These painting ideas for bathroom Transform the Space

Disclaimer: Although this article does contain some boob jokes towards the bottom, it is mostly about painting bathrooms. When I moved into the house I’m currently renting, the downstairs bathroom had been painted white gloss. Within three months of moving in, though, I could clearly see fingerprints smudged across the paint, and every single water droplet that had landed on the wall from drying my hands had left a circular mark behind.

It looked almost criminal. I had procrastinated repainting until I realised paint was the least scary way to upgrade your bathroom. The second you start talking about taking down tile or swapping out sinks you’ll quickly find yourself in the territory of thousands of dollars and weeks of inconvenience.

Paint, on the other hand? I can totally handle that.

And what I’ve learned since then is that the right paint can make an enormous difference in your space without you needing to rip out any of your tile or shower fixtures.

The first dramatic “statement” wall I painted was severe. I painted one wall of my main bathroom navy blue – Benjamin Moore’ Hale Navy, to be exact. If you’re interested.

My husband thought I’d lost my mind. “It’s going to make the room feel smaller.” he said. “It will go out of style in two years.” For the record, both of those things ended up being untrue. The navy wall was the perfect backdrop to make the white vanity and fixtures pop in a way that wasn’t possible before. The whole room just felt more expensive and intentional.

Instead of making the room feel closed-off, that wall made it feel like it had more depth. As I mentioned above, the trick to knowing whether or not a wall should be painted boldly is knowing what people will notice first when they walk into the room. I chose the wall perpendicular to the one that someone would walk towards when they entered the bathroom.

Instead of hiding it, this wall gets noticed by everyone who walks in the bathroom. If you’re going to paint an accent wall with a bold colour, make it one they’ll see! One thing I learned the hard way about bathroom paint is that moisture is sneaky.

I loved how my navy wall looked for about six months, but then started noticing small bubbles forming along the bottom of each wall where it meets the floor from steam. After doing some research, I realised I had used regular ole’ emulsion paint instead of bathroom-specific paint. Face palm.

Lesson learned. When I repainted, I used Dulux Easycare Bathroom. It was about thirty percent more expensive than my other options, but it has compounds in it that help it fight the effects of humidity without blistering or peeling.

While I went crazy with colour choices on my accent wall, my sister took a completely different approach with paint colour in her en-suite bathroom. She wanted a dramatic effect, but wasn’t interested in painting a single wall. Her solution?

Paint her bathroom using what she calls “the hotel trick”. She painted the bottom third of her bathroom walls dark grey (what we’re referring to as charcoal here) and left the top two-thirds white. The separation point between the dark and light paint sat right where you would imagine a chair rail to sit – about three feet off of the ground.

I know what you’re thinking. Doesn’t that look silly? Type-y?

No. It’s genius. The dark colour on the bottom hides water spots and splatters from your feet and toothbrushes, while the white colour on top keeps the space feeling bright and large.

To get that crisp line where the two paint colours met, she used painter’s tape. But here’s a hack she let me in on when using contrasting colours this way: To prevent bleeding under the tape, paint your base colour first using brush strokes that go past the taped line – let dry – then paint your contrasting colour (or your second coat). Basically, you’re allowing your brush strokes to bleed over the tape when painting your base colour.

This two-tone trick also works great in powder rooms. Another one of my neighbours painted the top third of her tiny downstairs bathroom pink, and left the bottom third white. Pink sounds crazy in a bathroom, right?

It’s actually very elegant. The pink makes your ceilings appear taller, and adding white “wainscoting” (again, paint people, paint) gives you the appearance of fancy millwork without a contractor. Statement walls aren’t the only place you can play with bold colours in bathrooms.

I’ve been playing around with what I like to call “sneak-y” colour; trying out different colours on things like windowsills and/or ceilings. Surrounding my upstairs bathroom is this awkwardly shaped window recess. I painted it the same shade of sage green I have in my living room.

No one expects that rectangular hole next to your window to be coloured, so it creates a bit of a surprise when they notice it. Also, painting a funky shaped area like that the same colour as other parts of your home visually ties your bathroom to the rest of your house. Using a pop of colour on your ceiling is another fun way to add interest to your bathroom – especially if you have slanted ceilings or other fun features.

My friend Sarah painted her bathroom ceiling this gorgeous lavender colour (Farrow & Ball’s Pale Powder, to be exact). It’s a colour that I would wager costs more per litre than my monthly Starbucks habit. But girl, it’s gorgeous.

The lavender reflects onto my white walls just enough to create a warm glow. Obviously we all want our Instagram worthy bathrooms to look good, but they also need to be able to handle daily abuse. Steamy showers, splattered toothpaste, hairspray products and dirty little fingers can be tough on your paint.

When it comes to finish, I’ve found that satin finish paints stand up better in bathrooms than flat finishes. The slight gloss makes them easier to wipe down without leaving streaks. Another tip?

Test out your paint colours in different lighting situations. The beautiful deep green I ended up going with looks like a spa/stillery sort of vibe in the morning when there’s no sun, but when those noon-time direct headlights hit my walls it can look株式会社like hospital uniforms. I ended up having to switch out my cheap LED bulbs for warm-weather lights, but man did it teach me a lesson about how different lighting can make you perceive colour.

You can even get crazy with the colour of cabinets and storage in your bathroom.

I’ve been brushing my brush across the inside of my bathroom cabinet painted a bright yellow because it gives me tiny burst of happiness every time I open it. Pro tip: If you use leftover tester paint it will only set you back about $3.

Here’s something else I didn’t know about painting bathrooms: primer is your best friend. Bathrooms have a lot of humidity and drastic changes in temperatures, so prime-err. Even if the paint you buy claims to be self-priming, I still recommend buying a good quality primer and using that on any surface you plan to paint.

It will keep your new paint from peeling and blistering off for longer than if you don’t use primer under it. Yes, this is an extra step and expense. But it’s SO worth it.

A recent paint experiment that turned out well? Painting my older, wooden window frames the same colour as my walls, instead of leaving them white. It was such a minor detail compared to everything else I did, but it made my windows appear bigger and my overall design feel more put together.