An Icon Falls

...but not without a fight.

Our "red" bathroom was beloved. It was familiar, comfortable, and all we'd known in this house. Jeremy painted it a few days after we had moved in (6 years ago). Crazy how time flies.

I had been throwing around the idea of repainting for a while, but I hesitated. I knew exactly what I wanted to do, but I also knew it would be a big undertaking. I wasn't sure I was up for it. And then there was the nagging doubt that my vision would be a lot better in theory than on actual walls and that maybe, just maybe, I didn't have the skills or the patience to pull it all off.

But the paint sale over Labor Day weekend at Lowe's lured me in.

Jeremy left town for a week and I got to work.

First up, covering the RED.

Valspar high hiding paint with primer.

It was pricey but worth every penny as you see how great it covered.

Base Coat: Pam's Lace (has a pearlized quality to it).

Love it.

Two coats and I called it good.

The kids were not happy.

They went so far as to tell me they couldn't believe I would do this to them. They loved the red bathroom and they weren't going to use it anymore now that I took the red away.

I'm telling you, there were some strong ties to this color.

But I pushed ahead, secretly hoping they wouldn't use this bathroom.

Maybe I'd have to clean it about 10x less often.

The next step was to tape.

That was a big step.

Took me almost 48 hours.

Partly because it's hard, partly because I wanted it to be perfect, partly because it took a lot more math than I had anticipated, partly because I was mothering 3 children single-handedly while doing it.

You get the idea.

I had a few pictures of the taping, but those were lost in the Great Hard Drive Crash of 2011.

Adding the accent color, Valspar's Beach House.

Pretty easy painting. Just stay in the lines. Sometimes I forgot which

line I was supposed to be painting and so I stared writing "white" and "blue" in pencil.

And it turned out.... OK.

4 days of work and I'd be lying if I didn't confess that I was just a little let down with the result.

To me, it looked like a bad polo shirt had exploded in my bathroom.

At 11pm I was less than thrilled.

UGH. Too late now.

There was nothing left to do but pull the tape.

So I did.

It looked better.

I could live with it.

Nothing prepared me for what it would look

like when I got it all put back together.

I LOVED IT!

And I think I loved it even more just because I did it!

Nothing feels better than a project that turns out better than you expected.

The bathroom is awesome.

It feels bright, I dare say it is brighter.

At least it has lost the cave-like quality it had with the red.

You should come try it out, for real.