Metallic Gold and Soft Green Walls – a DIY paint alternative to pricey wallpaper

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by Robin

We’ve never had a powder room before.  I’ve always wanted one – they just sound classy – a room just for POWDERING things!  How decadent!  I hardly know what to powder (my nose? my wig? donuts?), but I wanted to join the powder room club.

But beyond that silly thought – I’ve often admired the advice from decorating shows: the powder room is the smallest room in your house – treat it like a jewel box – you can splurge on an expensive wallpaper – even on a small budget! 

Splurge on a budget!?!  That’s right in my wheelhouse.

Last month when we turned closet (with no rough-in!) into a basement bathroom I was thrilled to follow that advice. 

I went searching for the perfect wallpaper – price be damned!  I’m making a Jewel Box.  After careful searching, I found one I loved.  It was this Farrow and Ball Wallpaper.  It was going to look lovely: graceful, organic, classic but still modern.  I was sold.

And then I checked the price.  $350 per roll!  I’d need at least 2. 

That’s $700 just for wallpaper!!!  What?!?!  That’s not going to happen.  I couldn’t even afford enough of this wallpaper to decorate an actual jewel box.

So, it called for some creativity.  And after some searching, I came up with a much more affordable alternative – which I love even more!  Home Depot liked my idea too and gave us a gift card to cover our costs!

Our project turned out more beautiful than I even pictured.

Here are the details on our budget-friendly alternative to elegant designer wallpaper.  It’s modern and graceful and soft green and shimmery gold…

Materials:

• Metallic Gold Wall Paint
  • We used Rustoleum Metallic in Soft Gold  Did you know you can get metallic sheen paints in big pots?  There are so many finishes!
• Soft Green Paint
  • We used Behr’s “Wabi-Sabi” Marquee in eggshell
  • Wabi-Sabi is soft and elegant and after I learned about what Wabi Sabi means I was sold: basically it’s the Japanese concept of celebrating the beauty in imperfection.  I love that idea!
• This graphic leaf stencil from StencilsLabNY
• Painters tape – this one is our favourite (after trying so many duds!)
• Repositionable spray adhesive
• Small Roller and tray
• Small artists paintbrush

NEW! ⇒ If a Video Tutorial is more your style – scroll to the bottom – we’ve got a video there for you!

Steps:

What I learned about how to stencil corners:

• Watch a video for tips.
• I watched this one.  (But, know that it is so much harder than it looks! If I’d known how hard mere mortals find stencilling corners, I think I would have been less frustrated with my lack of skill.)
• Repositionable adhesive is your friend.
• Don’t leave the store without it.  (Our beautiful large scale design was floppy, a smaller rigid stencil may not require it.)
• Line up your stencil pattern on either side of the corner.  Paint as close as you can into the corner – and expect to touch up the lines with a small paintbrush afterwards.
• Better yet – consider just doing an accent wall!
• Then you just tape the wall alongside your accent wall and you won’t cry while you do this.  (Yeah, this stressed me out tons and I may have teared up from acute stress.  But – it was WORTH IT!)

New! Here’s a Video Tutorial of all the steps:

 For more about how we turned this basement closet into this stylish powder room – keep reading here.

All the details…

• We’ve got a detailed tutorial with the steps and tips on how to install a bathroom in a basement without breaking concrete.
• We took an IKEA sink and made our own floating wood vanity from $30 in supplies – it makes this small room seem so much bigger.  (And you know we love IKEA hacks.)
• We did a reclaimed wood stain finish on our vanity – with things from around the house – for pennies!
• We installed tongue and groove ceiling planks.
• And we’ve shared about how we did all the finishing touches on our Classic, Modern, Natural Powder Room:
  • the gorgeous faucet
  • board and batten wainscotting (which we have done before with beautiful results)
  • simple to install crown moulding
  • the beautiful lighting and more!

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