The bathroom is Eggplant!!! And I LOVE IT!! If you have been following along on @ISPDIY IG stories, you’ve heard all about how much I dislike purple. But after seeing this picture on the Fallow & Ball website, I became obsessed with using it somewhere, and this bathroom on the landing at the Barnhouse was the winner. This is so far out of my comfort zone, and I waffled for a bit, but went for it, and am SO HAPPY. It turned out exactly how I envisioned in my head. And it just feels so darn good in this bathroom now!
The color is just so rich! This bathroom does not have a window, so a dark color might seem like strange choice. But when the sunlight from the landing shines in, it is beautiful. And the light color tile helps the smaller bathroom not feel too dark.
To be completely honest, I had run out of steam renovating the Barnhouse, so this bathroom was never really “designed.” I picked out the floor tile and the sink…and the wall tile was leftover from the kitchen, and when it was all put together I did not have a vision for how to finish it. This was originally just an open space on the second floor that I turned into a bathroom. It gets used a ton, it was just not sparking any joy…
Now it brings ALL the JOY! I walk past it a hundred times a day, because it’s at the top of the stairs next to the bedrooms and nursery. And I keep peaking in and smiling 🙂
The key to using a dark color on top and a light color on the bottom is grounding the lower half with dark decor and lightening up the top half with art. The goal was to make it feel balanced.
I can’t say that I love purple now, but I can say I love the color Brinjal (which means eggplant) by Farrow & Ball. This was my first time using their paint (not sponsored at all). I had just heard about how beautiful and saturated their colors are, and WOW! The color is so deep and stunning in person. I used 2 coats to get the true depth of color. Another plus: the paint did not have an odor, which was so nice painting in a house with a baby. For local readers, I ordered this paint through The Workroom.
The corner gallery wall was an idea that took a few tries to get right. An artist, Emily Ruth, sent me the nude drawings, which I loved for a bathroom. And I knew I wanted to mix with other neutral art. So I gathered all the etchings I had around my house. The first configuration was not right, so I slept on it. The next day I picked up some frames from Goodwill and spray painted the mat. Check my EGGPLANT highlight on @ISPYDIY for details. I moved things around, and now the scale and arrangement feels just right.
This smaller, windowless bathroom was a challenge to photograph. (I am smooshed against the back wall of the shower with a wide lens for this shot, ha!) But I hope it gives a good idea of the bathroom. The toilet is compact because the shower door swings out and needs to pass. I needed to maximize every inch of this bathroom!
The rug from The Loom House and branch from my neighbor’s Japanese Maple tied it all together!
The sink is the Bannon Sink! We took off the front metal piece, which was bolted on, so I tied a rope through the holes and hung a towel on it!
It all started with a sink! I fell in love with this Crosstown® Stainless Steel Farmhouse sink a while back, then Elkay® reached out to see if I had a spot for it in one of our renovation homes. And my response was: I’ll make a spot! Since we were already working on the kitchen renovation at The Bayview Bungalow, the timing was perfect. And I am so excited to partner with Elkay on this project to show the whole process of cutting the countertops and installing, because we get SO MANY questions about butcher block countertops. And now we have an info-packed post about it!
Before we dive in, let’s shine some light on the Elkay Crosstown sink. For all the indecisive minds out there, this is for you because the front apron is interchangeable! The colors range from a copper color called Sunset, to a Scarlet red or Sapphire blue – tons of options! I spent a while debating between the Sunset and Champagne, but ended up going with Sunset because I wanted a mix of metals in the kitchen. Speaking of mixing metals, I also added in some antique steel using Elkay’s Explore Bridge faucet. It elevated the whole kitchen, making it so beautiful! The faucet worked in the space because of the darker finish on the lighting. Generally speaking, I like when metals have a buddy. I used copper, gold, stainless steel, and antique steel in the space, but I made sure that each metal showed up a couple of times throughout the kitchen so it does not stand alone. The utensils and art in the kitchen also help tie it all together!
Now I will throw it over to Mr. Yolo who will answer all your questions about installing the sink with a butcher block countertop!
Mr. Yolo here. I am going to explain some of the finer points of installing an apron front sink in a butcher block countertop. Before we get started, a couple things. 1) I am a big fan of butcher block countertops. They are one of the only countertops you can do yourself, and the easiest. But you don’t sacrifice aesthetics. 2) There is a popular misconception out there that says one would use a butcher block countertop more like a butcher uses a butcher block and less like a normal person uses a countertop. Or, as a friend asked me once, “Do you cut meat on the countertop?” And the answer is of course NO! It’s a countertop. Nobody prepares chicken on their granite countertop. We use cutting boards for that. Same thing for butcher block. The sealers say they are “food grade” or “food safe” because they market the same products for cutting boards. But there is no butchering on the butcher block.
Reader Questions
How do you stain the countertop? What did you seal it with?
You apply a stain before installing the countertop. We brushed on a mix of Minwax Dark Walnut and Varathane Special Walnut, then wiped off the excess. Note: We ended up using two different kinds of butcher block woods for the countertops so had to mix the stains to get them to match, more details on BUTCHERBLOCK highlight on @ISPYDIY.
There are three ways I know of to seal.
1) Butcher Block Oil This is what I used on my first butcher block countertops. It has the consistency of baby oil, and its entire purpose is to clog the pores of the wood so moisture and stains are kept at the surface. This method requires the oil to be reapplied monthly. But once converted to a rental, we probably went 3-4 months between reapplications. There was definitely some staining (wine and marker) and water rings. But 220 grit sandpaper got rid of 95% of issues. For one spot, I had to use 120 grit and then 220 grit, but note that they were not stained at the time, so it was easy to spot sand.
2) Polyurethane My buddy bought dark butcher block for his condo and applied one coat of polyurethane. Poly repels water and stains and makes for easy clean up. But it will scratch when the coffee maker is slid across the counter. Also, as stated in the intro, butcher block is just the name, and does not imply one should practice knife skills on the countertop. Especially with a polyurethane coat.
Painted Floor DIY Time!!! Thank you for all the love on the kitchen reveal! The star of the show is the floor. I am just SO happy with how it turned out. Honestly, how pretty?! It really makes the entire kitchen feel so special. If you all were following along on @ispydiy Instagram (check out the FLOOR PAINT highlight) there were a bunch of questions about the Rust-Oleum® HOME Floor Coating we used. So I’ll dive into those first, then share the details of the process and some troubleshooting we did along the way (hint: don’t use a pencil to draw the pattern on the floor…oops!)
Why did you paint the floor instead of refinish? My first choice would always be to save an original hardwood floor. When Mr. Yolo renovated this house 4 years ago, after removing all the layers of flooring (7 including the underlayments), he sanded the floor down, and unfortunately the area by the sink had a bunch of water staining. Additionally, the area in front of the new back door that was cut in was missing flooring. So he repurposed the bathroom wood floor in this spot. And would you believe the woods were different??? He picked a darker blue/gray stain to hide the watermarks and the difference in wood, then sealed it with a poly top coat. Over time, the floor turned green…and the top coat got all scratched up. Instead of sanding the floor down again, we decided to lighten the room up by painting. And I, of course, had to make things extra “fun” by adding a pattern. #worthit
Do you seal the floors? Yes! It’s a two-step process. Rust-Oleum® HOME Floor Coating Base Coat and Top Coat. The top coat comes in a matte (shown here) or semi-gloss finish.
Do you have to sand the floors first? Not if you prep it correctly! We were so happy that we did not have to sand. I share the prep process in the steps below. And there are detailed instructions on the can explaining the test swatch, which we did. And since none of the paint pulled up from the floor, we could skip the sanding step. (We did have to sand where we put the samples though…so I would advise doing smaller swatches or swatch after you prep!)
How do you clean the painted floors? Once the top coat fully cures, you can clean like a normal wood floor!
Can I use the Rust-Oleum® HOME Floor Coating on Tile? Yes! Ceramic & porcelain tile, concrete, hardwood, laminate, vinyl & more! It would work great on a tile backsplash too! FYI: You cannot use it in showers or anywhere that’s going to be submerged in water. But, they do have a Tub & Tile Refinishing Kit that can be used to paint shower tile.
Cost? And Where do I buy it? We definitely could have used quarts instead of gallons because our 150 sf kitchen used less than a gallon of paint (even with the two colors) and maybe half a quart of the top coat. Great news because Home Depot just started selling a kit with quart of paint and a quart of topcoat for $40!! Not bad to totally transform a floor!
How did you measure out the pattern? We found the center of the room using wall to wall measurements. From that point we used a square to get 45 degree lines intersecting the center (think a big X in the middle of the room). We then spaced the next lines 24” in each direction. That line marked the CENTER of the stripe in our pattern. We placed a strip of 1.5” thick painters tape on each side of the line to make a 3” stripe. Once the tape was down, we painted the open floor with the second color.
How well will it hold up?! We just finished two weeks ago, so it has not really been put to the test, but a BUNCH of readers have sent me DMs about using it on wood, tile, and linoleum and said they have not seen any scratches or chips, even the people with kids and dogs!! But we will keep you updated on how ours floor wears. If you are nervous about a light floor and foot traffic, Rust-Oleum® recently released a line of dark paint colors.
Steps: 1) Floor Prep – This is probably the most critical. Confession: I don’t enjoy prepping for paint. There just isn’t any thrill in it. It’s like cleaning a house. And in most cases, you can just go over existing paint on a wall and it’ll work just fine. But a floor that gets walked on, now that’s a different story.
Also, an optional step 1 that we did was pull all the quarter-round from the walls and cabinet bases. They needed to be repainted anyway, and it gave us a bit of a buffer for the floor paint. The less things you have to worry about getting paint on during this process, the better you’ll feel.
As I mentioned above, we sanded off the sample squares we painted on the floor to choose the colors: Oyster Shell for the stripes and Windsor Gray for the diamonds. Then we sprayed on Krud Kutter and used the rough side of a sponge to scrub the floor. For this step, Mr. Yolo got on his hands and knees and scrubbed the floor. Even though this house gets cleaned on a regular basis, we were surprised at how much “crud” was on the floor (paint splatter, cooking grease, etc.) All things that you can’t see from walking around. For these things we removed with a paint scraper. Once all the debris was loose, we mopped the floor with water. Once dry we mopped again, this time with a new mop head to make sure the Krud Kutter was gone. And then we swept.
IMPORTANT NOTE: We swept and vacuumed a hundred times. The loose hair seems to multiply. It got to the point where Mr. Yolo would bring clean clothes and socks in a plastic bag and would change into them at the house. Especially in the lighter colors, loose hair is very noticeable.
MORE STEPS AFTER THE BREAK! And if this post is way too long, skip to the Cliff Notes at the end!
