Some Days I'm Louder About Other Stuff

Since I’m really into bathrooms lately…upstairs one currently being renovated…I thought I’d show you a glimpse at a really fun bathroom in our basement.

Since the light in the basement is well, very dim, I knew I wanted to brighten up the bathroom. And, I wanted to design it for the kids.

I used this sweet print by the artist, Brian Andreas, as inspiration. If you’ve never seen his work, you’ve got to… www.storypeople.com. It’s whimsical and thought provoking. I loved what it said: “There has never been a day when I have not been proud of you, I said to my son, though some days I'm louder about other stuff so it's easy to miss that.”

So spot on.

I used the colors – lime green and royal blue -- and went with it! I designed the walls around the saying and used the words as sort of a crazy, zig-zag chair rail. I did this free hand as I tried to mimic Mr. Andreas' handwriting. Today you could probably do this a lot easier with all the typography supplies out there.

The Paint-Glaze Process

My friend, Nancy, an incredible decorative paint artist, helped me by painting the walls with a mixture of paint and glaze medium – one part paint to four-six parts glazing liquid.

She painted a small section, then took a sheet of tissue paper, smoothed it flat against the wall and then pulled it off. She says that the trick is to keep a wet edge and keeping it moving so no hard lines form. Also, she says to roll irregular patches so if the glaze starts to set up (and you’d really rather it not), it will look more part of the finish than straight lines would.

“Instead of following the natural path that the shape of the roller would make, roll in sort of jigsaw puzzle shapes,” she explains. “The edge of the shape you roll should be pretty wet, not rolled dry if that makes any sense. Sometimes, I dip the roller back into the tray to make it soupier. The thicker the amount of glaze on the edge, the less chance that it will start to dry.”

This is the texture that appeared…pretty cool, huh? I think it looks like you’re under water, so I kind of went with that theme, too. (Plus my sister gave me a rug and shower curtain and sweet shower curtain holders that went with it for free). I bought the cool rag rug at a Crate and Barrel outlet.

So, one little print inspired a whole bathroom.