Okay, guys. I have read all your comments and suggestions regarding my studio bathroom wall problem. I ignored the few comments that told me the wallpaper was hideous or too busy. Let us please understand again that we all have different tastes, different levels of tolerance for busyness, patterns and colors and that our home is a place where we should feel free to express our own unique personalities.
I realize that I like colors and patterns a lot more than a lot of other people, but I particularly like it in my studio. In the rest of our house, I feel like I need to hold back a little for Matt’s sake (and my sanity). And I like to do that. He pretty much lets me do whatever I want to do with the rest of the house, but I know it would be too messy for him if I really let go and do what my color-loving heart wants to do. I would enjoy it. I would thrive in it. He would feel suffocated.
But my studio is the only area in our home where I don’t have to ask his opinion on anything. It is My studio and My creative space. This is the one area where I have never asked his opinion and he is completely fine with it. And since it is the only area where I can truly remove all barriers and do whatever I want without restrictions, I will take advantage of this opportunity. I felt even more encouraged after taking the time to scroll through a few Instagram accounts I follow from my fellow color maximalists (Banyan Bridges, Colordrunk Designs, and a few more), most of whom are much bolder with color and pattern throughout their homes than I am. So I’m determined to move forward with my color maximalist bathroom.
A while ago I almost held back, considering that this bathroom would have to serve as our guest bathroom for the foreseeable future, but then I changed my mind. I don’t want to hold back because, again, this is the only part of my home where I don’t have to hold back and I don’t want to give up that opportunity for the occasional visitor who might need to use the restroom while they’re here.
With that said, I will come back to your comments and suggestions. What really caught my attention was the ability to get ahead with the wallpaper by applying it in panels to each wall rather than trying to wrap it around the corners. I initially wrote off this idea because I couldn’t imagine it. In my opinion, if I were to add panels to the top of the walls, they would need to match the width of the wainscoting (picture frame molding) panels at the bottom of the walls. But if I did that, it would affect the placement of the mirror and cause it to be out of sync with the vanity.
But then someone suggested just adding trim to the corners of each wall, and I wondered if that could actually work. It’s difficult to know exactly what this would look like from a model, but I would paint this trim the same color as the trim and wainscoting (Behr Polar Bear, off-white) so that the top of the wainscoting, trim, and corner trim form a large frame for the wallpaper. This would simply eliminate the need to wrap the wallpaper around the corners. In every corner of the room it would look something like this, but you have to use your imagination to “see” all the decorative elements in the same color. And you also need to imagine the finished paneling extending about 6 inches above the vanity top.
That’s really the only idea that stuck out to me. I don’t want to change course completely. At this point I decided on a square or very linear design with lots of color.
If that doesn’t work or it looks like an afterthought, the only option is to paint the design. One thing I noticed this morning is that I haven’t even created a mockup of the vertical line design without the white between the colors. Immediately after I created this draft in large format, I simply wrote it down and moved on to the next idea. But this morning I decided to try it out on a model of the room. I thought I might have dismissed this idea too quickly and wanted to see what it might look like on the walls. And I have to admit that I really love it.
In fact, I like it so much that I can’t decide which I like better – the vertical lines or the horizontal stripes.
I’ll be finishing the wainscoting and painting the vanity today, so I still have time before I make my final decision. But at the end of the day I want to have a plan. I promise this will be the last time I present ideas or models of these walls. By the end of today I will either order more wallpaper to replace the wallpaper I previously used and then stripped off the walls, or I will go to Sherwin Williams to buy a lot of paint samples and painter’s tape. But it will be one of these three options for the walls of my studio bathroom. Feel free to speak up, but if you feel like, “There’s too much going on!” or “This is disgusting!” All I know is that I’m okay with you sharing your opinion, but that won’t affect my final decision.
