Our winter has been a light one, meaning little snow. In Minnesota, it’s what is sometimes called a “brown winter”. It does look a bit more friendly, but temperatures still restrict you to inside projects.
This is the exact time of year that we get antsy to do something. The cleaning and purging could use a little more work, but at this point … boring. Coming up with a project or two is easy enough. The problem, as usual, is limited funds.
Long-time followers will remember nearly 4 years ago, we restyled and refinished the cabinetry in our bathroom. It has been is holding up quite well and we still enjoy the look.
The bath color is a muted, dusty gold, although this picture doesn’t capture it well. Most of the other tones in our open living areas are similar and neutral, and I do want to stay with those. But we’ve been wanting a bit more color and the bathroom walls seemed a good place to add some. This means paint of course. In this case, the colors in my stash weren’t what I had in mind. There was a good paint sale in the area, but it was still above what we could spend. And then …
At Wal-Mart, on a sale table, I discovered a gallon of their “grab n’ go” paint in the aqua color. At $11.00, it was a good price, but I had big reservations. It was a semi-gloss finish which I felt might be too shiny.
I was considering a turquoise color that would match the current accents in the room.
This color seemed too bright, so I decided against but I kept thinking about it all week. The next trip in, it still sat on the sale table … but now it was at $5.00 on markdown.
Now, most of you know I am a big proponent of mixing my own paint colors. I bought the aqua gallon, and a quart of light gray in the same brand and finish. At home I removed approximately 1/3 of the aqua (saving it, of course), and added most of the gray. The result was much tamer so I did a sample wall.
Still much too bright for us. I wanted a much “dustier” shade, and so did a bit more experimenting. For my darkening color I used a warm, deep cinnamon brown in a finish just one step below semi-gloss. Each test got a wall splotch, until I hit on what I was going for. I settled for the very top color in the picture below.
We’re very pleased with our results
We have a few more small projects for this room. We plan to frame the mirror, and replace the wooden backsplash with glass tile. AND … I’m changing up some of the accessories, starting with this gorgeous shower curtain that is an early Mother’s Day present from my daughter (thanks, Breezer)!
I’m lovin’ the coral, purple and all the aqua and greens in this. Can’t wait to buy towels LOL.
I’ll keep you posted.
Meantime, I would LOVE to hear what you think about our latest project. Remember, when you leave a comment for me, check the box to receive answer comments. My site systems don’t allow an automatic answer sent back to you.
Thanks for stopping over.
Later – Cheryl
ARTZZLE 