White Ceiling & Partial Whitewash on the Walls
Our contractors finished the beadboard on the walls and ceiling in the bathroom for us on Friday so we could prime and paint the bathroom over the weekend. We decided to paint the ceiling white and whitewashed the walls. Think subtle! It is quite hard to see the whitewash clearly in the photos.
Whitewash applied to Beadboard Walls
Why whitewash? Well we are spending quite a bit of money to give the basement a nice rustic/ Victorian back of house feel with all of the beadboard. It seems like a shame (and lots of work) to cover up all of the pine wood grain with several coats of paint. We did decide on the ceiling we would try and maximize the brightness and go opaque white, but after some testing we decided to go with a whitewash (about 1/2 paint 1/2 water) for the walls. The color is actually a light tan (hard to read in the photos) because we wanted a slightly softer color. I also experimented with a blue, but the blue whitewash looked really strange, so we decided to stick with the neutral wall color and use color elsewhere. This is a pretty big departure from my normal preference of using lots of color on the walls, but given that these are small, short spaces it is probably for the best.
Paint & Primer: For the primer I went with a new product (at least for me), Kilz Clean Start. We used 2 coats for the ceiling to minimize any wood grain and knots. Then we used 1 coat of the Behr Premium Plus Ultra Ceiling Paint. For the walls I used a 50/50mix of Behr Premium Plus Ultra Flat Enamel in White Truffle and water. The other nice thing is that the primer and paint are low VOC, so no smelly fumes which is great for those of us painting in the space and for our little ones nearby. For the ceiling I used my favorite painting tool, a small roller (perfect for getting between the low hanging pipes) and a small angled brush for the edges. For the walls we just used a medium size paint brush, and it went on quite quickly which was another bonus.
Curvy Chrysantemum Vase, $28
Speaking of Color I did buy a beautiful vase for the bathroom (now I just need a shelf to put it on).
They are starting to install the tile for the shower today (so far so good). Hopefully I will have an update tomorrow.
* To see all of the posts about our basement click here.
I want to stay focused and congratulate you on making so much progress this weekend, but I’m completely distracted by that gorgeous vase! Wow! it is stunning!
Isn’t it nice! And I thought for the price is was a worthwhile splurge. 🙂