Bold Stripes for my Itty Bitty Bathroom

Long before we purchased our house, I fell in love with the striped bathroom Sherry and John did from Young House Love. But before you actually have your house, all the great ideas you have mingle into one great mesh because you never know which one's will actually work with your future house.

Then here we were. With a house that didn't have a drop of color on the walls. With a complete blank slate. With an itty, bitty half bath. With a new owner a little too addicted to the DIY Network and decor blogs. I wasn't quite sure what I would do, but I wanted do something memorable (it's the bath all visitors would see, afterall). I had nearly forgotten about it until a recent perusing of their site.

The goods:

• 1 roll 1.5 inch Frog Tape (High tech painter's tape, blocks any bleeding, way better than blue painter's tape)


• 1 gallon light, vanilla-colored paint (Behr's Premium Ultra in Country Beige since it had primer built in)
  
• 1 gallon warm, sand-colored paint (Behr's Wild Honey)


• Level and straightedge (I used a 4-footer for the solid walls and a mini for behind the toilet, etc.)


• Tape measure, roller, brush, etc.

The plan:

I decided on the colors because well... they were on the same card. Big stripes in itself was quite a risky move for me, but two very similar shades would balance it out. I also plan on using these two colors in the hallway above and below a chairrail. I knew I wanted wide stripes to balance the small space and that I wanted to keep it simple. I measured the walls' height- 90 inches. I was going to paint the ceiling and walls the lighter color first then add stripes in the darker color, so I chose to have two smaller bands on the very top and bottom of the walls in the lighter color. Lastly, I kept it simple and figured I would keep my stripe widths simple, even inches (no 9 and 5/8ths for this girl). So here's what I came up with:

7 stripes each 11 inches tall (4 dark, 3 light) = 77 inches

90 inches - 77 inches = 13 inches (top and bottom band)

13 inches / 2 = 6.5 inches (each band)

Love, love, love my decision. The top and bottom bands, the extra wide stripes. We also happened to be replacing the toilet, mirror, hardware, and light, which with all that out of the way made the job much more possible.

Half Bath Before

During

Painting such similar colors forced me to be very careful. I did the corner portions first so I wouldn't mess up which stripe was which color. And as you can see I even marked each stripe with a D for darker in each corner too. Worked like a charm. No mistakes made:)

Still working on installing all the hardware and vanity. Hopefully, the true "After" shot will be here quickly with a total breakdown. For now, I am still smitten over my stripes.