the pink bathroom (with a side of floor painting)

ALRIGHT.

Where to begin? The kids' bathroom is very pink (right down to the toilet paper holder) and honestly - I don't hate it. Would I love it if the pink was a little more muted (dare I say millennial?) and a little less pepto? Of course! But, the tile is in great shape and the tub is weirdly long and the shower has great water pressure and while it's dated - its functional and could be SO much worse. We'd love to remodel it down the road but for now it's perfect for lots of kids to smear toothpaste and splash ocean sized waves out the side of the tub. I'd also like to think they'll share, "remember our pink bathroom?!" stories of yon when they're older - let me dream.

Here's the before ...

(my one regret is not getting a million better before pictures - I snagged this from the listing)

However - I know people disagree with me on this but the barky wallpaper just wasn't my cup of tea and the curtains left the bathroom feeling too BUSY - to my untrained eye. The hallway just outside the bathroom is super dark because it gets almost no natural light so I wanted to brighten this up and let the tile have her time to shine so we (Simon) stripped the wallpaper (fabric softener and warm water in a spray bottle seemed to be the best method) and gave the walls a few coats of Simply White. I tackled the trim and the radiator cover with the same color and even painted then stenciled the floor.

stool // rug // light fixture

{all sources also listed/linked here!)

I read somewhere that it's important to have some element of wood in a room to "warm it up" (I honestly probably saw this in an Instagram caption, took it as Gospel Truth, and ran with it during a Labor Day Sale) which is why I thought the stool was the perfect addition. I can throw the rug (bathmat?) in the washer and dryer which keeps it looking ~new and I appreciate that fact quite a bit. 

Let's talk about the floor for a not-so-brief minute. I think I'm being generous when I give the look of the final product a 4 on a scale of 1-10. I think the painting and stenciling on a floor that wasn't perfect squares (our master bathroom floor was a million times easier to tackle on actual squares) as my first foray into floor stenciling was stupid but how was I supposed to know? I'd do things differently (and am hoping to repaint this floor soon) and I do mourn the weeks of hours I'll never get back but, it was a great learning experience - cry/laughing emoji. 

Briefly: 

1. I scrubbed the floor and took a bottle of Goof Off (worked so much better than Goo Gone, for some reason) to the leftover + stubborn adhesive around the border of the floor (guessing they have stick on tiles at some point?). 

2. I primed it once just using a regular paint brush to "cut in" around the room's perimeter and then rolled it with a standard paint roller which went super fast. 

3. After letting that dry I did three (maybe overkill) coats of garage floor epoxy that I (bought at Lowes and had them tint it the only white that they could - they have a little brochure behind the paint counter with the tiny selection of epoxy tint colors) using the same brush/roller method which also went pretty fast!

4. I used this stencil and followed the directions on the Cutting Edge website and found the process to be easy but tedious. I wish I hadn't followed the "use adhesive" directions because it built up super quickly on the stencil and I spent a lot of time peeling and cleaning and drying the stencil and I think it made the floor look and feel kind of tacky before I was able to steam mop it several times. So - I didn't use the adhesive when I did the master bathroom it and it went SO much better!

5. I brought a bunch of paint chips home and tried to match that thin line of grey tile and bought a quart of flat paint in the best match. Maybe that was too much of a matchy/match mentality but ... what's done is done and when I restencil I'll use the same color. 

6. To finish/seal it off I did three coats (with ample drying time between) of polycrylic in clear satin. It's only been a little over five months since I painted the floor but it's held up just fine. I steam mop it a lot (not as much as I should) and it hasn't chipped even with that stool being dragged all over the floor c/o Abe. 

I was a little stumped over what kind of art to hang up and I wanted to contrast the pink with some sort of greenery so I went with these mounted vases. I only put a few up to start but lots of people (on Instagram) said I should hang more and I'm pretty sure that was the right route to take? I reserve the right to change my mind and take a few down though - ha.

I found some of the vases at West Elm and this one and the smaller/skinnier ones on Amazon but to give them the same matte finish as the West Elm vases I did paint the Amazon vases with primer which took about 45 seconds per vase and was well worth the extra step for the uniformity - I think. I found the plants at Hobby Lobby and on Amazon.

I still need to find a little something to hang over the towel rack over here, I think. It's LOW on my priority list, though!

And that's all she typed! Overall - I'm pretty pleased with how the whole things turned out. I walk by the bathroom several times a day and so far don't have any regrets (other than the floor issues I talked about)! I hate to end blog posts with questions because it feels disingenuous but I would love to hear if you have a pink bathroom and if you kept it or gave it the axe!

TGIFF(inally)!!