staff room (powder room) makeover
Hey all! It's been an age since I was on here. I was doing great (for me) with regular posts and then the kids' birthdays hit and life rolled all over me.
But, I'm back, and I have a brain full of ideas.
Buckle up.
Today I'm going to share with you the makeover we did of our powder room- which shall henceforth be known as the staff room.
If you remember waaaaay back in January I shared all the things I wanted to do in this house- make it more
There was nothing wrong with it (save for the water marks on the wall 😖) it was just, blah.
See. Blah.
I love that floor- I loved it when I picked it out and I still love it. And this blah box didn't do it justice.
Another boo for this room was the paint finish. Our whole house was painted in flat finish paint. (that's a whole diatribe I'm saving for next time) Maybe you like flat paint- I don't know. Maybe you also like raisins. I am not a fan of either. Actually I am the opposite of a fan- they are like the Venom to my Spider-Man, the Red Skull to my Captain America, the Thanos to my Avengers..... you get me?
Flat paint shows EVERYTHING. Dirty fingerprints from kid (and grownup!) hands. Water splashes from seemingly dripping wet hands flinging across the room to get a towel.
And other stuff.
Yuck.
This room needed personality and a good coat of paint in a much more wipeable/washable finish.
So I went down the Pinterest rabbit hole of powder rooms.
Dark rooms, light rooms.
Wall paper, shiplap.
All. The. Things.
I looked at colour- but quickly realized that just wasn't me.
I wanted to stay monochrome. All black walls just seemed too much, and colour blocking was on the right track, but this room needed some texture, and some architectural interest.
Board and batten.
Well, faux board and batten.
I looked up a few tutorials online and my handy dandy partner (my dad) and I put our heads together to figure it out for this space.
We decided to do three inch strips, spaced out 12 inches apart, 48 inches up from the top of the baseboard. That's a few numbers there, isn't it?
Off we went to the hardware store to find thin- THIN- MDF. I didn't want to rip off the trim- cause that's RIPPING OFF THE TRIM- so we had to find material around 3/8" And, friends, that was like trying to find a unicorn. Didn't happen.
I came home to start the painting, and pops set to figuring out what else we could use.
I measured and marked the walls up from the baseboard to 48", then dropped down an inch to put my tape.
I wanted the black to fall behind the top strip of batten, not stop at the top of it, so painting down an inch would give me the cleanest line.
Now, remember whenever you're painting- the first coat is the worst coat. It looks like garbage and you start to panic and think "What have I done" and you put your head in your hands and wail.
Not that I have ever done that.
The black paint is by Beautitone- I've sung the praises of Beautitone paint on this blog what seems like a bazillion times. They don't pay me, or give me paint. This is just my raw, uninfluenced opinion. Anyways- the colour is called Velvet Elvis. Now I didn't just get it for the name, however that didn't hurt. It's a very blue black, and in case you're new around here, I always, always gravitate towards blue.
The black took three coats to cover nicely. And it is nice. It's amazing.
***now here's the part where I forgot to take pictures cause it was my dad, me and the dog all in this tiny room and hallway and it just wasn't happening.
So back to the boards. My dad called our local Home Building Center and asked for some advice. What they recommended was mahogany underlay. It's wood, but very thin. It comes in a 4' x 8' sheet- and.... it cost $20! That was enough, actually, more than enough, for the whole project.
Dad ripped the boards on his table saw to size, then we dry fit them in place and did whatever minor trimming needed to be done.
We started at the most awkward spot in the room, between the light switch and the outlet. I didn't want to start on another wall and have it work out that a batten fall on one or the other. We put this one up and measured all the rest at 12" apart. The last one fell at 11" but it's behind the door and you can't tell.
And if you are sitting in my staff room with the door closed long enough to tell that it's an inch out, I'm probably not inviting you back anyways.
We used construction adhesive on the back of each board to tack it into place, then we used the air nailer and small brad nails to secure it.
All of the nail holes were caulked and we painted the bottom half in SEMI-GLOSS!! Wipeable, washable- water and pee resistant. But I don't need to do any tests to make sure of that, ok.
I am so happy with the results. What a huge change for not a lot of money,and two days worth of work.
Let's do a little comparison here, shall we?
That's worth a happy dance right there.
Oh, and why is it the staff room?
I scored this sign a couple months ago, and I knew I wanted to put it here. A little quirky, and, quite honestly, I thought it was clever. Tim made fun of me, as per usual, but I love it. I attached it to the door with 3M velcro strips, and it's been holding up great.
So that's the staff room makeover all there in black and white.
I promise it won't take me another 4 months to post again- fall is on the horizon and there's so much pumpkin-y goodness to share. And a few non-fall things too!
Until next time,
Laura
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