Young House Love

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Painting A Bathroom Vanity

Let’s talk about vanity, shall we? Specifically the sink vanity that we last left off as primed in this post.

Bathpainted12

This is one of those real-life stories where we painstakingly stared at about fifty swatches before carefully choosing a pretty kelly green tone that we thought would be awesome. A fun pop of color in a white room (sort of like this). So off to the store we went and grabbed a quart of Baby Fern by Benjamin Moore in their semi-gloss Natura paint. And after one coat – even though we gave it two in the hope that the second one would work a miracle – we knew…

Vanity Painting4

Baaaaaaad call.

Seriously, at one point Clara said it was the same color as Kermit The Frog. How did this happen?

So we did what any self respecting DIYer would do and we whined a little and then we laughed for a while and then we went out to the garage and stared at all of the paint cans that we have sitting around and finally found the one we were looking for: Silhouette. It’s an awesome moody brown/gray tone with the slightest plum undertones. Really, photos of it hardly do it justice but we first used it for a bunch of book projects and fell in love, so it’s no surprise it was our “rebound guy.” We didn’t want our hearts broken again, and we thought it would be really sophisticated with the slate too. And happily, it was:

Vanity Painting5

Now instead of the white bathroom with the colorful vanity, it’s shaping up to be the chic little black and white bathroom (ok, it’s not really black, but it’s close enough to give it that vibe). We especially love how it looks with the dark doorknob and hinges.

Vanity Painting11

And although we did have some need-to-repaint bad luck, when it came to the knobs the universe threw us a bone. We went to Anthropologie just to look around (sometimes we fall in love with $14 a knob items, which are a little too steep for us) and these cool faceted knobs were marked down to $2.95!

Vanity Painting7

One of my favorite things about their octagonal shape is that they mimic the angles of the mirror, which also has the same tone in it.

Vanity Painting9

How lucky is that?

Vanity Painting10

And we also grabbed this toilet paper holder from Lowe’s on clearance to replace the old wood one we had there before.

Vanity Painting8

Remember this guy?

Bathpainted4

Definitely an upgrade.

Vanity Painting12

You’ve come a long way, half bathroom.

Half Bath Before

So that’s the story of gaining a little vanity va-va-voom, with one of those surprise DIY speedbumps along the way. I think the lesson is that you win some and you lose some, but as long as you keep on trucking – and course correcting as you go – things usually work out OK.

Next up I have to scrub or replace the grout, and switch out this leaky faucet.

Faucet

And we can’t forget our upside down light (remember I turned it around here to allow for a bigger mirror?). Doesn’t it look like two beady little eyes and the mirror is the mouth? Like the bathroom’s making the same face I’m making in this super flattering picture?

Crazy Light Fixture

The light is a smidge off-centered from the mirror. The issue is that the faucet and the light don’t line up, so if we centered the mirror on the light it would be really off compared to the faucet, so we sort of split the difference so it’s less noticeable for now.

So yeah, there are a few more things that we’d love to do in here for this Phase 1 update – mainly some grout fixing, light updating, and a new faucet. I’m weirdly excited about light shopping (and completely avoiding the grout project – so we’ll see how long I can go). Even though we have plans for a more major bathroom upgrade down the line (grasscloth wallpaper? tiled accent wall? pedestal sink?), it definitely feels nice to make some cheap tweaks to make it more welcoming in the meantime. Anyone else working on a half bathroom update? How goes it?

Comments

  1. Kierstin says

    Thank you for posting your bad calls, it makes us mere mortals feel a little better about our missteps (as in, I’ve repainted my office 4 times to find the right color, and I’m going on #5, much to my husband’s dismay). Cross your finger for B.M. Jet Stream!

    Reply

  2. Kelly says

    The green did look horrible. Maybe a clue that the “pops” of color don’t work? (Ie your front door)

    The vanity as brown looks ok but would look a lot better with a dark wood stain.

    Reply

  3. Sarah T. says

    I’m sad the green didn’t work out for you. I was really looking forward to seeing a fun bright color in there.

    Reply

  4. Nikki says

    I’m also working on a half bath update. It had blue carpet, almond toilet and pedestal sink, and mauve flowered wallpaper. Thanks to the hard work of a friend, it’s got dark laminate floors and a new white toilet. The wallpaper is slowly coming down (that’s the piece I’m avoiding) while the vanity, light fixture, faucet, towel ring and toilet paper holder to go in the new room stare at me from the garage (where my car is not parked because the pile is in the way). We do still need to buy a white outlet and switch and white covers (one is matched to the wallpaper with shocking accuracy and the other is gold) and something to replace the mini-blinds. One day…

    Also, I did the happy dance when you announced your new house with all the wallpaper. Each of the 2.5 baths in our new house (we moved late April) has wallpaper (and had carpet). Thank you for your wallpaper removal advice so far. I’m definitely looking forward to more (and also some advice for motivation for removing it)!

    Reply

  5. Karen H. says

    I love, love, love the color of your vanity…. the green wasn’t my thing, but the brown/grey color is absolutely gorgeous! I know the color is called Silhouette, but I couldn’t find where you mentioned what brand it is. If this is redundant, I apologize. I just really want to know and I didn’t see it anywhere…

    Thanks!

    Reply

  6. Kathy says

    It’s time to confess. I have zero blue in my entire house. Not a tad bit. Needless to say, I would not have painted the front door blue…I adjusted. It does look you…and it is after all your home, but I nearly had a heart attack when I saw the vanity! Reading the post, I laughed aloud. Clara,the darling…the new designer. And I might add…the new vanity, a classic balance to the contemporary door. I love the wait and see aspect to YHL. It’s just fun. Love you guys.

    Reply

  7. Lindsey says

    Is your countertop off white? We have the same thing in one of our bathrooms and we are wondering how it will look if we paint all the trim white in the house. If it will clash? Right now all our trim (including bathroom cabinets) are painted this ugly off white . Also what white did u use for your trim??

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Yes, the sink top is a cream/off-white color, but we have white trim and a white toilet with white walls. Stay tuned for our post this morning for more on making an off-white sink work in a room with crisp white tones!

      xo
      s

  8. Carrie says

    Hi, I know you recommended zindser smart prime.

    I tried it and it was SUPER thin. I felt I needed to do two coats.

    Is that the way it is for you?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Primer is usually rough looking (it’s tackly so it can grab the paint, and the coverage isn’t very thick) so you can do another coat if you’d like (in this case we did two coats on the blue trim because it ended up needing four coats (two of primer and two of paint) for full coverage. But if you just did one coat of primer and three of paint that usually works just as well too. The primer is more for “tooth”(grabbing power) than coverage sometimes.

      xo
      s

  9. Sharon says

    Hey, I’ve been reading your blog for for-eeeeever, but have never commented. I love it. Just an idea for your tile grout….you may have heard of it, but maybe not. There’s a product designed to stain grout instead of having to replace it. It’s super simple to apply. In Canada, it’s called Grout refresh, or grout stain. It applies basically the same way stain does, and it’s super durable. My hubby is a tile installer, that’s how I know…..anyway, hope this is helpful….if not, just ignore it. :))

    Reply

  10. Kate says

    How funny! We once painted some furniture a very similar color. Looks exactly the same to me! It seemed like such a good idea at first and then it was horrifying when we were finished. I remember texting pictures to all of my friends b/c we were laughing so hard. I don’t know why kelly green is so hard to nail!

    Reply

  11. Jessica says

    Just have to finish painting a little stucco and drywall patch in my half bath, and then I’m done. Whew…oh wait, there is that paint that needs to be touched up from where my sister got into a rush while painting. Then, I’ll be done.

    I think the bathroom is making great progress. Can’t wait to see what kind of light you find. Fingers crossed that you snag another bargain like the knobs and toilet paper holder.

    Reply

  12. Christie Ann says

    I’d love to see a chic piece of granite or marble for your sink top and a cool vessel sink. Who wants to lose all that storage space with a pedestal?

    Reply

  13. Beth says

    Hi, I was just wondering how you deal with the paint drying in order to shut the vanity’s doors. Paint seems to remain tacky for ages in our house. Just wondering if there is a trick when working with cabinet doors to avoid the problem of them sticking when closed.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We took the doors off when we painted it and didn’t put them back up until they dried. So a week or so later up they went and they’re all cured up.

      xo
      s

  15. Nicole B. says

    You mentioned that the color was called Silhouette, but what brand? I was hoping that I could get the same color for my vanity because I love yours so much :)

    Nicole

    Reply

  16. Brittany says

    We just recently bought our first house and created a HUGE list of things we want to get accomplished! We are currently remodeling our tiny downstairs bathroom … and our kitchen. Needless to say, it is an adventure. Your posts are proving both helpful and encouraging :) You both are such an inspiration for those of us trying to remodel on a budget. Can’t wait to see the finished product!

    Reply

  17. Jenny says

    When we finally got around to redoing the half bath in our old house, I was so excited. It was vintage 60’s pink. The previous owner had done the easy fixes of swapping out the pink sink and toilet for a white pedestal and white toilet and then tried to work with the pink wall and floor tile by wallpapering with a Waverly pink roses and strips wall paper. It sort of worked, mostly because she was 70. We knew that in order to sell we’d have to do something. So we arranged to have someone come and refinish all the pink in the half bath and adjoining full bath (which still contained all the original pink fixtures). When we went to strip the wall paper, my husband took down the mirror hanging in the wall, only to find a giant gaping hole in the wall. I assume there must have originally been some sort of medicine cabinet in the wall and the previous owner had taken it out. The only thing was, in order to pry the old one out they had to cut a notch in the dry wall at the top right corner to yank it out. Then, after wall papering, they left a small section dangling free that covered the extra notch. The mirror they hung was just big enough to cover the main whole and with the dangling wall paper you didn’t see any of the whole. We had lived in that house for almost five years and I had always noticed that the mirror seemed to rattle a little when you closed the door, but I just assumed it was because it was a small room and didn’t give it much thought. Turns out, it was the air buffeting around in the wall cavity behind the mirror. Anyways, after we stripped the wallpaper, repainted, and had the tile refinished, the mirror no longer covered the entire hole. So what did we do? We bought a bigger mirror and screwed it into place over the hole and called it a day. In the end, the first person who came to see the house (before it was listed) made a full price offer. We took it and ran.

    Reply

  18. Kay says

    I’m LOVING the paint color of the vanity and would love to copy you! You said the name of the color is Silhouette, but can you tell me what brand of paint you used so I can go find it! Thanks so much….love your blog!!

    Reply

  19. Kathy says

    The bath looks great! Love your designs! I have my whole family reading now. As for your grout-cleaning project, we had the same problem at our lake house and the ONLY thing that worked for me was to scrub with a stiff-bristled grout brush, using boiling hot vinegar (undiluted). Nothing else worked. It took me a loooong time, the house smelled awful for awhile but I saved $$$$ on having a restoration company do it. Good luck!

    Reply

  20. Jen says

    Love your little updates! I’m getting ready to buy my first house and your site has inspired me. While I don’t think I have a huge renovation in me, I can definitely handle these types of updates, which have greatly expanded the types of homes I’ve been willing to look at with my realtor. I’m happy I’m one of the people who can see the potential in a home!

    Reply

  21. Sharon says

    My husband walked by my computer and saw the picture of Sherry in the mirror and asked who it was. I explained to him that I don’t know you guys, but that you are DIYer who are remodeling your new digs. He said, “So, you want to remodel our house?” I almost fell on the floor laughing hysterically. Instead, I said, “No. They are hilarious and I enjoy seeing what they do.” I don’t have any skills when it comes to decorating or putting anything together. And I’m pretty sure my husband knew all along that I have zero interest in doing anything to our house. I think that’s why he found it weird that I would be reading such a blog.

    Reply

  27. Donna says

    we are moving into a house with all natural oak cabinets – not really our style and we want to paint them. What is the best way to paint cabinets? What type of paint do you use? How many coats? Etc…have no idea where to start!

    Reply

  29. Sara says

    Hi John and Sherry! I love your blog, it was such an inspiration to me that my husband and I started our own! I have a question about the paint you used here, I love the color (Silhouette), but what is the finish? I usually go with semi-gloss for cabinets but this looks flat from the photos? Thanks, keep up the great posts!

    Reply

  30. Lauren G. says

    Hi Sherry! I love the look of the vanity! My husband and I are about to tackle a similar project with our bathroom vanity. We also have a musty old smell underneath the cabinets! Yuck!

    Just wondering if y’all sanded the vanity and the doors or just primed?

    Thanks! :)

    Reply

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