Our Little Black Satin Bathroom

I feel like my home decor posts over the past week have been very bathroom-y... haha
But as promised, I wanted to share with you all how the satin-black bathroom came out!  I know that using black paint on walls can sound a bit scary, but if done right it can actually look very classic and beautiful.

So this room actually became black on a whim. Little backstory... I had painted the adjoining guest bedroom a pretty neutral gray (Edgecomb Gray by Benjamin Moore) shortly after we moved in. I LOVE that color. Since I had almost a half gallon of it left, I figured I would paint the bathroom that color as well.
Here's a little shot of it in the guest bedroom...

Until I remembered it was a "flat" finish. Which isn't the best formula for a bathroom. For bathrooms, I like to use at least an eggshell formula. Preferably a satin. Just because hairspray, products, any moisture basically, will stain the walls and be almost impossible to clean. The finish basically soaks it right in.  So a satin (or glossier) formula will be easiest to clean and hold up so much better.
So I went into the garage to see what leftover paint we had in a satin formula.

Remember these??

To see more on painting the French doors in our foyer black, check out this post.

Yep. An almost full can of Behr Black Suede in a satin finish. I had purchased the full gallon of this (although the French doors took maybe about 1/8 of it to paint?) thinking I may use it on the back of the front door as well, which I'm still thinking about.
Anyway, I immediately got really excited about the idea of a chic little black bathroom.

Here is the before shot...

When we moved in to this house a few months back, you may remember me talking about how excited we were about how updated everything was. Every faucet, fixture, cabinet knob, countertop, doorknobs, floors, granite... everything had been replaced brand new before we moved in. Except this bathroom...
It was like the poor little bathroom that everyone forgot. In these before photos, you may be able to tell I had replaced the cabinet knobs with some of my Anthropologie crystal pretties I brought from our last house. Yeah, all new cabinet knobs everywhere too. Just not in here. I seriously think they just forgot about it.

So my plan was to work with what I had in here.
The paint color before was totally not unbearable, but it was very yellow in this room. Also, you cannot tell at all from the photos, but the paint was peeling off and flaking in a lot of areas in here. I'm guessing there was wallpaper in here before and when it had been removed, maybe there was some residue left over that they painted over? Totally not sure.

Here's a few more before shots.

This bathroom is meant to be shared between the two bedrooms at the end of the hall. The guest bedroom actually connects, while the other bedroom doesn't. It's right next to the doorway to the bathroom though. I cannot wait to share that room with you guys. It's HUGE. We're thinking that will be a perfect room for a future kiddo. Don't get excited. Not that time quite yet...haha

So I began by sanding over the walls where the paint was flaking and where it appeared the residue (possible old wallpaper glue?) had broken through. That was the worst step.

Then I "cut in" with the black paint and an angled brush around all of the trim, crown moulding, and doors. I take back what I said before. THAT was actually the worst step... and by far the most time-consuming.

Then I rolled the paint between all of that on the walls. That went super quickly.

aaaand here she is!

I think the white bead board trim and all of the white cabinets, floors, and tile in the shower helped to balance out the black.

Not the best shot below (the lights are reflecting all crazy on the walls), but you can see the other little side of the sink and you can see how I painted the little wall "medicine cabinet" black as well. I thought it just looked a little more pulled-together rather than leaving it white.

Speaking of the light fixture, this thing gave us some MAJOR problems.  I actually like the way the chrome faucets and finishes in the shower look with the black paint, so I decided to make those work and just pick up a new pretty vanity light fixture to replace the brushed nickel finished one. So off I went to Lowes and bought a shiny new chrome one. 

Brad is great at electrical stuff and replacing fixtures and whatnot, so we came home and removed the old one... Only to find a HUGE hole right behind the two left lights exposing a large plumbing pipe behind it. Apparently when the house was built, they did that to sort of make you avoid drilling any part of the fixture through it. Which is great because the existing fixture would have been mounted and drilled to the wall right at that spot (they drilled a new mounting hole in the mounting plate to avoid it. I should've totally taken a photo of it... It was crazy.

Problem was the new fixture attached in the center and didn't have that huge backplate like the existing one. So we would have had to patch that spot which would have been a tough job. 

So up the old fixture went again and the new one went right back to the store. I picked up some of the same little clear shades I used in our powder room re-do too. I think they look a lot better. 

 The only thing I would eventually like to change is possibly the countertops. I'd like to change them to a light-colored granite. Just because the ones now are pretty scratched and can look a bit yellow against all of the white, but they're just fine for now!

I was also contemplating painting the bead board and trim above it black too, sort of like this photo. But so far, I'm diggin' the contrast.

Not the best photo (took all of these pretty late at night), but here's what it looks like coming in from the guest bedroom side.

One thing I would LOVE to do that will definitely happen in the future is to replace the little light fixture in front of the shower. You can see it in the photo below (should have totally turned it off for this pic, but you get the idea).

It's nice because it's controlled separately than the light above the vanity. Anyway, I'd love to change it out to something really fun. Definitely will wait until I find something perfect. 

So my biggest tip with black paint (where walls are concerned) is to stay away from stark black formulas. Even if you want a black black room. It's usually just not flattering. Find a black that has a bit of gray or brown mixed in to soften it a bit. It will still read very black, but won't look stark.

details:
paint: Behr Black Suede (satin formula)
sunburst mirror: Target
shower curtain: India Rose
rug: Ballard Designs
candleholder: Bath and Body Works
little mirror on vanity: Anthropologie
little gold tray on toilet: Target
bathmat (over tub): Target
crystal knobs: Anthropologie


Paint is a pretty crazy-big-difference update huh? All of the little decor items in the room aren't new. Literally the paint is the only update. I love what a difference it made!
So do you guys have any black rooms? What are your favorite black paint colors for walls?

New Powder Room Decor

So as promised in my previous post about this room's big re-do, I wanted to share with you a quick post about all the little decor details I've added to it during the past month.  Nothing crazy, just a few little touches that made the room feel complete.

This is how she looked last we left her.... Wallpaper free and with a fresh coat of pretty paint.

Here is what it looks like now from the hallway...

Normally not a fan of decorating a toilet, but I put this little tray on top I've had forever along with a silver Tory Burch candle and I think it looks pretty cute... But ugh, I hate seeing toilet paper. haha Is it just me? I may get one of those little toilet paper holders that hook to the tank. So I could put it on the right and it wouldn't show.  But I know, I know... It's a bathroom. Toilet paper is kind of a given.  Same little antique table to the left of the toilet which I talked about in the last post about this room.

The biggest challenge for this room has been finding a great mirror. So up until last week, that wall was bare until I couldn't take it anymore.

...and added this one that I hadn't found a great spot for yet. I like the way it looks and the way the different facets reflect the light. I WISH that it were more rectangular so it would be a bit longer, but it works.  Who knows, I may still find the perfect one for that space, but this one works for now.  The litte birdcage in the lower left holds extra toilet paper, although I'm not sure I love it there. I may store it away in a closet because we know how I feel about toilet paper.

What really pulled the room together, I think, are these 4 pictures that I'm in love with.

These were a lucky score from the Ballard Outlet in Atlanta. They each are unique and have beautiful little ceramic cameos depicting what appear to be Greek figures (?). I could totally be wrong.  Anyway, they were such a find because regularly they were a (completely unreasonable) $199 a piece. Unless Zeus made these himself, no thank you. Maybe not even then. But I scored them for $30 a piece at the outlet! I've had them for a few years now.

So that's that for this room (for now). Currently I'm tackling another bathroom project. I'm painting one of our upstairs bathrooms a gorgeous shade of satiny black. Cannot wait to share it with you!

Details:
paint color- Benjamin Moore Abalone
gold table- antique
mirror- Michael's
wall art- Ballard Designs
rug- Anthropologie

For MUCH more on this room and how it came along from this...

I apologize.

... check out this post all about it!

AND be sure to look out for a new beauty video coming up this week as well!

The banisters go black...

Hello and Happy Tuesday, Everyone! I've got to say, I'm pretty excited to be turning 29 for the first time today. ;)

So today I'm sharing with you guys the finishing touch (for now) to our foyer.  I know, I know... this thing is turning into a saga.
Last we left it, this is how it looked...

Totally not bad. But after painting the French doors black, the stair banisters and railings up top looked a bit too tan-brown. You can see it a little more in this photo...

Totally wanting to change the stair carpeting eventually and have a prettier runner (maybe a printed neutral?) put in.  Definitely need carpeting of some sort on the stairs for Waylon (our 80-lb Golden Retriever) and I like a runner as well. I think it makes them look more finished and far less noisy.
Anyway, that will come later on. The carpeting on them now matches what is upstairs and is totally brand new, so we're not in a hurry.
K, back to the topic at hand...

Here's one more before shot.

Again, totally not bad, but notice the black frame, black chair (in first two photos), and black accessories. Also the big chandelier in there has an oil-rubbed bronze finish which almost looks black (as well as the little pendant lighting in the hallway you can see above). So the stair railing going black just made sense.

While I knew the railing was going a glossy black, the dark brown flooring and side planks of the stairs match, and I LOVE the look of those. So stair planks stay the color of the floor because that just makes sense... because they technically ARE the floor. At least that's what makes sense to me, and it turned out beautifully!

I used Onyx Black by Glidden in a high gloss. It's the perfect deep, glossy black. I did two coats with a small velvety pad paint applicator. You know, those that usually are used for deck stain? Well they sell tiny ones. It worked perfectly. No brush marks! On the underside of the railings around the spindles, I used a small brush to paint around each one. That was a pain. But the end result was worth it.

**edit: I forgot to mention that I DID lightly sand them before painting. They weren't too heavily lacquered before, but did have a bit of a sheen. 

I also painted the railing on the little "lookout" area above the family room.

Loving that as well.  Not loving how yellow the paint up there is pulling on camera...haha. If I could reach that myself, let's be honest, I would have already changed that. It's really a a more warm tan in person, but I'd love something a little more gray. I'd love to have it re-painted in the pretty Castle Path shade by Behr that we had all throughout our first house.  We've got plenty of time... ;)

I love how the wood grain is still really noticeable. Seeing the natural texture of the wood makes it look like they've always been black!

After living with the white in the foyer for weeks now, I'm absolutely LOVING it. Nothing like a crisp white foyer.  It really makes the house look open and inviting when you enter. With the black railings, it's such a classic combo, but looks a little modern too.

Much better from where we started!

Solid gold, baby.

Check out more posts about the foyer transformation here and here.

The patio that almost killed me...

When we moved into our new house months back, we were THRILLED to finally have some outdoor space. MAJOR outdoor space for us, especially compared to our last place where we had a very small (and sooo not private) backyard.
Part of what made me fall in love with our new house was the huge screened-in porch with more than enough room for a huge living area AND a big table. We also scored a huge backyard that is super private, perfect for entertaining. Outdoor space, check. However, we didn't have a great spot for things like our grill and gas fire pit.   While we had a really nice, level spot right off the screened-in porch stairs, we really wanted a paved area for those things. The other side of the porch slopes way down with more stairs from the backyard to a little area off the basement. Since the stairs from the actual house come down on this side, we thought it made more sense to have a little extension for outdoor living stuff on this side. We always thought that little area should have totally been paved already, so we took the plunge and did it ourselves.

Looking back, I think it's safe to say we definitely would not do this again if we had it to do all over. We LOVE the result, but the work was kind of back-breaking.

Let me just say before we begin... We are not experts at this and definitely did not do this perfectly. The result is pretty darn good (we think), so we're happy with it.
Here's the before...

Our original plan was to pave the entire area from the little cement slab from the porch stairs, all the way to the area where the wood stairs to the backyard begin (around the bottom-center of the photo).  We soon realized that wouldn't work because our irrigation system got in the way. About a foot in from that little corner, an underground sprinkler head pops up when that section is turned on. Not conducive to paving over. So we figured instead of removing it and going through all that trouble, we'd just stop the patio a little shy of it.
This area seems small, but it nearly killed us...
The first trick was picking up the pavers. We chose these from Lowes.

For our area, we calculated that we'd need 68.  Lowes helped us load them which was awesome. Unloading them was awful. Brad is really strong and could get a few at a time. I struggled with one, and I'm usually pretty strong.  These were HEAVY.

Check out all the pavers piled up... At this point, I was thinking, "What have we gotten ourselves in to??"  I think Waylon was thinking the same thing...

Next, we started digging. The main trick to this whole diy-paver patio thing is getting the area perfectly level.  So we each took a shovel and started to sort of "skim" off the grass.  It was SO hard for me to do, so Brad took over most of that job. I went around and scooped dirt and worked to further level areas that were obviously not.
Then, we worked together with our shovels to level it even further. I'll be totally honest here... We didn't "stake off" the area and use string to level it. We didn't use a level. We totally eyeballed this. However, we had a great advantage because the area was already pretty level and we had the nice wood retaining wall to sort of guide us.

Next, we put down 8 bags of "paver base". This stuff is basically really thick, moist sand. When you do this, wear gloves, people. Sometimes we didn't and I ended up with tiny cuts and splinters all over my hands and fingertips. I got really scared for a second there and thought I had totally ruined my hands. All my fingertips felt like I had at least 10 splinters in each. Not a good feeling.
Here's what that looked like during the spreading...

After you spread it (you can use it to further level your area), you can use a flat rake or even a big metal tamper to settle it all and make sure its flat and smooth.

Then you put down paver sand (not polymeric sand...yet) on top of that. Just a thin layer.

Thennnn you put down the pavers. You can put them down in any pattern you like.  This is the part that started really getting to me. One by one, we took turns grabbing the pavers and bringing them over. We'd each work on one, then go get another. It really made the process go quickly.  But the next day, my legs were feeling the burn...haha. All that squatting with the heavy pavers was serious business.

By this time, it was literally 11pm so we called it a day.

The next morning, we did the last (and most fun) step. Applying the polymeric sand. This step was so satisfying. Polymeric sand comes in buckets (we used two big buckets, not sure of the exact size, but you can get an idea from the bucket in the photo below) and basically keeps your pavers in place by turning to cement when you apply water to it. So we dumped it evenly to small areas at a time and spread it with a large push broom. The idea is to push it into the area in between the pavers and off of the paver tops themselves.  Brad did most of the sand dumping, and I did the spreading.
Until he really wanted in on the action and I gave up the broom...

We then took a leaf blower (per the polymeric sand's instructions) and lightly blew off the surface of the pavers to get all the sand off, while keeping as much in-between them as possible.  

Oh and I almost forgot to mention- on the edge of the pavers where they meet the grass (behind Brad in the photo above), we used some of the hammer-in black edging that you purchase especially for these. We didn't use it against the wood (because the wood kept it in place) or on the area to the right in the photo above against the pine straw area because that area goes up a little and we felt the area we dug out would be more than enough to keep it in place. Not that skipping that in those areas is what you should do, but that's what we did and it's working.

Finally, we gave the patio a light shower with the water hose to set the polymeric sand. We followed the sand's directions and stayed off of it for 24 hours. Then, when we stepped on it for the first time, we were pretty darn impressed with ourselves. 

For reference, where the flower pot is on the right side of the patio, is where I always stand for my outdoor OOTD posts. So YAY for no heels in the grass anymore! haha

That little wonky, muddy area to the right of the patio area in the photo above is another sprinkler pop-up area. Yeah we could have cut out the stone pavers in a way that would allow it to pop up through it, but we didn't. We're going to get that area grassy again and maybe add some large river rocks (too large for Waylon to scarf up)  in the same color of the patio to round it out a bit.

We also have some plans for the area to the left of the grill in the photo above. Eventually, we'd like to build (or maybe have it built) a stone grill enclosure there. That would free up some more space on the patio and look so much nicer.

Here's a closer shot...

Oh and the grand total we spent on this project was around $300. Not too bad. We had a sweet Lowe's coupon and the pavers rang up a LOT cheaper than they were advertised. So we're totally not sure what happened there. But we'll take it.

So my final thoughts. Don't do this... 

Unless you have a pretty level surface to start with. If you're dealing with a tricky area that is oddly-shaped, or really uneven, leave this to the professionals.  I would N-E-V-E-R do this again. Ever. haha, dramatic, I know. But seriously, we have been really enjoying it and we love the results, but I don't think I could make it through another one of these guys.  

Have you guys ever done this? Any huge diy projects you've been tackling lately?

Fiddle Leaf Fig in the Foyer

Squeezing in one more post before the weekend! I'm so excited about my new Fiddle Leaf Fig tree that this one couldn't wait until Monday.

Tonight, Brad and I went to dinner and to search for a banana plant to go in the foyer. You guys may remember in my recent Foyer Re-do post (check that out here if you missed it), that I mentioned possibly picking one up this weekend.  I've been wanting a fiddle leaf fig for the longest time, but pretty much gave up on it since I've heard they're really hard to find.  So we went to Lowes and the pickins were slim. They had one really sad looking banana plant. So we went to Home Depot to hopefully find a better banana plant and lo and behold... they had 4 fiddle leaf figs! You better believe I scooped that baby up as fast as I could. Brad was cracking up at how excited I was about this "fiddly" tree.  The one we snagged is in pretty good shape. The other three were really sad looking and brown in a lot of spots.
I got the tree for $34 and picked up this beautiful pot for $45. It was a splurge, but the pot is almost as gorgeous as the tree.

I really love the look of it against the black French doors, (for more info on how I painted those, check out this post), but I'm a little worried about it being that close to the air vent. Don't want the leafy guy getting chilly. The issue with it being on the other side is that there is a closet door that would open up against it (the French doors swing into the living room/office, so that's not an issue on the side it's currently on). So I'm going to see how he does (yes, he's a "he") next to the vent for a while.  Other than that, it should be the perfect place for him because this room gets a ton of light.  We shall see...

So do any of you have a fiddle leaf fig? Any tips? Hope you guys have a fabulous weekend!!

New Foyer Progress! And Black French Doors...

So you guys may remember in my recent post about redo-ing our powder room, me mentioning that a foyer re-do was in the works.  Since the rest of our house is painted in pretty tones that I actually really love, I was dreaming of a foyer that was light, bright, and a bit modern, tying in with our more traditional house design. I knew I wanted to go with white so that the decor could really stand out. Our foyer is such a large and pretty space, that I didn't want it to be defined by a specific color. I wanted the architecture and decor to really stand out. These inspiration photos on Pinterest had me drooling...

• I LOVE how the white walls in this space works with the dark flooring and moulding.
• The layout of this foyer is crazy similar to ours. Just reversed. I'm loving the open feeling the lighter walls create. The lighter shade also works well with the "glam" feeling of this space.
• This foyer is really fun.  I love how they used accessories and actual decor, rather than just slapping a fun color on the walls. The white gives you so much more possibilities!
• This foyer is just classy and glamorous. Again, I love how the white works with all the moulding and accentuates the gorgeous rich flooring.

This is what I was working with....

Don't get me wrong... it's TOTALLY not bad. However, after living here for a few months, the gold and brown faux-finished walls began to make me itch. I actually tried to will myself to like them. But I couldn't shake the feeling I had from the first moment we walked into this house.... They looked a little dirty to me. Seriously, they don't look that bad from a distance. But up close, they looked a little smeared....and brown and gold. Not a good combo. I'll let you use your imagination.

I'm no stranger to painting rooms. Big rooms. At our old house, I completely re-finished and re-painted our kitchen cabinets by myself and repainted a lot of rooms in that house (Brad is super handy, but he's no painter, so that's my job).  I strangely enjoy it and find it therapeutic. So I guess this room just really upset me because I knew there was no way I could do it myself. There was no way I was going to risk my life painting this two-story foyer while trying to cover the faux-finish because something told me it wasn't going to be easy.  It wasn't just the foyer, it extended into an adjacent hallway and a bit of the upstairs hallway as well.

So I bit the bullet and hired out. 

Brad was convinced it was going to be thousands...  I was thinking maybe $700.  So when we got an estimate from a local painter who had repaired some outside wood when we moved in and he said $500, we immediately said "YES, WHEN CAN YOU START!?" 

Before I go on, have you guys ever actually tried to pick out the perfect shade of white paint?? Not for moulding, but for actual walls? Most difficult thing I've probably ever had to pick out. I should've taken a photo of my swatch action on the walls. At one point, I had 5 different shades painted on the walls in 3 different areas of the foyer. SO glad I did that. I wanted a true white that wasn't going to have too much contrast with the moulding. Why? Because we have a lot of moulding and trim in the foyer that is white white. So if you choose a slightly warmer, cream white, the walls will look yellow. A slightly warmer fleshy white? Looks pink. You can imagine what some of the cooler whites looked like. One white I tested looked like a true white on the swatch, but turned purple-y gray at night. No lie.
So after a lot of deciding, I went with White Truffle by Behr which is actually a shade I used at the old house in my filming/makeup room. I used that shade on the stripes below the chair rail and always loved it.  Brad loved this shade the best out of all the others we had tested too, so we went with it.
SO glad we did.  It's not too warm and not too cool and sterile looking. It's perfect.

For the painters, it was a bit of a process. Long story short, they primed and STILL had to do 4 coats in some areas to cover the faux finish. That's using a really high-quality paint and primer in one formula as well. But when they finished, it was like a big breath of fresh air.

*Technically, these were taken when it was a few coats shy of being finished in some areas.

 You can really tell it needs a few more coats in this picture below...  But it was already looking SO much better!

I think going with a white on white actually made the trim and moulding stand out more and look prettier than it did before.

I was LOVING the fresh white walls, but felt like when I looked down toward the front door and the area of French doors that lead to the living room, something was missing.

Which leads me to the next big thing I painted in the foyer which really brought it all together...  Can you guess from the Pinterest inspiration photos at the top? ...or the title of this post? haha

Black French doors, baby.
Now this could've went terribly wrong. Sometimes, I'm impulsive. I chose and bought my paint at Home Depot just from looking at paint swatches. No testing at home, no scouring Pinterest for photos of the actual paint color used in rooms. I just went with it.... and I'm SO glad I did!
I chose Black Suede by Behr which is a really soft, warm, grayed black (I went with a satin formula to help it look even softer).  I knew I didn't want a really black black because I didn't want it to look too stark against the white walls.
To me, it is THE perfect black for painting doors.

Much better huh? Such a huge difference black doors make!
Another reason this could've went terribly wrong is because at first, I was considering painting the ENTIRE door casing... Trim, transom window above, everything.  I've seen that done before and it can look awesome, but for this space, I'm glad I skipped it. I just painted the doors only.  The more I thought about it, I didn't want the transom window above the French doors to compete with the one above the front door. So I kept them both white. Glad I thought that through...  Most photos I was finding on Pinterest had done it the way I decided to (doors only) and I think for most spaces, that's the best bet.

The only thing I WISH I had for this post (I was impatient and had to share), is a pretty big green fiddle-leaf fig or banana plant to go next to the front door (or maybe one on each side?).  My goal is to pick up one (or two) of those babies this weekend.

Here's a shot of it from upstairs...

I love how it really grounded the space without looking to stark. I've actually toyed with the idea of painting the back of the front door black, but something is telling me not to. 

Here's a few shots from the other side- In the front living room/my office.  Sorry about the dark photos. This room is so hard to photograph for me.

Not loving the paint color in there. It looks a bit too yellow. It will be changing soon... I already purchased the paint! I'll keep you updated on that...

So I'm sure you have some questions on HOW I painted the French doors. It was VERY time consuming. I started off by thinking it would be easier to tape off the windows so I wouldn't have as much paint to scrape off the glass at the end. Yeah, applying the painter's tape took longer than actually painting so I gave that up about halfway through one side of one door. I NEVER use painter's tape anyway, so it was already on my last nerve. I just used a small paint tray and my little angled brush I always use to go around trim and ceilings with (I use a little brush called a Wooster Shortcut which is my fav), and started on the wood framings between the windows. I wasn't too careful around the glass because I knew I could scrape it off with a small blade made especially for scraping paint off windows for a cleaner look. I used the brush to go precisely around the doorknobs (which I didn't remove) and the hinges on the inside edge. Then I took a small foam paint roller (about 4" across) and painted the large areas of the door.
It only took two coats! I did have to go back with the brush in some areas between the windows where the brush didn't coat as well as a roller, but no biggie. To get the inside edges of the door (that are covered when closed), I just swung the doors open all the way into the living room and painted them with the brush. I made sure not to close them back until it was dry, just in case.
I didn't remove them either. I know some people make a big deal about removing the doors when painting, but for these, it would've been a waste of time since it went perfectly anyway.
If you're nervous about dripping paint, you could also spread some newspaper out below the doors to catch any drips or smears.

So that's it! It's definitely not absolutely complete, so I'll keep you all updated as it comes along! What about you guys? Any big projects you've been working on lately? Isn't it funny how a bit (or a lot) of paint can totally change things??