Anyways, part of the reason I wanted to start a new blog is to document new projects that I (usually with the help of my best husband) have done, am doing, or will be doing. So, here's my latest project.
Since Day 1 of moving into our house, I have never liked our upstairs, main bathroom. I mean, you'll see for yourself. There was nothing special about it. When we first moved in, there was a clouded, scuffed up sliding glass doors in front of the shower. That was one of the first things to go when we moved in. It helped a lot - but still had quite a bit of work!
Ok...Maybe from the picture above, it doesn't look that bad. But let's take a closer look. The mirror is this weird mirror that opens in three sections like it's from someone's grandparent's house that has a bunch of pills behind the cabinets. Not only that, to add to the "old" element, it is chipped in multiple places. You can see one of the chips that I'm talking about in the picture below.
And, don't even get me started on the weird tile the owner's before us chose to put on the wall. Some people may like it, and if you are one of those people, I won't judge you. But look at these weeds! They had a border of weeds around the room, and there were also random squares of "full grown" weeds around the bathroom. People don't even like weeds outside of their home in their yard, why would you put them inside your house? Seriously, it's always baffled me.
So ever since we've moved in, I've always told Brant that I wanted to redo this bathroom. But it's so expensive, I have so many other things that I want to spend my money on (like our cruise in October!) So when I was on Pinterest the other day and found out that I could paint over tiles and update my bathroom in under $50, you know I jumped all over that! I have to admit, I was a little timid to paint over tile thinking that it may chip, but once I talked to the paint lady at Menards and read some more, I figured there were ways to make it not chip. So, off I went.
Step 1: Figure out a color scheme. We have these (actually) awesome dark purple shiny small tiles on our bathroom floor. So whatever color scheme had to have dark purple in it. And we have purple and grey towels. But, we needed one more color. We went with a light, almost mint green.
Step 2: Buy the product. I needed a 1/4 gallon of Bondz primer, (Bondz brand is meant to stick to shiny, slick surfaces) a 1/4 gallon of dark grey paint, and a clear top coat (which I already had). I also decided to paint the walls, so I got a 1/4 gallon of the light, almost mint green color.
Step 3: Taping. All time WORST part. But I'm proud to admit that this is the only time I had to ask Brant for physical help because I couldn't reach the ceiling, even on chair.
Step 4: Paint. For painting the tiles, I started with the primer, two coats, then did two coats of paint, and one coat of clear top coat. It actually didn't take as long as it sounds. Probably about 4 hours total for everything, including drying. I decided to paint over the ugly weed border up to the top of the tile to make a nice dark grey border. Much better, already.
For the random squares that had "full grown" weeds, I painted the squares the same color that I chose to paint the wall - the light, almost mint green color. The random squares of colors turned out AWESOME. But there's more, so I'll save the pictures until the final step.
I also painted the walls the light, almost mint green color. It was brighter than I thought - but it's grown on me and I like it more and more each day.
Step 5: Remove Tape. This is where things got tricky. So if you paint your own tiles, be prepared. This is where I did experience some peeling along the top, especially in the shower area. But, I was able to touch them up pretty easily and haven't experience any problems since.
Step 6: Even as hard you try, there may be some drips of paint that seeped below the tape. I was able to use a knife-like tool that carefully scrap the paint off. It came right off.
Step 7: Don't forget to put on your top coat of paint! Use this as a seal to keep the paint on the tile, so be sure to paint the top coat a little bit below and a little bit above where the paint color is.
Step 8: Remember the random squares of colors? Well, to add more personality to the room, I decided to find some quotes to put inside the squares. Brant helped me look for a couple quotes. I'm sure you can probably tell which quotes Brant came up with and which quotes I came up with. Luckily, I already had some silver/grey vinyl and was able to use my Cricut to make the quotes. This is by far my favorite part of the bathroom! They turned out so fun and so cute.
Now, I am all done with painting, but remember that old, cracked mirror? Of course I had to do something with that too. So, off to Menards we went to pick up some siding. We just picked out something pretty small. I had the guy at Menards cut the pieces for me, but I forgot about the folds, so I had to do some sawing myself. I kept the same three "fold" mirror, but with a little frame on it, it made a huge difference. And, it was so simple. I used 3M's Ultra-Bond Tape (which I use ALL the time) and put on the back of the pieces, and it stuck SO well. Almost too well, it made it very difficult to move a little bit to make each piece level. But I did it, and it turned out pretty nice. Looks much more modern.
Now that the hard work is done, I just have to decorate! I'm planning on putting up with white wall shelves, and some canvases that Brant and I are going to paint for tomorrow's date night. (Love having an artistic husband!) Here's a before & after - although you'll have to come over to see the actual results. Y'all are welcome anytime!
