painting a small bathroom- advice, please

[Anonymous]

I want to paint a small hall bathroom (the room basically fits a standard sized tub along on wall, and a 30” vanity and toilet along the opposite wall, and nothing else. A window separates the wall with the tub and the wall with the vanity/toilet, and that window has white plantation shutters on it.

There is an existing chair rail with beadboard underneath it, and the beadboard is also on the exposed side of the vanity (the other side of the vanity abuts a wall). There is a built in medicine cabinet above the vanity with wood molding around it.

Right now all of the walls (above and below the chair rail), the vanity, wood around the medicine cabinet, and baseboard molding are painted white, but they are old/dingy and so some look a little yellowed or browned or dingy.

My questions are:

1- would you paint the wall above the chair rail and the beadboard under the chair rail different colors or the same color?
2- would you paint the ceiling white or the same color as the upper part of the walls?
3- would you paint the vanity and/or the wood molding around the medicine cabinet, and if so, the same color as on the walls or white?
4- what finish paint should I use on the walls - on the ceiling - on the moldings? The room gets humid from showering bc it is so small, but it has an externally vented fan.

Thank you for all advice!

[Anonymous]

Is the vanity made of real wood or MDF?

What kind of style is your house and would you lean towards a soft or bold color for the bathroom (sky blue vs. navy blue)?

[Anonymous]

I googled bathrooms with beadboard paneling and many ideas popped up. Take a look and see what appeals to you.

https://www.google.com/search?q=bathrooms+with+beadboard+paneling&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari

[Anonymous]

I like a crisp white headboard with a bold color on top - Navy, Olive green, a dark and moody teal, something like that. With a white ceiling for a full bathroom.

[Anonymous]

If it's a small room, I would go simple to make it feel larger and more cohesive.

If you're using a light neutral then you should take it all over everything plus the ceiling.
You can do a higher sheen finish for the wood (beadboard) and window trim.

The beadboard already adds interest w/ texture, for a small room it's going to be too much to do pieces of color.

[Anonymous]

I have a similar set up in a 1910 victorian. Yes on painting above headboard and painting things white below. I debated between navy above and a soft pink. Ended up with the latter and used simply white everywhere else. It's clean and bright.

[Anonymous]

There is paint specifically designed for humid bathrooms, such as BM Aura Bath & Spa paint.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If it's a small room, I would go simple to make it feel larger and more cohesive.

If you're using a light neutral then you should take it all over everything plus the ceiling.
You can do a higher sheen finish for the wood (beadboard) and window trim.

The beadboard already adds interest w/ texture, for a small room it's going to be too much to do pieces of color.

OP here, I like this idea. To confirm, you are suggesting to pick one white (like simply white as PP suggested) and to use it on the walls, ceiling, beadboard, and vanity, but to use it in a different sheen on the walls/ceiling, on the one hand, and the baseboards, trim, beadboard and vanity, on the other.

I think I will do this, or else perhaps just a subtly different shade of white on each of those two categories.

What sheen/finishes do you suggest for each? Satin for walls and ceiling, and semi-gloss for the rest? I’ll look for that specific bathroom paint that PO mentioned.

[Anonymous]

Agree, keep the beadboard white.

I think semi-gloss is recommended for bathrooms. We used one of the popular blue/gray/green shades from Benjamin Moore -- I can't quite remember which one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I googled bathrooms with beadboard paneling and many ideas popped up. Take a look and see what appeals to you.

https://www.google.com/search?q=bathrooms+with+beadboard+paneling&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari

I really like the blue ones - they're very calm. Separately, I love the idea of having a really bright and "happy" bathroom with white and Kelly green.

[Anonymous]

If you want a bright and happy bathroom try a pale lemon yellow above the white headboard. It will be more classic than Kelly Green.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If it's a small room, I would go simple to make it feel larger and more cohesive.

If you're using a light neutral then you should take it all over everything plus the ceiling.
You can do a higher sheen finish for the wood (beadboard) and window trim.

The beadboard already adds interest w/ texture, for a small room it's going to be too much to do pieces of color.

OP here, I like this idea. To confirm, you are suggesting to pick one white (like simply white as PP suggested) and to use it on the walls, ceiling, beadboard, and vanity, but to use it in a different sheen on the walls/ceiling, on the one hand, and the baseboards, trim, beadboard and vanity, on the other.

I think I will do this, or else perhaps just a subtly different shade of white on each of those two categories.

What sheen/finishes do you suggest for each? Satin for walls and ceiling, and semi-gloss for the rest? I’ll look for that specific bathroom paint that PO mentioned.

DP
I did swiss coffee in Satin for everything in small bathroom and looks good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If it's a small room, I would go simple to make it feel larger and more cohesive.

If you're using a light neutral then you should take it all over everything plus the ceiling.
You can do a higher sheen finish for the wood (beadboard) and window trim.

The beadboard already adds interest w/ texture, for a small room it's going to be too much to do pieces of color.

OP here, I like this idea. To confirm, you are suggesting to pick one white (like simply white as PP suggested) and to use it on the walls, ceiling, beadboard, and vanity, but to use it in a different sheen on the walls/ceiling, on the one hand, and the baseboards, trim, beadboard and vanity, on the other.

I think I will do this, or else perhaps just a subtly different shade of white on each of those two categories.

What sheen/finishes do you suggest for each? Satin for walls and ceiling, and semi-gloss for the rest? I’ll look for that specific bathroom paint that PO mentioned.

Correct -- although I would not use white personally, I would pick a light beige/greige/neutral, coordinating with other neutrals you have in your house, because it's much more relaxed than white. You could even do a muted pink that someone suggested, BM Rose Dust is very lovely and almost comes off as a neutral. My inlaws did that and it looks great.

For the vanity you can do an accent color if you like, or keep it neutral and tonal and do 2 shades darker than the wall color.

For sheen, yes, that's the idea, higher sheen for the wood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If it's a small room, I would go simple to make it feel larger and more cohesive.

If you're using a light neutral then you should take it all over everything plus the ceiling.
You can do a higher sheen finish for the wood (beadboard) and window trim.

The beadboard already adds interest w/ texture, for a small room it's going to be too much to do pieces of color.

OP here, I like this idea. To confirm, you are suggesting to pick one white (like simply white as PP suggested) and to use it on the walls, ceiling, beadboard, and vanity, but to use it in a different sheen on the walls/ceiling, on the one hand, and the baseboards, trim, beadboard and vanity, on the other.

I think I will do this, or else perhaps just a subtly different shade of white on each of those two categories.

What sheen/finishes do you suggest for each? Satin for walls and ceiling, and semi-gloss for the rest? I’ll look for that specific bathroom paint that PO mentioned.

Correct -- although I would not use white personally, I would pick a light beige/greige/neutral, coordinating with other neutrals you have in your house, because it's much more relaxed than white. You could even do a muted pink that someone suggested, BM Rose Dust is very lovely and almost comes off as a neutral. My inlaws did that and it looks great.

For the vanity you can do an accent color if you like, or keep it neutral and tonal and do 2 shades darker than the wall color.

For sheen, yes, that's the idea, higher sheen for the wood.

Thanks again from OP.

The shower/tub tile is white, the tub is white, the vanity countertop is white, there are white plantation shutters on the window - and none of those features can change via my paint job. So I think if I use your idea to paint everything including trim and ceiling the same color, it will still look choppy unless I use a shade of white paint.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If it's a small room, I would go simple to make it feel larger and more cohesive.

If you're using a light neutral then you should take it all over everything plus the ceiling.
You can do a higher sheen finish for the wood (beadboard) and window trim.

The beadboard already adds interest w/ texture, for a small room it's going to be too much to do pieces of color.

OP here, I like this idea. To confirm, you are suggesting to pick one white (like simply white as PP suggested) and to use it on the walls, ceiling, beadboard, and vanity, but to use it in a different sheen on the walls/ceiling, on the one hand, and the baseboards, trim, beadboard and vanity, on the other.

I think I will do this, or else perhaps just a subtly different shade of white on each of those two categories.

What sheen/finishes do you suggest for each? Satin for walls and ceiling, and semi-gloss for the rest? I’ll look for that specific bathroom paint that PO mentioned.

DP
I did swiss coffee in Satin for everything in small bathroom and looks good.

I am giving a facelift to a small bathroom, in anticipation of selling my home. I want to keep everything white/neutral and plan to paint the walls swiss coffee. Did you go the trim and ceiling in swiss coffee, too, or go with a crisp white for those?