My New Bathroom Vanity Countertop--Magic in a Paint Can!

About 20 years ago, when my husband and I built this house, I really, really wish I'd chosen a more neutral sink for the vanity in our master bathroom. Something more like this...

Instead, I chose this--

What was I thinking? When I began this bathroom remodel, I'd just about resigned myself to living with this ugly sink until I stumbled across this great tutorial that explained how to paint a bathroom sink from It All Started With Paint. I've never been one to back down from any type of challenge, so I decided to give it a go. Plus, I have a wonderful husband who always says, "What's the worst that could happen?"

More Metal Magic--A Chandelier Redo

Marcia's paint treatment of her bathroom fixtures is what inspired us to start a blog. She loves to paint, and she is very adventurous when it comes to trying something new. Me? Not so much. But we both love making the best of what we've got without spending a lot of money. So I thought I'd share my own metal magic with you. I painted the chandelier in my dining room a few years ago as part of a larger dining room makeover. (That's why the before pictures are from the pre-sale walkthough of our house. My husband and I used to constantly get halfway through a project and say, "We should have taken some before pictures.")

Here's what the dining room and shiny gold chandelier looked like before. Sorry its head is chopped off.

Now, the people who built and owned our house for almost 20 years took excellent care of it, but they hadn't done a ton of recent redecorating or updating. We wanted something fresh and urban farmhouse. The solution was a little paint and a chair rail installation.  

But our favorite part of this makeover, by far, was the chandelier (which was also the cheapest project). 

For weeks, everyone commented on the new chandelier. Nope, I told them, same old light fixture--just given new life with a little spray paint. We took the fixture down, cleaned it, taped off the places where light bulbs are screwed in, hung it from a beam in our unfinished basement, and sprayed away. We used Rustoleum Universal Metallic paint, the kind that has the trigger that allows you to spray at any angle. The first coat we applied was a matte copper color. Then we applied two coats of oil rubbed bronze paint. In a few places, you can see a little hint of coppery glow, which looks really cool. 

Now, Marcia has convinced me to paint a ceiling fan in my bedroom--which can't be done with spray paint because it will ruin the motor. She used a brush on her bathroom fixtures (yes, a brush!), so maybe I'll give it a try soon too. 

Metal Magic

Yesterday I shared how I painted the old, moldy tiles in my master bathroom with a product called Rustoleum Tile Transformations.

Before beginning this project, I checked out the reviews on amazon.com, and at the time, there were only three--which kind of worried me. I bought the kit at Home Depot, which caused some excitement with the paint people since I was the FIRST person to purchase one there. Another reason for worry, but I forged ahead, and I'm quite happy I did because the results are AMAZING!

Moving along to the next step in this bathroom remodel...
The shower head received a coat of paint.

As did the on/off handle.

And the trim around the shower doors.

Before I continue, I have to give some credit to the incredibly talented and creative blogger, Kristi at Addicted 2 Decorating.  I would NEVER have thought to paint the fixtures if I had not seen what she'd done in her bathroom remodel.

I know spray paint is the preferred medium for many painters when it comes to this type of project, but for this particular job I chose something else. Hours spent taping and protecting surfaces I don't want painted is enough to make me give up before I even get started.

Once again, I chose paint made by Rustoleum. I'm not making anything from Rustoleum--I just really love their products. I knew this paint was a good choice because several years ago, I used it to paint an iron railing in front of my house, and after several years of temperature extremes, snow, hail, etc., the railing still looks great. And I like the hammered appearance too. You can see the hammered look pretty well in this close-up of the faucet for the bathtub. I'm still debating whether to paint the entire faucet handles or leave them as they are.

Last, I painted the vanity fixtures along with that little drain.
                                                                                                                                                                                         


I want to draw your attention to the color of the vanity sink because it started out like this:

Once again, PAINTED!
But that's another day.

Goodbye moldy, outdated tiles--Hello, paint!

Do you have a dated bathroom? Tiles looking a little dingy or moldy? Silver fixtures starting to lose their shine? My master bathroom had all these problems and more, but now it is starting to look up-to-date and rich, thanks to a little paint. Here's what the shower looked like before...

And here's the after...

Before any painting could begin, the shower doors had to come down. Then using a product called Rustoleum Tile Transformations, those stark white tiles surrounded by moldy grout were soon covered by a creamy, almond paint with a stone-like finish.

Rustoleum has a great website loaded with photo galleries and detailed directions for their products. Before I even purchased the paint, I spent lots of time watching the how-to video on their site. The time I spent educating myself was really worth it.

I also painted the tiles surrounding the tub.

Painting the tiles was a two-part process and took two days, not including drying time.

I'll be back tomorrow to show you how I painted the silver trim on the shower enclosure plus all the silver fixtures.