It's Pink!!

It is THE pinkest bathroom.

When I bought the house, the bathroom was painted like this:

 

The walls were painted with a flat, pale yellow paint over improperly prepared walls. The paint was peeling on the walls and ceiling, the wall was dirty around the wall switch (you can see it on the picture on the left). The window inside the bathroom was wood framed and leaking down the wall into my basement. 

And, bonus, it had hardwood floors. Hard. Wood. Floors. They're nice, but it has been a big topic of conversation how long they will look good and what I will do when they start to look crappy from shower water. It works fine while my shower is used by a small number (1-3, historically) adults, but will it survive smaller people? Years of daily use? Summers like this where all I want to do is shower, and I want a shower after my shower?

Anyway, I guess I'll let you know what happens. 

I knew I wanted the bathroom to be pink, because I really like the pink in my shower curtain and towels, and I look good in pink, so I thought having all that pink light reflected off my face would make me feel beautiful on dreary mornings. As good a reason as any, right? Plus the bathroom has lots of natural light, especially in the morning, so I figured it could handle a pale pink. 

After quizzing everyone who used my bathroom about these colors from Valspar, 

I settled on the palest one, Pink Breeze. I happened to be near an Ace Hardware when I decided to buy paint, so I had them make a quart of Clark + Kensington Paint and Primer in One satin finish latex paint in this color. This was my first experience using a paint and primer in one, so you can look forward to a review of my experience soon. 

Let me tell you a couple things about how I paint. One, I do not use tape. This isn't really a philosophical thing, it's really just a matter of the age and condition of my house. I very carefully taped off the ceiling in my bedroom as I prepared to move in here, and the result, frankly, sucked. The old plaster walls don't quite, exactly, meet the ceiling at right angles in straight lines, so even if my tape made great lines, the paint didn't quite follow them.

It's just too frustrating, so I don't do it. I'd rather touch up with a tiny brush after the fact than go through the process of taping (then removing tape) only to be disappointed. 

I also do not do drop cloths. Because I am clumsy, and I trip on things and slip on things. Plus, if I were to leave drips of paint on a drop cloth, I would inevitably step in that paint and track it throughout the house anyway. So instead, I paint with a big cotton rag handy and use it to clean up drips as they happen. If I don't see them until they are dry, a cloth moistened with ammonia does a great job of cleaning up drips of paint on hardwood, plastic toilet seats, porcelain, vinyl shower surrounds, and painted radiators. Any other surfaces you want me to test?

Another thing you should know about my painting is that I am terrified of heights, which makes it all the more ridiculous that I had to do a good chunk of this painting while balanced on the side of my bathtub. I tried to channel the Fab Five U.S. women's gymnastic team, and managed to get everything painted without killing myself. 

Next steps include prepping and painting the wood trim and doors and the lower half of the walls, which are covered in wood paneling. I also need to pick out and install some towel bars and a toilet paper holder, and some shelving. I have an awesome, cedar lined, linen closet in the bathroom, but I would like some more towel hooks and an open shelf to hold my radio and a few other items and keep them off the floor.

But I'm really happy with the color and it makes the bathroom really feel like it belongs to me.

Here's the general procedure I used for painting the bathroom:

1. Move everything movable out of the bathroom, including the shower curtain rod and towels.

2. Using a three-inch metal putty knife, scrape all loose paint, trying not to gouge holes in the wall in your enthusiasm. 

3. While you're at it, improperly use the putty knife to remove the screws on your switch plates and outlet covers and put them somewhere safe. Either put the screws back in the wall or tape them to the switch plates. You'll thank me later!

4. Using a sanding block, smooth the areas where you scraped paint, any drips the last painter left, and anything else that won't look nice under a new coat of paint.

My prep equipment: spackle, a putty knife, and a sanding block made from a scrap of 1x4 with sandpaper tacked to it.

5. Using spackle and your (newly cleaned) putty knife, put a thin layer of spackle on any scratch, hole, or dent too deep to be covered by paint.
6. Wander around your house spackling other holes in areas that will be painted soon while you wait for the spackle to dry. Or sit and watch the Olympics, whatever.
7. Sand the spackle with your trusty sanding block, all the while plotting to pull a Tom Sawyer on your eventual children and convince them that sanding is both "fun" and "rewarding" so you never have to do this again.
8. Use a broom and dustpan or your trusty Shop-Vac, Rosie, to clean up the mess of scraped paint, sanding dust, and garden-variety dust and lint from all surfaces of the bathroom.
9. Wash the walls using a bucket of soapy water (I used a couple tablespoons of powdered laundry detergent in a 2-gallon bucket of hot water, and an enormous sponge, which worked great) and a sponge, and then rinse each section with a sponge wrung out in clear water. Make sure you get all the dust, hair and sanding dust.
10. When the walls are dry, use a small paint brush to cut in around the trim, ceiling and floor, being careful not to overload your paintbrush and drip pink paint everywhere.
11. Use a larger brush or roller to paint the big areas of the wall.

12. After the paint dries, look at it in good light and touch up any spots you missed. Lightly sand and repaint any drips or dramatic brush marks. 

13. Feel proud and enjoy your new bathroom!