Half Bath Updated & a Black Accent Wall

Well, hello there online friends! It’s been far too long since I posted on my blog (so much for that New Year’s Resolution). I’m so glad I finally had time this weekend to sit down and write a blog post about how I updated my half bathroom. It all started out with me wanting to paint a wall black, so I picked the smallest wall in the house 🙂

I’m finally back! Honestly, I can list a bunch of excuses for why I haven’t been posting about all the home updates I’ve been working on this year, but let’s get real, I’ve just been watching TV and jumping around between home projects 🙂 #QuarantineLife Luckily, this weekend I had the time and inspiration to knock out a couple blog posts about all my projects I’ve been working on! And I can’t be more excited to jump back in it. I can write so much more on a blog than I can on Instagram, so I’m ready to get into the good, the bad, and the ugly, about doing your own home DIYs.

So, without further delay, here is my half bath update!

I’ve been wanting to add an accent wall to the half bath since we moved in two years ago. I’ve debated between adding tile, exposed brick, and even stone. But I’ve always waned a black accent wall and sometimes you just need a little Pinterest inspiration (pinspiration as we like to say) to get the ball rolling and take the plunge into a DIY.

Once I decided on the black wall with natural wood (no stain) floating shelves, the whole project was pretty easy. It took about 2 days to paint (I like to wait 12 hours in between coats to make sure it’s dry) and maybe 15 minutes to hang the shelves.

Picking the Paint:

Of course, since I decided to start this during COVID-19 quarantine, it was a little more complicated then just going to the hardware store and picking a bunch of paint swatches. I had to do everything online which shockingly worked out great.

With the power of the internet, and the professionals on Pinterest, it only took me 2 days to decide on a paint color. Honestly, it’s probably good all the hardware stores were closed and I couldn’t debate between 50,000 colors for two weeks.

On my Half Bath Pinterest Board I found a bunch of examples for the perfect black color. If you’ve ever been paint shopping you’ll know there is no such thing as ‘black’ or ‘white’, everything has an undertone. In my experience, black has undertones of green, blue, brown, and grey. I really loved the idea of doing a green undertone but it seemed a little far fetched and the rest of my downstairs was blue so I opted for a blue undertone.

As I was searching through the different brands, I noticed the Benjamin Moore was a favorite amongst other home bloggers. And I totally understand why, the colors find a way to be classic and trendy at the same time. I fell in love with the color ‘Soot’ but, in Dallas, Benjamin Moore is only sold in Home Depot and, at the time, they weren’t doing online paint orders. Luckily, Sherwin Williams is just down the street from me and were doing curbside pickup.

Now, I don’t want to lie to you, just because you don’t have access to ‘designer’ paint brands like Benjamin Moore, doesn’t mean you can’t have them. Most paint stores, as well as hardware stores, will mix the designer paint colors for you in a different brand. It’s pretty easy to find the color formulas online so this is always an option. HOWEVER, the difference in paint brands isn’t just the different colors, the whole chemical balance of the paint can affect the paint color a lot. So just because I have the Benjamin Moore color formula, doesn’t mean it will look the exact same in a different paint brand. So do this at your own risk, some people swear by this method as a way to get designer paint for cheap, but I think it’s too risky.

So I decided to find a Sherwin Williams color that almost matches the Benjamin Moore color. Luckily, the Sherwin Williams website is super easy to use and once you’ve picked out you undertone, your choices are narrowed down. I opted for the color Inkwell and I’m in love. It’s a little more blue than I wanted but every time I walk by and use that bathroom I still love it.

Picking the Shelves:

Again, since I’m quarantined and working from home, I had plenty of time to search the internet for the perfect set of raw wood floating shelves. But let’s be honest, this is a half bath so I wanted something cheap. Also, it needed to be a company who was making home deliveries. Amazon is always my go-to, we have a distribution center a couple blocks away so getting same-day or next-day shipping is always really easy. Luckily, I found a bunch of great options on Amazon and I love the results. Again, these are in a half bath so they aren’t perfect but they were cheap, sturdy, look great, and get the job done. They were also incredibly easy to hang!

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Decorating the Shelves:

As you can probably guess, I have a lot random decor lying around with no place to go 🙂 So I didn’t spend any money on decorating the shelves, I just found things laying around my house that needed a better home. But I did find there is a good formula to use when decorating shelves in a half bath.

1. Add height with a plant in the top left corner
2. Add a candle or pauperie to the top of the toilet
3. Find a cool way to decorate with toilet paper
4. Add a succulent to the bottom right corner

But, most importantly, don’t over crowd your shelves. There is a time and place for fully decorate your shelves and the half bath is no place for that. Your guests will take one look at the colors and what draws their eye in. So they are not over analyzing your decor like they are in your living room.

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Finding a Cheeky Quote:

If you can’t add a crude joke in your half bath, then were else can you have it. The half bath is the perfect place for your potty mouth. There are a bunch of bathroom decals on Etsy and Pinterst that say ‘get naked’. It’s super cute for your full bathrooms but obviously not applicable in a half bath. I saw a bunch of plaques on Etsy that said ‘get naked… just kidding this is a half bath don’t make it weird’. And honestly, I loved it, it make me smile. So I wanted to re-create this in a wall decal… but apparently it didn’t exist, so I put two decals together. Finding the ‘get naked’ decal was easy and there are hundreds to choose from. But finding a custom decal for the second half was harder, I finally found BelvedereDesigns and they do a bunch of custom work so this was perfect. It took about a week for each decal to come in and were around $20.

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Breaking Down the Cost:

I was happily surprised with the cost and time commitment of this half bath makeover. Overall, I would say it took about two weeks to complete, because I was waiting for items to be shipped. But actual working time, maybe 3 hours ( 2.5 hours to paint, 15 minutes to hang shelves, 15 minutes to hang each of the decals… obviously I’m rounding up). Overall, the total cost was just over $100.

• quart of paint: $25
• paint supplies: $10
• shelves: $47
• decals: $19