Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

| By | | 396 Comments

Painting The Bathroom Elephant Gray By Benjamin Moore

We’re about to hop on a plane back from Boston (which is thankfully not canceled, despite the snowy weather), so this post is up a little early for ya but your comments might not pop up for a little while. Anyway, we’ve debated potential colors for the walls in this hall bathroom from almost the day that we moved in. For a while we were on the deep blue train, but after putting that in the adjacent guest bedroom, we’ve been going back and forth between several other options. Dark? Light? Colorful? Muted?

BathShelf 10 After Far

We finally found our focus when we put that bright fish painting on our whitewashed shelf. Suddenly we had a direction. Toned-down-but-not-completely-neutral walls with colorful accents (sort of like we’ve been doing throughout the rest of our house, but this time with a new undertone – plum). Yup, we went for it. Sherry flipped through our paint deck and plucked out Elephant Gray by Benjamin Moore (we went for a nice bathroom-friendly satin finish, and only needed a quart for the job). Like many of our walls, it was grayish – but unlike Moonshine, it had a warmer plummy undertone to it.

BathPaint 1 Starting To Roll

Just like we’ve done in our other bathrooms, we chose to paint the ceiling the same color as the walls. We find that in small rooms like these it actually makes the room feel bigger because the ceiling isn’t some jarring white plane and it all feels seamless and lofty. The pic below is a bit grainy because I had to zoom way in. My painting outfit involved just boxers and while maybe I should be flattered that Sherry thought that was worth sharing, I decided we should maintain some mystery in my relationship with you guys…

BathPaint 2 John Rolling Ceiling

It wasn’t until we finished that we both stepped back and said “oh yeah, this kind of reminds us of Granny’s bathroom.” We were both so happy with how her bathroom makeover turned out, perhaps it was a subconscious inspiration. They look more similar in these photos than they do in person, since Granny’s “Hint of Violet” was lighter and felt more purple than gray while ours is definitely darker and more plummy (less pinky and pastel than Granny’s).

GrannyThree 3 After

But either way, the idea of having a Granny-inspired bathroom in our own house is kind of awesome.

BathPaint 3 After Full1

See how it pulls from the painting a bit, while providing a nice backdrop for the brighter oranges and blues – which we’ll definitely be bringing out a lot more with some crazy bold fabric that Sherry wants to use for a roman shade.

BathPaint 4 Fish Painting1

Here’s the other side of the room too. It’s nice that the soft and moody tone of the paint looks nice with some of the metal accents – like our iron horse head towel hook and the ORB light – to fit right in. But looking at these photos, it makes it painfully obvious how much we need to frame out that builder-bland mirror. Soon I hope!

BathPaint 5 After Other Side1

That’s probably next on our list. Well, that or making a roman shade. Sherry’s got fabric hanging around that she’s been dying to use so we’ll see who wins and gets ‘er done first. #maytheoddsbeeverinmyfavor

BathPaint 3 After Full1

The best part about this latest update? That fact that we’re making the existing tile work. I was not excited at the idea of busting that stuff out and starting all over, and it’s in much better shape than the tile in our first house’s bathroom, for which we’re eternally grateful! You know we love to use what we’ve got. So thanks to just a quart of paint, the room definitely looks a lot more polished and welcoming than it did just a few days ago:

BathShelf 10 After Far

What are you guys painting? Are you psyched that we went with a plummy gray after dropping the word plum at least thirty times in the past two years since we moved in? I gotta say, I’m a dude and I love my plum bathroom. Just don’t call it purple. For some reason that’s not nearly as enticing…

Comments

  1. Hilary says

    OK, totally digging the color. Like really, really digging the color. I’m generally not a big fan of purple and lavendar, but that is really quite pretty. Nicely done. The bathroom is looking great…!

    Reply

  2. Tam says

    Fantastic job you two!!! -Lately I’ve had to pull out my readers thinking my vision was just a lil off while looking at your georgous photos (but no different) the pics still appeared not as crisp looking (gosh, I am having a tough time explaining myself-sorry) fuzzy -not as clear–
    b.t.w.–I just love you guys to pieces and am soo proud of new accomplishments!!! xoxo

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      So sorry! Anyone else having an issue with the photos being fuzzy? It’s the first we’ve heard of this! They look clear on our monitors so we can’t see it something is going on. Anyone else?

      xo
      s

  4. meganleiann says

    Love it! I am really intrigued by the ceiling painting. I am about to paint my small bathroom (as in tomorrow) a darker gray. It was a beautiful mis-tint that I found at Lowes. The closest math I’ve found is Hearthstone by BM. What do you think about painting the ceilings of a small bathroom with a dark color? Too cave like?

    Reply

    • meganleiann says

      Thanks for your awesome advice! I LOVE it! The bathroom feels classy and so much bigger. I was going to originally paint it the palest color on the paint strip, but this looks so much less stark. Thank you!

  5. Isobelle says

    At first when i saw the color you guys picke i was like…..mmmm…..not feelin it but GOLLY it looks AMAZING! I was just in hospital for a week and as a surprise my hubby did our half bath a dark dark grey and changed the light fitting and everything. Its amazing how a paint job can change even the most bland tiles.

    Reply

  6. Vivienne says

    I suppose someone already commented, but I love the “oversize” bulbs in the light fixture. Did you decide to do that because of the “larger” clear bulb in the other bathroom? Looks retro but funky at the same time. Like the plum walls too BTW, goes great with the black and white.

    Reply

  7. Patricia says

    As I read the post, I wasn’t sure about the color… but as usual, you guys amaze me! The finished bathroom looks fantastic! It’s an unexpected combo, but makes the bathroom look so much brighter. I love it!

    Reply

  8. ErinY says

    I love this post for many reasons, but my two favorite have to be:
    A. #maytheoddsbeeverinmyfavor
    B. That you keep it so real you let us know John paints in his boxers (while still keeping it modest and not oversharing-I’m sure John’s grateful for that!)

    Keep up the good work :)

    Reply

  9. Kirstyn says

    YHL- I’ve been following y’all for probably almost a year now, but was post-shy! So this is my first post! I’m loving this violet- gray trend, and it looks fabulous in both bathrooms. Can’t wait to see what y’all do with this bathroom once y’all really get your hands dirty in here. My fiance and I are in the works of buying our first house, and I have loved loved LOVED reading up on y’all and becoming inspired! I now get to get my hands dirty for my own little house to love and hopefully starting a blog to share with y’all as well. Loving me some YHL!

    Reply

  11. Audrey P says

    I love it! So glad the tile gets to stay – I love that look. And I’m glad you guys are keeping John’s boxers between you two (that made me chuckle!).

    Reply

  14. Candie says

    Hi guys :)

    You know, all this travel/plane talk has got me thinking back to my childhood when my parents would travel. I got curious and had to ask… Do you guys fly separately when you travel without Clara? I know it sounds morbid, but I remember my parents doing this “just incase” and I just realized that maybe other families do this too. I guess I never really thought about that until my later years in life – I don’t have children (yet) but it just got my mind racing…

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Never heard of that! We don’t- we fly together. I’m a nervous flyer (I was on a plane that caught on fire when I was younger and we had to emergency land in a field) so I need John there! I figure I had my scare once, so maybe the odds are against anything else happening?

      xo
      s

  15. Mike Grant says

    I wished I could have met you guys at the Boston book signing but I was on my way back from the cape. The bathroom looks great and inspires me to begin work on my kids bathroom. After 8 years it needs a fresh coat of paint. By the way I just ordered your book, can’t wait for it to arrive. Congratulations on all your successes, keep it up.

    Reply

  16. Carrie says

    I love it! Granted some of the love probably stems from the fact that it is almost the same color as my bathroom, although mine is more of a gray-y plum than a plumy gray. :)

    Reply

  18. Jill says

    I LOVE the paint color so much – I can’t believe the difference it makes in your bathroom!

    Random question: I think I read in the comments that you used a satin finish on both the walls and the ceiling – I was wondering if that made the ceiling shiny, and if you liked it? I could see it being a nice way to actually bounce light around a little, but I’m worried if we tried the same thing that it would bother me. I guess we could always get the same color in flat paint for the ceiling, but maybe that would also look weird. Hmmmmm….

    Oh, and can’t wait to meet you guys when you come to DC! I’m trying not to blast through the book too quickly and savor it as I go, but finding that a little hard :)

    Reply

  19. Monica says

    Just received your book yesterday. It looks fantastic!! Congratulations! We are about to paint our powder room, which is just off the entryway which we are painting a dark beige above the chair rail and a light beige below the chair rail. The power room is going to be a sienna red. its pretty small, about 4*4. Would you recommend painting the ceiling the same sienna red, or going for white. The ceilings in there are pretty high, and because the walls are a darker color, i don’t want it too feel to closed in. Advice? Thanks. Can’t wait to meet you at your book signing in DC.

    Reply

  20. Lisa C says

    It feels like I’ve been painting non stop these days. So many things have gone wrong in painting our room and our newly formed walk in closet (a beloved color looked awful in the room, we chose the wrong paint for our closet shelves, twice, etc etc). I miss the happy days of loving paint room makeovers! It has not been smooth sailing/exciting like your bathroom. I’m actually just finishing up a blog post on all of the insane painting ‘experiences’ I’ve had – aptly titled Paint-astrophe! Oy.

    Reply

  21. Kadra says

    Where did you buy your paint decks? I guess I only asked at Lowes or Home Depot but they didnt sell them. I would love to have one at home to flip through whenever I wanted while trying to figure out colors for all our rooms that need painting.

    Reply

  22. Jessica says

    This post just got me so excited you would have sworn I won the lottery…maybe its just one of those Friday afternoon, I’m ready for the weekend, semi-delirium moments, but I digress…We used Elephant Gray in our guest room of our new house and had some mixed reviews from the family…now seeing that you guys LOVED it to, justifies my choice :)

    You guys are awesome…sorry I didn’t get to stop by the Ridgewood book signing, but as you saw NJ has been a craaaaazy place. All the best and thanks for the Friday afternoon adrenaline boost.

    Reply

  24. Alisha says

    LOVE IT!

    I love how the grey/plum–Glum if you will– color reads with the original tile and doesn’t really paint (ha! pun) you guys into a corner of what direction you can go with the room as it develops.

    Interesting how different people have different reactions to colors! We were discussing this at work today after two girls bonded over brown being their favs–one even claiming BLUE as her LEAST favorite (which to me is complete crazy talk. I am a die hard blue fanatic. How can you not be?! It’s the color of everything beautiful!) so we took a poll amongst everyone working.

    Purple was the number one choice (or close second) of EVERY male (like, 8 of em) and several of the ladies! So fear not your love for the lavender, John, because a majority of the men I know are right there with ya!

    Reply

  25. Amanda says

    LOVE the blog and LOVE the book! Question about painting ceilings – I have popcorn ceilings (the horror!) and no real desire to wear myself out scraping them away. Any thoughts on painting popcorn? Is it tacky? Does it bring attention to it, or make it look better (is this even possible with popcorn ceilings)? Thanks for your thoughts – can’t wait to see you guys in Austin!

    Reply

  26. Kadra says

    Where do you buy a paint deck? I have asked at Lowes or Home Depot but they didnt sell them. I would love to have one on hand to pick out colors for all our rooms that need paint!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We’ve found it’s generally the independent paint sellers that are the ones who will sell you full paint decks. For instance, this one is from Benjamin Moore through their website.

      -John

  28. Elizabeth E says

    I love the idea of painting the ceiling…so much so that when I read this last week, I instantly became inspired to paint the ceiling in one of our bathrooms. We knocked it out this weekend…and I am in love! The room looks so much bigger, cleaner, and less choppy. We have a million things to do on our house to do list, and this definitely wasn’t one of them. So happy to have a solution to a problem that I didn’t know we had. Thanks!

    PS-I just so happened to save the paint can lid from the paint we had used because I had lost the chip. When I went to have the paint mixed this weekend, they told me it was a good thing that I had it, because the color had been discontinued, but they were able to re-create the formula from the info on the lid. I couldn’t believe it, I bought it only 6 months ago! I will be saving all lids from here on out…

    Reply

  29. EhubbsK says

    Can’t wait until you frame the mirror! I have the very same mirror in our master – looking forward to what you guys come up with!

    Reply

  33. Jenny says

    I’m just curious how you feel your old M.O. of color matching BM colors to Olympic No-VOC stacks up to painting with actual BM paint now? And which BM paint did you use? We are about to paint our new house, we have a 2.5 year old and I’m preggo so I’m not sure which way to go. No VOC for sure, but we want great coverage (allllll the walls in our new house are brown!).

    xox

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      To be very honest, once we tried Ben Moore paint (about two years ago on our office cabinets) it was hard to go back. And then once we used it again for the kitchen cabinets and a bunch of secret book projects we were hooked. It has much much better coverage (often calling for fewer coats – we couldn’t believe just two coats on the brick wall in the sunroom did the trick when we usually go through five coats of Olympic). So it’s one of those things that to save money Olympic totally works but you might have to do more coats or even buy more paint whereas Ben Moore (we love Natura best, since it’s no-VOC) has great thick coverage so it’s usually a lot less time/effort when you spring for it.

      xo
      s

    • Jenny says

      Seriously amazing!! We used Natura in Ashwood and it literally felt like I was painting with velvety cream cheese when I was cutting in. The coverage was insane! Two coats and done. Except for accidentally leaving the first can in the car for three days in freezing temps (and ruining it–but they gave me a discount on replacing it) it was awesome. Thanks for the advice! And now on to the rest of our brown walls… xox

Stuff We Love

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *