The Transformative Power of Paint: Peacock Blue Bathroom

Well, as I’ve been hinting around here and elsewhere, I got a wild hair at the weekend and decided to paint the bathroom.

I haven’t shown much of my bathroom on my blog because it was just so blah with cream tiles, crummy cream laminate flooring that never quite looks clean, a swirly artex ceiling (mmm sexy), white walls and a very large mirror that’s antiquing a bit – and not in a good way. We have talked about ripping out the whole thing and starting again many times but the kitchen remodel has taken priority and the bathroom has taken a back seat.

I had put a framed print and a shelf up months ago and finally decided to move a second print into the room last weekend which had been in the hallway just outside the bathroom. It was only once I decided the second print actually added something to the room that I decided to just take the plunge and work with what I have until the time comes when we can look at spending proper money and energy on a remodel.

One of the first times I actually played with the idea of painting the bathroom in a deeper hue was when I viewed Hillary Thomas’ deep teal bathroom that she showcased on Lonny in the Jan/Feb 11 Issue. Her whole place is beyond amazing (if you haven’t seen it, you really must check out the link because it’s stunning)but the bathroom just looked fantastic to me.

Unfortunately, my bathroom didn’t have wainscoting and a pretty marble sink. In fact, it’s so tiny, it only just about manages to fit in a bath, sink and toilet.

The bathroom the morning after we moved in. Excuse the open lid. I do live with a man.

The funny thing is that I have no other true ‘before’ pictures. The bathroom was so sad and boring that I obviously never felt the urge to document it.

Eventually, I added a Clarissa Hulse shower curtain which gave me my colour scheme.

I realised that my two peacock prints went rather nicely with the colours in the shower curtain so adding these (the bottom one only just being added last weekend as I mentioned) added a little bit of personality but it was still missing a certain oomph.

And then, on Thursday, Apartment Therapy ran an article on Unique and Colourful Bathrooms. And I was sold.

Seeing regular ol’ not-especially-pretty bathrooms done up with bright happy colours was just the thing I needed to get off my arse and get down to Homebase to mix me up a batch.

Enter the glorious Hawaiian Blue 2 courtesy of Dulux.

It’s amazing what a bit of paint can do, isn’t it?

I also decided that the horrible cheap chrome towel rail (which appeared to emulate one of those heated towel racks but had no such practical function) had to go.

And I replaced it with a set of hooks from B&Q.

It was a bit of a splurge at £30 but I really think it adds something different to the bathroom since we don’t have enough room behind the door to include a standard towel rail and I like the way the white really pops against the deep peacock blue.

Oh and I also replaced the disgusting light fitting…

Grossness overload. Yes, those are dead bugs in there. Blegh!!
I made W take it down because I wouldn’t touch it. I’m such a girl.

I purchased a new sparkly glass one that felt a bit more ‘retro’ to me (30’s retro rather than 90’s retro). The pictures don’t really do it justice because the light plays off the facets in the glass rather nicely in person and it’s so much brighter in there now (which seems bizarre as it’s been painted a darker colour).

Here’s a good before and after for you because we all like those… (baring in mind, it’s difficult to get a good pic in here with the room being so tiny!)

Before…

Meh.

And after…

Shazzam!

I love the way the prints now pop off the dark walls…

Before…

And after…

The best thing is that I didn’t tell W what colour I was going to paint it for fear that he may balk at my choice of a darker colour. I just told him I was going to paint and when he said, “Yeah that’s fine, do whatever ya like”, I took that as a green light to go to town. He didn’t even see it until after the first coat was done and when he walked in, he just went, ‘Wow.’

I waited to see if it was a good ‘wow’ or a bad ‘wow’.

“It looks great… Good choice!” and then I got a kiss for being such a clever girlfriend. Happy boyfriend, happy me.

He’s said now a few times how wonderful it looks, what a difference it makes to the room, that it looks 1000 times better than it did. So I have received very kind approval from W which is always good when you take risks like painting a room without telling your other half. Ahem.

Another before… (please try to ignore the fugly floor and manky pipework)

And after…

I’m really pleased with the transformative power this colour had in the smallest room in my house. It’s just a temporary thing until we can do it up properly but for now, I think it’s made a nice difference to a rather bland room and I did the whole thing for £57 (£15 paint + £30 hooks + £12 light fixture). Not too bad for a weekends’ work I don’t think.

Ok, (and here’s where all the insecurities roll in) it’s not as lovely as Hillary Thomas’ bathroom in the inspiration pic above and I may buy a few more bits and bobs (towels, new floor mat, a proper soap dispenser) and I need to figure out how to make the frosted glass in the medicine cabinet completely opaque and I’m even thinking of how I can bring in some orange as an accent colour…

Oh and I’m considering replacing the shower curtain with something prettier and just use a shower liner on the inside which is ironic considering that’s where the inspiration started from! It’s just difficult finding nice shower curtains in the UK because they aren’t very popular (most bathrooms have glass screens) so I may be looking for a while but the ‘Waves of Ruffles’ curtain from Anthropologie has caught my eye (the price, on the other hand makes my eyes water).