Easy Striped Half Bath

Hello... anyone still out there... This year has been a bit of a whirlwind.  Not that it's that much of a change from normal as I seem to always be in the middle of something.  But do to some pretty life changing events, we'll be busier than usual again for a couple of months.  After only a brief two years in our current home we are moving once again, this time a little further down the road to Texas!  It's been a long time coming so we were incredibly excited when we were able to get new jobs and make it happen.  Before we leave this house though, I want to share some of the remodels that we have done.  We have put a lot of time and effort into transforming our 70's era house and looking back at these pictures really makes that apparent.

Up first, the half bath on the main floor.  Since our house is about 40 years old, the bathroom was a typical small tile floor but also came with the added bonus of really bad sconces, mirror and a vanity with several coats of paint and even some "bars" spanning from half wall to ceiling to block the toilet from view. We found some great wallpaper that had been painted over as well.

We pulled everything out, took a sledge hammer to the tile floor and started from scratch.  

Adding some wide gray and white stripes and dark gray floor tiles modernized the room and we took out the half wall and vanity to replace it with a pedestal sink to make it seem much bigger.  Because we didn't have to move any electric or plumbing, it went pretty smoothly and was also a cost effective renovation at only a few hundred dollars worth of materials.

My favorite part of this room are the wide stripes, I really want to do them again.  Not something that my husband will be thrilled to hear I'm sure seeing as he's the one that did the majority of the painting.  One of the perks of being pregnant during a remodel.

The key to painting stripes for us has been this foolproof method.  First paint the base wall color.  Then tape off the stripes.  Once the tape is up, paint the same base color over the inside edge (i.e. the edge that will become the stripe color) with the BASE color.  This will ensure that any bleeding that will happen will be with the base color and therefore won't show.  After that dries, then paint the stripe color.  After the second coat, if needed, remove the tape while the paint is still wet.  Perfect stripes!

Sources: 

Floor Tile - The Tile Shop

Sconces - Portfolio brand - no longer sold - Lowes

Pedestal Sink - American standard - Lowes

Faucet -  similar - Overstock.com

Towel Bars, Toilet Paper Holder - Lowes

Soap Dispenser - Target

Towels - Monogrammed - Bed Bath & Beyond

Rug - Target