Small guest bath project up in Carefree last week. Two days start to finish. Tight little room, one window, one vanity, and a shower — the kind of bathroom that if you paint it wrong it feels like a closet, and if you paint it right it feels like a jewel box.
The homeowner had already picked a moody dark teal for the walls, which was a bold call in a small room. My honest advice on darks in a small space is that they work if you commit to them. Half-committing to a deep color is worse than not doing it at all. We were all-in. Ceiling stayed white, trim went to a crisp pure white, and we did the walls in two nice even coats of the teal. Sheen was a low-luster because we don’t want a small room feeling shiny — you want it to look like a painted room, not a lacquered box.
Second morning I was rolling up the drop cloths and the homeowner’s neighbor knocked on the door with a plate of banana bread. They were curious what all the trucks were doing next door. She peeked into the bath — sorry to interrupt, she said — and then she just stood there for about twenty seconds. She said, “That’s a whole different room.”
I love those moments. They tell you the color was right. A neighbor who’s seen the “before” for years is the best possible before-and-after judge you can have.
The homeowner ended up giving her the name of the paint on the way out. And — if I know my Carefree neighbors — I’m guessing I’ll be over there for a look at her guest bath before Labor Day.
If you’ve been thinking about a small bathroom and wondering whether you should go bold, my nudge is: if it’s a room your guests use and you don’t, you have a little more permission to have some fun with it. Small guest baths are where I’ve seen customers try things they wouldn’t try in a bigger room, and it’s almost always the room they end up loving most.
