Before and After: Black Paint Made This Powder Room Feel So Much Warmer
September is Transformation Month at Apartment Therapy! That means every day, we’re sharing a new before & after to show the power of transformations at home. Head over here to see them all!
Like many half baths, Jo Char‘s powder room is tiny and windowless. Logically, she initially went with a light wall color, but all that did was make the room feel “sterile and anemic,” she writes.
Jo had some leftover black paint from a previous project, so she decided to switch things up. “Instead of trying to mask the smallness and darkness of this room, we were gonna lean into it,” she writes.
Well, that black paint worked. “Once the room was black, it instantly felt cozier and moodier,” Jo writes. Naturally, she wanted to the decor to feel the same way, so she took a look around her house for antiques and went shopping for them too. “The giltwood mirror belonged to my husband’s late grandma, and until now, we couldn’t quite make it work with the rest of our decor,” she writes. “The two largest art frames were from the Sunday Antique Market in Toronto and cost only $10 each. In one of the frames is a page ripped from Pulled, one of my favorite art books on screen printing.” She scored the vintage rug from Worn and Woven, and nabbed the wicker basket for extra TP from H&M.
She did splurge on two items: A $64 matte black toilet paper holder and the $44 metal shelf above the toilet, both from Kroft. In total, the makeover cost less than $250.
“If you’ve got a tiny bathroom without any natural light, don’t be afraid to lean into it and go deep, dark, and bold,” Jo writes. “I [love] that though the black paint made the room seem smaller, it ‘s also much cozier and inviting.”
Thank you for sharing, Jo!