Okay y’all, Week Two of the One Room Challenge has officially begun and all I’ve really done thus far is change my mind about what I want to do like a zillion times. Eeeeeeps!!! Apparently, the seasoned veterans do the planning, freaking out, and second-guessing for a month BEFORE the six week time frame begins. I’ll remember that next time! Luckily, despite having gone back and forth a ridiculous amount of times this past week, I think I’ve finally settled on something I can definitely get down with.
So I started out thinking I was going to use the same subway tile I used in my shower painted blush and paint the existing floor tile a slightly darker shade within the same color family. The first problem with this plan that didn’t even cross my mind is the fact that tub and tile paint looks like porcelain. It’s high gloss. So while that would’ve worked just fine on my backsplash, it would have been terrible on the floor. Luckily, I figured it out before I actually went through with it and wasted a lot of time, money, and tile. Not only that, the colors I was initially drawn to were not even remotely what they seemed to be on the Benjamin Moore website. I went to Lowe’s and got samples of each color just to make sure I really liked them before investing the money in the tub and tile paint and the lighter blush was more like a pink tinged white and the darker was more like a bold coral. Nope. Back to the drawing board.
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I’ve met a lot of awesome people on Instagram who just so happen to be experts in the field AND willing to lend their advice. Christina Kelley of Southern Mesa Trading, who’s also doing the ORC, just so happens to be one of my Insta-buds and also just so happens to have painted her bathroom tile floor for the ORC last spring. I learned from her that chalk paint is actually the best to use on tile floors and that Zinsser BIN Primer, which is shellac based and will stick to anything, is the best primer to use. She also informed me that I’ll need to get a non-yellowing sealer and then seal the heck out of it. I’d been eyeing the super expensive clay tile with the eight point stars for some time, so I decided to hunt for a stencil with a similar look. I was excited when a friend told me about Royal Design Studio Stencils and low and behold, they had EXACTLY what I was looking for! Stoked! So the plan has changed from a pink floor to a white floor with black stars thanks to Royal Design Studio’s Starry Night Wall Stencil. It’s gonna be ammmmaaaazzzzing!
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As far as the backsplash tile goes, I’d planned to paint it pink along with the tile in the inset of my shower, but I was hesitant about how it would look and how it would hold up. I also didn’t like the way it looked with the gray or black grout lines. Another Insta-friend, Kassina Folstad, who owns her own interior design company called olliePop Design, pointed me in the direction of some jaw-dropping pink glass tile. It’s the perfect pink AND comes in mulitple sizes AND it’s handmade in the USA. However, even after a HUGE discount, it was still going to be really pricey for such a small area. If it were solely up to me, I’d have tried to figure it out and just gone for it, but my husband vetoed it. This is where the anxiety and pulling my hair out ensued because I reeeeeeaaaaaally wanted that tile and now I had no plan at all!
After much deliberation, I think I’ve finally come up with a plan I can live with. A plan that will actually be pretty awesome, but will also be easily changeable should I get tired of pink. I mean … we all know it’s gonna happen eventually. Through all of the back and forth I found myself going back to the same inspo image over and over. I really love the interest the black void above the mirror gives the overall look of this bathroom. Yes, I was initially drawn to it because the tile is pink, but that void in the midst of all the tile is so killer. So I started over and planned everything around it.
I decided I’m going to use the same ol’ classic subs I have in my shower for continuity’s sake. Plus, they were super affordable. I’m going to use white grout though so the pattern is created only by the grout lines. That means I’m, unfortunately, painting all the grout lines in the shower white. Of course, y’all know there’s going to be a void in the tile above the mirror. Is that weird? Maybe. Am I doing it anyway? Yep, but my void will be piiiiiiiinnnnnk. And all the walls will be black.
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I also would like to mention that I’m super excited that my Mitzi Lighting Abigail pendant is on the way! Y’all know how much I love Mitzi. High brow design at affordable prices? Yes, please. I used all Mitzi lighting in my dining room and kitchen remodel and they’re so unique and such great quality, I just had to go back for more!
Other than that, all I’ve done aside from worrying and changing my mind is take apart our shower so I can paint the hardware (praying that works out!) and start chiseling away at the existing backsplash to make way for the new one. What will Week Two hold? I’m not positive, but I’m hoping it will be a lot more productive than Week One! Thanks for reading and I’ll see ya right here next week!
If you missed my post from last week, you can see it here. You can also check out the other ORC participants here.
Thank you to my sponsors, Mitzi Lighting and Royal Design Studio Stencils. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own.