standard.  I was able to choose from a few styles and this was my favorite because it was the most modern.  The second Hubby and I installed it though, it was evident that it's too good for our half bath, and that realization has set into motion a very mini re-vamp of the mini makeover...

Although I was really keen to give the powder room a new look when we moved in, I didn't want to spend any money.  Maybe it's because it's one of the last temporary, budget-friendly makeovers we tackled, but by the time we got to it, I was just really done spending money on anything impermanent.  I've been anxious and sweaty about spending money on some impending, more permanent updates and I didn't want to divert funds, I guess.  In my penny-pinching efforts, the half bath was spruced up with leftover white wall paint, leftover grey cabinet paint, leftover tile paint, leftover everything, and then we hung up some art we already owned.  I didn't really put much thought into it beyond, "paint the oak," and "white walls, white walls, white walls".  The towel ring was another generous blog freebie (that I picked out).  I did spring for a new curtain rod, though, because I wanted both bedrooms and both bathrooms to have the same style (there's no curtain yet, though).  The result?  Perhaps unsurprisingly, although I'm much happier since the painting mayhem, it's still not a room that I loooovvve.   

Maybe because it's a smaller room, or maybe because it's beside the cheery laundry room and across from the even brighter kitchen, but I just don't love the grey cabinets in here - even though I really like the grey in the main bathroom.  Although I'm still in penny pinching mode (especially because we've started comparison shopping for the main bath reno - yikes!), I have decided to make one little change, even if it means opening up the old wallet:  I'm thinking about re-painting the cabinets.  It's a quick fix and I think a more dramatic or cheery colour will make me happier.  I don't want to paint/cover the counter because all of the solutions seem dusty and I actually don't mind the colour (strangely).  But I am open to painting the tile again (and am wondering if just painting it the same white as the walls, but in a semi-gloss, could be a simple solution?).   

I like the green abstract (by Hubby's grandpa) that is currently in the bathroom, but I'm not opposed to moving it elsewhere.  I also have a cool, sentimental ballerina print (in need of a more modern frame) and a collection of silhouettes, both without walls to call their own, so I can easily switch up the art, if need be.  

Here are my contenders for a cabinet makeover (along with my rambling thoughts, plus a photo for inspiration - aim high!  The photos are also handy if you'd like to skip my blah, blah, blah and just breeze on through):

The same dark, almost-black grey of the fireplace (but perhaps this is too dark for the small space, or maybe even just too much of a lateral move?):

A Beautiful Mess

Leftover aqua paint from the kitchen (free and coordinating - but even I can agree that perhaps, perhaps, it's too much of a good thing.  Just kidding, it's my favorite option, but it does clash with the green painting...)

I could also mix the cabinet colour with leftover white, for a mellower hue (this has the appealing combination of still being free, but helping me look just a little bit less insane):

House of Turquoise

 A deep teal, like our velvet chair and Emily Henderson's credenza has me taking a look at darker paint swatches (but Hubby thinks it's too dark):

Emily Henderson

A rich navy, something I have very, very little of in the lakehouse and which looks amazing in kitchens/baths with lots of white, not the bisque toilet and sink I'm saddled with (I think this option would generate more problems than it solves, but look how pretty!):

Emily Henderson

I'm also considering a basic white (but I worry that white would make the bisque sink and toilet look even more blah - yeah, I just don't love having to find something to work with the beige):

Apartment Therapy

I'm really liking the idea of a minty hue to complement the painting and make the mint counter look intentional.  Maybe a kind of a vintage Jadeite colour? (I like green and there's quite a bit in the townhouse, so it wouldn't be a jarring color departure):

One Kings Lane

Even a bright, apple green would work, or a muted leafy green (many shades can be pulled from the art):

Young House Love

 Or a pretty, more muted mint (then layer in some brighter colour in smaller doses):

A Lovely Lark

SF Girl by Bay

Here's the painting, as a refresher.  I always like pulling colours for a room from art, and there's lots of fabulous greens here that I could splash onto the cabinets...

 

Thoughts?  Here are the options again:  Darker grey? White? Teal? Navy? Turquoise (nudge, nudge)? Pale Turquoise? Apple Green? Mint Green? Grey Green?

Leave it as-is?  Other ideas?  Lay them on me!  Half baths seem to be my Waterloo - I'm always fiddling with them, never content.  Growing up we didn't have a powder room, so maybe this whole "guest half bathroom" concept is still foreign to me.  Or maybe it's the tiny scale?  Smaller rooms are trickier.

Thank you to American Standard for providing me the Speed Connect Times Square Monoblock faucet.  I was not otherwise compensated nor was I encouraged to provide any sort of positive review.  In fact, I'm quite peeved because this shiny new faucet was the ultimate catalyst for my dissatisfaction with the room ;)  It was a snap to install (minutes!) and we didn't have to use any caulk or putty, as promised (the Speed Connect faucets are said to be the easiest and fastest to install).  We haven't yet installed the drain - is it weird that I want to save it?  Although this isn't mentioned on the website, I have to say that an exceptionally awesome feature is the way this chrome finish cleans up.  Unlike my other chrome faucets, which required a designated chrome cleaner, the water spots buff right off of this faucet with only a soft dry cloth - you're not even supposed to use cleaners on it.  Hopefully this faucet will transition to our more permanent makeover down the road and be right at home.  For now, it's like pairing a sparkly tiara with yoga pants.  Really sad, kind of bagged out in the knee yoga pants.  So yeah, now I'm a little more willing to spend a tiny bit  - a very, very tiny bit - of money in here to make this powder room a little prettier - more like a good-ish pair of skinny jeans.

How to Cover Pipes in a Bathroom

You might have noticed the half bath change involved a tiny bit more than just wall paint.  We fixed a few issues as well.  Our heating system was converted from electric baseboard to radiant hot water by a former homeowner (thanks!!) and the system is fabulous.  No dust, like forced air, and super inexpensive to run - I'm sad to leave it!  The only sign of the transformation is in the main floor powder room, where pipes run up the corner wall.  The pipes were originally hidden with a wall-papered metal cover, which I painstakingly stripped, primed and painted (not so thankful for that, former owners).  You can see the wallpaper in the half bath transformations. 

I thought it looked fine, but the gap between the cover and the wall, plus the small hole at the ceiling, irked our realtor and my Dad, so I figured it would bother potential buyers too.  Seeing as my Dad was always vocal about this flaw, I handed the task to him to fix!  It's dangerous to critique something around the townhouse.  At the same time we addressed the pipe cover, we figured we might as well fix the eyesore of a cover hiding the converted heating system along the baseboards too, because the one in here was the worst of all of the ones we have in the townhouse.

The fixes turned out to be really simple and make me wonder why we lived with things like this so long!  To make a smoother transition between wall and pipe cover, I found some wood coving at Lowe's, which my Dad glued in place with extra strong construction adhesive before we gave it a coat of primer and paint.  Then he used a small drywall patching kit to fix up the ceiling, which was also primed and painted over.  Boom.  Done!  Because I'd already primed it with metal primer, Dad just painted over the metal cover and now it all looks seamless.  Painting the ceiling the same colour helps everything blend in.

The baseboard heater cover just needed a light sand, some metal primer and then an application of the same latex paint we used for the walls (which we applied with a tiny foam roller). 

WOW does it ever look better (and newer!).

Our little house is solidly built and has been lovingly updated and renovated, but I think any little flaw like these, even though they are just cosmetic, might have made home buyers nervous so I feel good that they were addressed.  In case you missed it, see the other updates made to this powder room here.

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Budget-Friendly Half Bath Makeover with Aqua Walls

The main floor half bath has gone through a few subtle transformations already, but it needed a few more touches to make it ready for sale.  When we bought the house, this is the powder room that greeted us:

Yikes.

If you remember, first I removed the blue wallpaper with gusto, then the room was painted a soft greige to help the existing elements (70s beige counter, bisque toilet and sink) blend in.  A new light fixture helped modernize the space.  Then we ran out of money.  To save a buck, I snagged the 1970s hardware from the en-suite powder room (that was fully renovated), and applied a little leftover black spray paint.  Apologies for the horrendous photo - it was taken pre-blog (with a 2.0 megapixel potato apparently)!

We obviously kept the toilet (it's made in Canada, I couldn't toss it!), tile (because it runs through the adjacent halls as well) and vanity (good condition, plus the tile runs up to but not under it, so we left it in place and painted it to match the walls).  With all this un-jazzed stuff, we needed something to jazz up the space.  A simple mirror was a practical change.  Next we upgraded the counter with the same grey laminate we have in the kitchen, and added a chic black faucet (see here for similar).  The glass vessel sink (see here for similar), the jewel of the room, has been a hit with everyone.

A new towel bar from Target added some storage (this one is kind of similar), and art is always a good solution for making a space seem fresh.  After these changes, we had the half bath you recognize from other posts:

Although it looked better than before, despite a good wall-washing some of the wallpaper paste lingered and showed through the paint in streaks.  I thought potential home buyers might think this is water damage, so I added "painting the bathroom" to our list of urgent projects.  I taped everything off, taking special care to wrap the glass sink with a blanket in case anything was dropped on it.  Then I primed the trouble areas with a stain-blocking primer. 

Enter Dad, painter-extraordinaire (despite being colour-blind) and now the room is a soft turquoise (CIL Tropical Paradise, from Canadian Tire).  Although a bit brighter and much more intensely aqua than I originally intended (I was hoping for something like this), the turquoise paint makes the space seem airier, fresher and newer.  It also complements the green glass sink nicely.  I wanted to add more white (like a big white picture frame with a colourful photo from Hungary blown up) but anything white in here turns green from the reflection.  A black-framed print (the original, which I feel privileged to have seen, is by Tamara de Lempicka) works in a pinch and ties in the emerald green from the vintage kitchen posters and dining room painting. 

It's super hard to photograph this little windowless room, but it looks so gorgeous in the photographs taken by the photographer for our MLS listing:

Let's take a look at the before once again.  If not for pictures, I would barely remember what the house looked like when we bought it.

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