The Makings Of A Powder Room

One of the great things about getting older, at least in regards to interior design, comes the sudden realization that you don’t have to do a lot of things

As in, ‘I don’t have to care if I’m the only one that likes it’.  

 ‘I don’t have to follow the recent trend’.

I don’t have to adhere to what the rules say.

Aging is freedom (never thought I’d utter that sentence). But it is.  You gain a certain clarity knowing that other opinions don’t really matter.  

You shouldn’t have to care. Especially when it comes to your home.

Case in point: My powder room.  A teeny tiny room with zero personality and void of natural light.  And BTW – Trying to take decent photographs is an absolute nightmare. So I will forewarn you now: the photos are pretty awful.

After the decision was made that I could no longer cohabitate with Scary Clown Face anymore, I was lucky enough to find a stash of antique solid interior doors (complete with original hardware) on Craigslist.  All the interior doors were changed out,  and things quickly started to snowball.  Finally, it came time for the the sad little room to be renovated.   Everything was builders grade.  And it was so plain and boring, that I never took a photo of it.  And now I wish I had.  

This is a copper sign that I have on the outside of the door.  Yes, it could stand for ‘Walter Cronkite’ given the amount of time my husband spends in there reading the news – but, in actuality, it stands for Water Closet.  

It’s the English in me, sometimes I just can’t help myself.

So imagine, if you will, oak builders grade vanity, linoleum flooring, and a toilet.  Oh, and the walls were the customary ‘orange peel’ texture.  Because if there’s one thing that will throw me over the edge, a orange peel textured wall is a sure thing. 

At about the same time we installed the interior doors, we had the carpet pulled and hardwood floors installed throughout the downstairs, which I love.  So the powder room now has  wood flooring.  The first thing I really had to tackle was the walls.  Given that it is a tiny space, it literally took  no time  to put on a skim coat over the orange peel.  I really didn’t want a super smooth finish because I wanted the walls to have an aged plaster look to it.  Some subtle texture perhaps, but nothing crazy.  And I was going to use Pure & Original Marrakech to get that look.  I’ve used this product before, and let me tell you it’s a gorgeous material.  Surprisingly, very easy to use with a trowel.  So, one coat of skim coat, one coat of white wallprim and a top coat of Marrakech and then sealed.  

These are the colors that I planned on working with.  

I already know what you’re thinking: Not very interesting. right?   It took me hours to decide on Apple Blossom Marrakech. And it’s basically white. Hours of my life I can never get back pondering over which white chip would work best. The insanity of it.  It’s a mad mad world, I tell you.  But it’s a lovely white.  And the Pure & Original Classico in Country Beige I decided to use because 1: It’s a great neutral earthy color  2: My lower kitchen cabinets are painted in it, and 3: I had spare paint.  Likewise with the Soft Asparagus Classico, I had some spare and thought I’ll just use that on the wood trim.  There’s only so many hours I’m willing to waste looking at white paint chips.  

(Plus, there’s no natural light in the room, so different hues etc wouldn’t make a huge difference).

So, back to the walls.  The troweling was a lot of fun, so much fun that I almost feel as though I know what I’m doing.  When my contractor came to install the vanity,  I heard him say to a friend “Look at the walls, Diane did those”.  Now – I would like to believe, deep down, that he was saying

‘Look at THOSE Walls…wow, how good are they!!’ but I know he wasn’t.  A nod is as good as a wink to a blind man. 

And it’s OK because I don’t have to care.

But to defend my work, I did purposely try and get some of the corner plaster to look layered and chippy.  

That was intentional.  On a side note, I went to the new remodeled Anthropologie in Portland this weekend, and the dressing rooms have the EXACT same wall treatment.   THE EXACT! 

My vision for the powder room went something along these lines: industrial meets art gallery meets Old Worlde.  I know – all over the place.  It sounds completely and utterly mad.  And that’s OK.

So – the walls were going to be ‘Old Worlde’.  Rustic, aged plaster done in a soft white Marrakech.  White walls? Yes, how bold, how very…very daring!  The whiteness/starkness was also going to lend itself to my ‘gallery’ need.  I have a painting that I’ve wanted to hang for ages.  And it really needed a white background to make it POP!  I had already decided that to ‘ground’ the white I was going to paint the ceiling with Pure & Original Classico in Country Beige (along with the interior of the door).  I often think that many people forget that the ceiling is a blank canvas and it’s OK to use color there.

Ceilings don’t have to be flat white.  Seriously!  

I love mixing up styles.  Take a look at my vanity.  

I wanted to keep a lot of the wood showing,  because it’s old English pine – but I wanted the vanity to have a custom feel to it.  I did the image transfers of Eros and Cupid from a set of postcards from The Louvre Museum). And again to juxtapose the old vs new I mixed it up with a contemporary  IKEA sink and faucet.

Notice the green ceiling peeping through? I love it.

* Also, please refrain from using the hand towels to dry your hands.  It took me a long time to get them equal.

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