Basement Bathroom Makeover. Horizontal Stripes here we come!

So after living in our 1950s rancher for about a year now, I finally got some down time to tackle the basement bathroom. The only thing that's really important to understand is this...My hubby has been working from home for about a year and this is his bathroom. I happen to be married to a guy that is as clean as me most of the time and I totally appreciate that about him, but...this bathroom needed some serious TLC. I don't think the previous owner put any love into this bathroom. However, now that I want to turn the basement into a play zone for the kiddos and I really want to give my hubby a nice bathroom to use when he's down there too, well it's time to get moving on this project.  Anyways, here it is in the beginning stages.

 Getting primed and ready for some black paint

Just painting the pipes made a nice difference!

 High gloss black (indoor outdoor paint) went on. I primed it and then painted it. This project took me about 2 hours. I had to let the primer dry about an hour. The black went on perfectly. It only took one coat.

I wanted to show you the lid on the paint can so that you would know all the dirty details. The black is just a generic black indoor outdoor paint that comes premixed at Lowes. It costs around $22.00 for a gallon. Great coverage. The grey that I used for the stripes is in the next pic. I dont think it's very visible though. Sorry. I used Glidden Dolphin Fin Egg Shell paint. Its the same color that I used in my bedroom and on the wood paneling in the basement. Those pictures will be posted soon as well. I LOVE this color. It takes on many, many shades depending on the light, but I love it in every space I've used it in. I think gray is super contemporary too and you just can't go wrong with this color.

So let me just say - those stripes were a pain. I first measured out the height of the wall so that I could figure out how many striped I could do. I settled with 10 inch stripes. Then I took a level and a pencil and, starting from the top, I made a 10 inch mark every foot or so on the wall, making sure that each mark was level with the last mark. I wanted to be able to go back and use those marks as a guide for where to lay my tape. Once I got the first line marked for my first stripe I taped it. Then I went back and did that all over again. Each stripe took about 15 minutes to do. It was more time consuming where the vent was. Ugh that vent. After about 2 hours total I had all my stripes. You have to be careful to keep track of which color will go where because you always want to make sure that the line you're taping will give you a 10 inch stripe when you pull the tape off (or whatever size stripe you want). I'll put up a tutorial on this with pictures eventually.

So after some major work - here it is now....

 I love the sheen. High gloss in a basement bath with no window just gives it the feeling that there is light coming from somewhere.

Notice the handle on the cabinet? I sprayed the hinges and the knob with 3 coats of stainless steel Rustoleum spray paint that I had left over from a kitchen project.

 For the art above the toilet I took an old frame I had and two pages from a scuba diving book and married them up to add some much needed color to the room. The star fish above the mirror is a treasure from our baby moon trip we took to San Diego, CA when I was pregnant with Peyton.

I found that white shelf to the left of the sink on Craigslist for $5. It was in perfect condition. If I would have bought this IKEA shelf new it would have cost me over $25. Score!

I hope you've enjoyed this latest makeover. It was hard work but I think it paid off. I want to find a stainless towel rack and add in some hand towels with some color. Thinking turquoise. Do you have any fun bathroom makeover stories you'd like to share? Have you painted horizontal striped before?