Painting stripes in the toilet:) You can too!:)

You might like to have a look at my before toilet in the last post... ew. At one stage when we first moved in I preferred public toilets to my own... that is pretty bad right??

In an effort to remedy this earlier this winter I did one layer of the Antique White USA from Dulux in the toilet. I also did two layers of ceiling white. I then ran out of paint..

Of course it was a little boring... and I see so many nice blogs and images online with more exciting paint jobs... So I decided on stripes. But subtle stripes. It is a rental after all!

At this point I had already removed the less attractive gloss royal blue plastic toilet roll holder... just didn't think it would go with my super awesome paint look.

 I also remembered the important things like - putty up the toilet roll holder holes before embarking on the epic paint spree.


I then did the second coat of the Antique White all over the walls - except the wet putty and left it over night to really dry well.

 In the morning I started taping and fixed up the toilet roll holder putty:) This was so the Antique White could dry properly before I put tape on it! I started taping with a level and a metre long ruler, but I found that the ruler alone was enough:) Also I started on a mini wall section that seemed less daunting than the longer wall section. I measured at both the beginnings, ends and at many points in between to get the tape straight.

I measured two rows at a time for speed and accuracy... My wall took 5 taped lines - 4 Antique white and 3 contrast.

 I wanted a super subtle effect - very non-offensive but still nice and interesting. I also wanted to reflect the beachy kind of simple aesthetic - we are in a 40 year old beach holiday house so gotta go with that... nothing super fancy!

My original ideas were either and gloss and matte paint contrast or two shades in the original Antique White USA that is all over the house.
But then why introduce new colours? And then I got to why introduce a new can of paint? So I ended up using ceiling white stripes.. I have excess ceiling white why not use it? And with my ceiling white it seems to be not fully opaque so it was perfect, especially with the future gloss white frame work.

I started at the bottom with a ceiling white line because I didn't want the ceiling white stripe touching the ceiling white roof... I used a roller, an edger and a brush to make sure I got into all the corners. I also kept a wet cloth handy to clean up any accidents over the tape lines.

I left the first coat to dry and then went over it with a second coat which fixed up most missed bits. There are still a few but we can go back and fix those up later!

I remember reading somewhere that after using the tape you should pull it off the wall before the paint dries? So I did that after the second coat.

I then gave all the trims a double coat in a gloss white to finish off:)







I left attaching the toilet roll holder until the next day because I  wanted to give the ceiling white paint enough time to dry properly. It was a little IKEA holder (Lillholmen range $9.99), I needed a stainless steel look and a hangy one so no one gets stabbed by the toilet roll holder while at the toilet!
So excitedly my whole toilet renovation cost a grand total of about $14! Tape and the holder! Everything else I already had:)  The whole process took about 4 hours of actual work but happened over 48 hours to get the drying time in for a better finish:)

 

What do you think? Have you done any bargain renovations lately?

Renovation update!

What is this? Obviously it is my house... you can see my glass jar with the laundry powder... must be the laundry! Also you may notice I have been to IKEA... I need to go again. I need to get baskets for the top shelf...

But of course you may be more familiar with this look... the ghetto look of my house...

 

As you can see, things had to change. Dishwasher in the laundry is only the start of the ickiness! The lino was not my favourite floor surface either:) Neither was the unusual scent coming from the lino behind the toilet... But then after my father in law sorted out the lino and the strange scent, and then this lovely lady turned up! 

The lovely Miss Luey. She is a tiling god. look at those skillz. I know she looks like she is going to the toilet.. she is not. She is just using the environment to enhance her tiling skills! And on her 1 day off of the WHOLE week!

Look... there it goes... a little tiling path...:) Its finished now... but I don't have a picture of that...
Soon I can show you how I painted the toilet! I know.. exciting... but its stripes! Its very lovely:)

When a girl has too much fabric...

Who ever knew that could happen??
I have a fair stash, but currently my craft tables are hidden under a mountain of little bits of fabric! Still too big/useful to discard, I use them to make one of my favourite things. Mini bunting. Currently we have no mini bunting up. It is a self imposed ban. I may have previously "over bunted" at my last home... we are taking a bunting break, which means more bunting for you!

Here are two sets I prepared earlier...

The first one is a cute cotton set which literally made me smile while I was ironing it, the second is a longer vintage kimono fabric bunting (it's actually from the obi...). it is all metallic and silvery good:) Both available in my etsy store... if I don't get confused are try to keep them... and  over bunt another house....

And they are my new laundry shelves... love a good floating shelf also:)  I got a bit excited and put my Able and Game post card and Pocket Carnival gift card framed in my laundry... everyone has framed images in their laundry right? right?