Back from Black: Repainting the Bath from Dark to Light - Remodelista
Last December I painted my bathroom black. The bathroom in my rental apartment has neither elbow room nor natural light...
Photography by Meredith Swinehart, except where noted.
...and my choice of the blackest black (Behr’s Broadway) was not working. But how does one go about painting a room from black to white to pale gray?
After
My newly bright bathroom is now painted in Farrow & Ball’s Lamp Room Gray. My light is a hardware store porcelain socket (learn about its history and where to find the nicest versions in Object Lessons).
I had to make some decor changes in my newly not-black bathroom: I swapped my black wastebasket for a Perry Dark Basket (on sale for $14.99
at Pottery Barn) and whitewashed the formerly unfinished wood floor register in Minwax White Wash Pickling Stain ($22.76 from Amazon).
I also added a white bath mat to further brighten the space; the Isaac Floral Sculpted Bath Rug is $32.50 at Pottery Barn.
I kept a black pendant light overhead (see it in Steal This Look: The Bath in Black), and after I vanquished all the black in the room, I wanted one more dark element to relate to the lamp.
In the formerly useless space above the rear cabinet, a stainless steel wire basket now holds toilet paper.
I’m still in love with the nautical cleats that I installed as towel hooks in my last bathroom redo.
I hung a small shelf above the toilet using a four-inch-wide piece of pine that I had cut to size at Home Depot.
Before
Photograph by Liesa Johannssen for Remodelista.
The bathroom in black; see more in Steal This Look: The Bath in Black.
The Process
I’d heard–from my mom–that the way to paint from black to white is by introducing a battleship gray in between.
The battleship gray was already a dramatic change from the black–so much lighter!–but was still too dark. With only one of the room’s two lights on, shown here, Vulcan looked almost like black.
The biggest obstacle to choosing the perfect paint color for my bath is the pink and gray marble tile surrounding the tub and shower. I learned from this exercise that I would need to use a primer before painting my final choice.
To get a better idea of how a paint color might look all around the room, I painted small canvases in a few picks.
For primer I decided to be economical and go with the white paint I had on hand.
Once the Polar Bear had dried, I was very happy about two things.
Black still has a place in my bathroom–just not painted on the walls. Browse more before and afters in Makeshift Society in Brooklyn, Scandi Whitewashed Floors, and Rehab Diary: Cobble Hill Kitchen Makeover.
