With the Fall and Winter Holiday Seasons upon us, it’s a great time to add some zing and lift to your powder rooms. You’ll wow your guests with food and drink…but why not surprise them with a beautiful bathroom experience as well?
I love to decorate and design beautiful powder rooms. Today I’ve put together some beautiful ideas from around the blogosphere – as well as some of my own designs. Some projects are easy yet creative and others are a bit more challenging…but I will offer some ideas to simplify the process.
A lovely and lively abstract wall finish from Little Green Notebook
Jenny Komenda from the Little Green Notebook blog did a fantastic, abstract finish on her powder room walls. She had always loved Kelly Wearstler’s entryway wall finish in her home and so she set about to replicate it in her powder nath. If you click on the photo above, you can see her step-by-step directions – plus her inspiration photo of Kelly’s home.
Click on the image to see the step by step process
Another totally fabulous (and not that expensive to do) is this gallery wall and dark painted powder room from Jenny of the Evolution of Style blog. She used Benjamin Moore’s Gentleman’s Gray (BM 2062-20) – such a fabulous color for a powder room and all of the artwork was framed in gold. This is an amazing transformation!
Click on the photo for my step-by-step creation of this room
A beautiful powder room project I did earlier this year involved adding some beadboard, doing a stried faux finish on the walls and adding a new mirrored vanity, mirror and a beautiful window treatment for the shower. To do this in your powder room (minus the faux treatments), just add beadboard or panelled wainscoting and use a soothing aqua wall color, such as Stratford Blue from Benjamin Moore, and add a rich, damask window treatment. Click on the photo above for how I created the room.
A deep chocolate wall finish helps set off the beautiful sink and toilet
Using a deep, rich color can add the necessary drama for a great powder room. In this powder room that I did for a wonderful client a few years ago, we did a rich chocolate metallic plaster. We used an off white paint and then antiqued all of the moldings. A beautiful Stone Forest marble sink really becomes the focal point of the room because of the deep wall finish. I will be doing a blogpost soon about this powder room but, if you would like to accomplish a similar look – paint your room a deep chocolate. Some great colors to use are Benjamin Moore’s Affinity colors (their Aura line): Wenge AF-180, Barrista AF-175, French Press AF-170…or the lighter Kona AF-165. You might also try mixing two of the colors – just add the lighter Kona to one of the darker brown paint colors.
OK, it’s not a holiday theme, but this powder room will brighten your guests’ experiences
How about painting your powder room a bold coral color – then adding some coral stencils to your walls? Not just for beach properties, coral motifs can work anywhere. Great for the summertime – but very welcome in the fall and winter months when you want a burst of warmth. Canadian faux finishers, Paint a Lifestyle, did a fabulous bath with a coral color and theme. Think of all the accessories you could use – coral guest towels, real coral on the toilet shelf, some real sea fans or seafan artwork and some coral motif fabrics for Roman shades. The list of accessories is endless.
Some paint colors and stencil ideas…
- Coral paint colors to consider: Italiano Rose (Benjamin Moore 2087-30), Perky Peach (Benjamin Moore 2012-50), Ardent Coral (Sherwin Williams 6874).
- Some stencils to use on the walls are from Designer Stencils or consider making your own stencils – here’s a great How To.
Incredible Powder Room Transformation from Centsational Girl
A great wall color, a simple chair rail and a lighter lower wall color, a fabulous light fixture and bamboo Roman shade totally transformed Kate from Centsational Girl blog’s powder room. Visit Kate’s blogpost by clicking the above photo for her transformtion details. Simple changes that yielded unbelievable results!
I will be doing more transformative powder room posts. I just love these rooms because they can take on the most dramatic changes with very little effort. That’s a miracle in the design world (or rather in everyone’s world – as our dollars have to stretch further these days!). Let me know what you think of these transformations! Have you done any re-decorating in your powder or guest baths? Let me know! I’d love to hear about it!
Sharing this with: Between Naps on the Porch; Primp; Savvy Southern Style
