NEW Powder Room!!

This post by Jenny over at Little Green Notebook was the kick-in-the-pants inspiration I needed to get rollin' on my latest project!
You gotta love The Martha Stewart Brand- seriously ingenious ideas, tools, products! This product that I used on the powder room was a cinch, under $5, and gave me a fabulous result.  I got it at my local HD- they had a larger faux effects kit here- but I bought the single faux bois style roller only- and that's all I needed for this fun pattern.

The before of our less-than lovely powder room (pre-stripping of the wallpaper):

The first attempt at a mural that I resigned myself to giving up on

(some day I will recreate this amazing Josef Frank fabric on a wall!! promise...):

and NOW!!:

My goal in this project was to spend the least amount of $ possible- so I only purchased the roller and a gallon of primer (due to the insanely dark blackish/purple previously on the walls), and quart of glaze to mix with the top coat of paint.

I made "custom" i.e mixed paints that I had left over in various cans in my basement paint stash to create an aqua for the under coat, and a greenish-goldish-cream for the top coat (which you thin with glaze).

You first paint the base coat- let it dry (at least 24 hours)-then apply the glaze with the brush in small sections at a time, drag the roller through the glaze layer. I did a trial run on a piece of drywall I had laying around to get the hang of it- but IN ALL HONESTY it was really simple, and forgiving! My walls are an old, plastery mess! and the roller worked fine on them. If you make a pass that you don't like, you just brush right over it and try again. The wood grain part literally took less than an hour!

And for anyone who has used my bathroom in the past 6 months I apologize for the lack of curtain:) I finally whipped up one of my favorite curtains of late- the grommet handkerchief style one- similar to the ones in my dining room- and upstairs hallway window:) they are SO easy to make- and look very effortless and clean.

What's next on the project list you might be wondering.....
It's tackling the close-to-the-powder room back entryway/basement stairway.

It has a similar version wallpaper to what was in the bathroom.

The plan?
Strip the wallpaper (obviously!), then I'd love to do this on the walls adjacent to the bathroom door...add some hooks for coats/backpacks

photo and GREAT tutorial HERE via Centsational Girl and paint the basement stairs something like this....I'm thinking enamel in some shade of blue

and the icing on the cake/dream come true would be this lovely grass cloth on the walls (only problem is I want to do this myself, and I've never hung wallpaper...I'm debating finding a contractor that will let me "apprentice" while they work;)