Painting the bathroom

[lhafer]

What a bitch!!

I picked out 2 colors for our master bathroom - 2 shades of yellow. First of all, we painted the walls, and I use the Primer + Paint combo so *in theory* it takes less paint. This has worked beautifully in the rest of my house. Not so much with the yellow. The walls were sucking up the color like there was no tomorrow. I did not buy enough paint - had purchased 1 gallon of each color thinking that was more than enough for 1 bathroom.

Then we started doing the lighter shade of yellow on the ceiling - and we both realized that we liked that color better than the wall color! And we decided to redo the walls in the lighter shade and an even lighter color on the ceiling.

Well, my husband had been on vacation (staycation) while we painted (a few days earlier we painted our master bedroom as well). But he had to go back to work - so that meant I had to repaint the entire bathroom by myself. Ugh. We have 12-14' ceilings. I had to adjust the ladder, go up the ladder, paint a little square, get down, adjust the ladder, and repeat. Over and over and over.

It literally took me ALL day to just redo the walls! So that was one day. It took me ALL of the next day to do the toilet area (separate area) and the ceiling. I couldn't fit my ladder in the toilet area, so I was having to be REALLY creative to get all the way up to the ceiling in there. Not only did I have to redo the whole bathroom, I had to fix breakfasts and lunches for my kids, put the baby down for a nap, and take my older one to preschool and pick her up. It's made for a LONG 2 days.

I am DONE painting for a while. Whew.

And today I am SO SORE!! Yesterday my DH asked me if I had worked out!! I just looked at him. I said yes I did - by going up and down that damn ladder about a million times.

But now the Master bedroom and bathroom are finally painted. And it looks great!

Now on to the curtains....

[jal]

We have 12-14' ceilings. I had to adjust the ladder, go up the ladder, paint a little square, get down, adjust the ladder, and repeat. Over and over and over.

Extension poles anyone???

They make some that are light-weight aluminum and easily extend to around 10'. Bought one of these when I had to paint the nursary that had 14' ceilings. Then just used a roller on the end of the extention rod. Of course that's where I also learned my lesson how rollers can splatter paint. So after cleaning the new crib of ceiling paint, I purchased the red Shurline roller because it has a splash shield. You just have to make sure you don't "attack" the ceiling at too shallow and angle and start scrapping the shield on the painted surface.

[amm40]

Ugh, I understand. I've painted one bathroom, and will leave all others for DH. It was enough of a pain to get around the vanity, mirrors, and toilet. So much trim! And I wasn't even dealing with the height you were... glad you love it and it's DONE!

[AJP]

Glad you're finally done! Ive been wanting to paint our master bath (cathedral ceilings ugh!) but need to ask a dumb question. How do you deal with behind the toilet? Do you just go around it and reach what you can? My toilet tank is too close to the wall to get a brush behind!

[larig]

I think bathrooms are hard to paint. They're small and have a million things to tape off or take off the walls before painting. And definitely get a broom stick extender to help with the ceiling and upper wall painting, it makes a big difference.

Way to go finishing it off, though! :bighand:

[jal]

...How do you deal with behind the toilet? Do you just go around it and reach what you can? My toilet tank is too close to the wall to get a brush behind!

You basically have two options:

#1. Remove the tank. It's not as hard as it sounds. You should have to just shut the water off to the tank (the shutoff valve should be right by the toilet), empty the tank, and remove the two bolts that hold the tank to the seat. If the water line from the valve to the tank isn't a flexable hose, you may have to also remove the waterline connection to the tank (but that should be a simple screw connection).

#2. Protect the tank and paint what you can paint. My first thought on how to accomplish this would be to wrap the tank tightly with seran-wrap, then simply jam the paint-loaded brush behind the tank as much as possible. The water-proof seran-wrap will protect the tank from getting painted, and by wrapping the entire tank so the seran-wrap stays tight, it won't bunch up and get in your way. Anywhere the paintbrush can't reach is an area you can't see anyway.

[lhafer]

Glad you're finally done! Ive been wanting to paint our master bath (cathedral ceilings ugh!) but need to ask a dumb question. How do you deal with behind the toilet? Do you just go around it and reach what you can? My toilet tank is too close to the wall to get a brush behind!

I just painted where I could reach. I didn't bother protecting the toilet. The porcelain is easy to clean off later (at least with the kind of paint I was using). I had to clean the ceramic tile in there as well. That was actually the easy part!!

[ThreeofUs]

Congratulations on getting it done!

BTDT, ARGH. Love the ladder dance - especially when you can't use the extension poles.