Hallway Bathroom Painting

The Result

In case you don't care about the journey and just want to see the results, here's the before-ish picture (from January), and a picture after painting and putting everything put back in its place (and installing a new towel bar).

The Journey

With the end of my sabbatical drawing near, I feel a bit of pressure to make some amount on progress on my original goals. I might have to give up on the game development because I would rather sew instead, but I wanted to paint at least one room.

I decided the hallway bathroom would be a good guinea pig because we can live without it for a few days and it has a door (can keep the kitties out and keep the paint fumes in).

Last Monday, I borrowed painting supplies from my friend (mainly paint tray, rollers, and extension pole).

On Tuesday, I measured all the rooms to estimate how much paint I might need. According to Behr, a gallon of paint covers 250-400 sqft with one coat. However, it's highly dependent on my painting efficacy and if I could get away with one coat.

On Wednesday, I went to Home Depot to buy a gallon of paint. I used Behr Marquee Satin in Off White for both the walls and the ceiling. I also bought painter's tape, a small paint cup, and picked up some free paint stir sticks. I had recently bought some drop cloths on Amazon too. (In retrospect, taping down paper would have been nice as well.)

Tuesday through Thursday, I prepped the walls and ceiling. I removed hardware and drywall anchors that were painted over, patched holes, sanded, and wiped the surfaces down with a reusable mop pad on a Swiffer.

• I finally took down the blinds and will dispose of them. I don't particularly need to block out light in the bathroom, and the window has privacy film. And they're broken.
• Taking down the towel bar was a pain. It has hidden hardware and attaches to them with little hex screws on the bottom side. However, some of the hex screws were stripped. So I just tore the hardware out of the wall with the drywall anchors still attached. It's ok, I was going to patch the holes anyway!
• The mirror was surprisingly heavy (I was expecting it to be light because the mirror in the primary bathroom is pretty light). Perhaps I should have waited for assistance to unmount it, but I don't have that kind of patience.

On Thursday, I also taped all the edges of the tub, counter, window, door, etc. (I missed taping the ceiling air vent, which I highly regret because I got a little paint on it and it won't come off. But who looks at the vent anyway...)

Then finally, Friday was the big day. I started around 3pm, and painted for nearly 3 hours straight. I painted all the edges and corners first. (I practiced cutting in, but was not very successful, but it didn't matter since I was using the same paint for everything.) Then I rolled the ceiling, followed by the walls. That was one coat. Towards the end, I was assessing my work and realized I would definitely need a second coat. But I am so tired and hungry and needed a dinner break.

This is a progress pic of the ceiling after painting the edges and after rolling. You can see the contrast between the old and new paint on the walls, and even contrast on the ceiling. All this time I thought the ceilings were white lol.

After dinner, my partner who was back from work rolled the second coat on the ceiling (with my supervision). Then I painted the edges again, followed by rolling the second coat on the walls. I think this took about 1.5 hours.

It was done! Or at least as done as I could manage. If there's any uneven paint, I can't tell.

Now, let me tell you how important personal protective equipment is.

I did use a respirator. However, I only had particulate filters (what I use for woodworking stuff). It didn't really occur to me that I really needed vapor filters because I was so motivated to finally paint. I should have gone to Home Depot to buy them when I was taking my dinner break, but I was so exhausted and just wanted to finish it quickly. And I didn't really feel the effects until after I finished.

I was so sneezy and congested and my eyes and nose were so irritated. I couldn't fall asleep, and when I did, I woke up every two hours. But it progressively got better, and I finally was able to really sleep. By the time I had to get up to go climbing in the morning, I would say I was 90% better.

Also, I did buy vapor filters before going to bed and they shipped overnight.

On Saturday, we just kept the window open and fan running with the door closed to wait for the paint fumes and smell to air out.

On Sunday, it was still pretty smelly, so I went in with my respirator with the vapor filters and reset most of the fixtures.

Today, I installed the new towel bar. And leaving the door open to fully air out. The smell is manageable now but I imagine it won't completely go away for a while (like new car smell).

I think it looks a lot brighter now. And now there is contrast between the floor and the walls. Previously, the floor and wall looked like almost the same color and I did not like that. I also didn't like that the ceiling was a different color that didn't seem to match. The edges of the tub, window, and door frame are still a little ugly because the previous paint job was so messy, but I can live with it. Eventually I will replace the baseboards and repaint the trim, but realistically that won't happen until like 2027.

I ended up using about half a gallon of paint. I estimated the hallway bathroom covered about 180 sqft. With two coats, that's 360 sqft, so a whole gallon might cover 720 sqft (instead of the 250-400 sqft suggested by Behr). (I say "might" because I don't know exactly how much paint is left, and my measurements aren't exact.) Maybe I'm doing something wrong with my painting method but I'll take it! I definitely do not mind saving money.

Given the smelliness of the paint, we are worried about painting the rest of the house. In particular, the bedroom because it's not like we have a spare bedroom to use while it's airing out. So I might not paint the bedroom. Or we'll have to stay somewhere else (maybe we can time it with a vacation lol).