Master Bath Painting Project of Doom

Five years ago, when we bought our first house, the walls in our master bathroom were a neutral, off-white, blah color.  In an effort to surprise me while I was on a trip, my husband and several friends painted the bathroom a barn red color (leftover from a previous project), which, in essence is a great color, but not in our bathroom (my husband agrees).  We have no windows and red made the room feel small and overwhelming.  Besides that, the paint job was never finished, as you will see in the pictures.  When we would shower, the paint would condensate and drip down onto our mustard-colored tub, leaving red watermarks (did I mention our house was built in the 70's?).  Awesome.

Several months ago I decided to rid our bathroom of this monstrosity and gathered as many paint chips as I could get.  The idea was to paint the walls a light blue/grey.  I figured since the color of my tub was now in style, it would be easy to match it up with a great wall color and bring our bathroom into the current century.  In order to get just the right color I had to first find a paint chip that matched the mustard-colored tub and toilet, and another to match the gold-flecked, off-white, slightly discolored sink (did I mention our house was built in the 70's?).  Once I matched those colors correctly, I proceeded to find the perfect blue/grey: Valspar's Pelican.  Awesome!  Except, by the time I'd made several trips to the home improvement store and back with paint chips and supplies, I was unmotivated to paint.  

Fast-forward 10 months (10 months?) when we decided to sell our house and I had to face the inevitable.  Whether I was motivated or not, it was time to paint the bathroom.  Mustering strength, courage and the forgotten paint supplies, I set out to paint the bathroom of doom.  But, there was a problem.  Turns out, the red paint was oil based and the primer I bought was not.  The frustration!  The horror!  I took me 5 days to finish this bathroom because of the emotional ridiculousness it caused.  But it's done.  

Take a look at the before and after.  Pictures include the vanity area outside the bathroom that was NOT painted barn red, thank you very much!

Now that it's painted, I get to enjoy it for another three weeks.  Why does it take moving to get my house just the way I always wanted it?  Lesson learned.