After several rainy days stuck inside, we finally made progress by painting our recently de-carpeted bathroom and adjoining walk-in closet. The space now features a stenciled subfloor and freshly painted walls in Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter, which is what I’ll focus on here. Below is a photo of the finished look with the new wall color standing behind the mirror and trim.
We started by refreshing the cream-colored trim throughout the room with Benjamin Moore Simply White in semi-gloss to match the rest of the house. That step required one coat of primer and two coats of paint, all applied with brushes around doors and baseboards. The primer makes a big difference for coverage and adhesion, so I handled that first and then Sherry and I split the brushwork for the finish coats.
Painting small areas and trim took more time than we anticipated because of all the angles and doorways. Cutting in the walls around the trimmed areas was the trickiest part, and it turned a straightforward task into several shorter painting sessions rather than one quick afternoon. Still, the extra effort paid off and everything looks crisp and fresh.
We selected Revere Pewter for both the bathroom and the closet. It’s a popular greige: light-to-mid-toned and versatile in different lighting. In our windowless bathroom and closet we wanted a color that reads light enough to keep the spaces from feeling closed in, but deep enough to contrast with the white trim, mirror, and closet shelving. Revere Pewter hit that balance — it can read a bit taupe in some lighting and more gray in others, which makes it feel dynamic and subtle throughout the day.
Before choosing Revere Pewter we considered other options like Pismo Dunes and Gray Owl. Those swatches helped narrow our preference, but Revere Pewter felt like a middle ground: slightly richer than Gray Owl and less brown than some of the Pismo options. It complements the deeper blue-gray tone in our bedroom, so the transition between rooms feels intentional rather than jarring.
We decided to paint the ceiling the same color as the walls. In small rooms that approach often helps reduce the boxed-in feeling by making the space read as one continuous plane rather than chopped into separate planes. As with other rooms in the house, once the paint was dry we replaced the old cream switches and outlets with clean white ones to reinforce the fresh, updated look.
Even with the lights off in the closet the wall color shows its chameleon-like quality, changing subtly with different lighting. With the bathroom lights on the deeper tone makes the mirror and trim pop, creating a little contrast that highlights the room’s architectural details.
With painting finished, our next priority is the floor. The current condition is the least attractive part of the room, so we’re eager to move on to that project. After revisiting our earlier plans, we decided against staining the vanity a dark blue because the yellowish sinktop might not play well with a saturated vanity color. Instead we’re leaning toward keeping the vanity a more subdued tone while adding interest with a two-toned stencil on the floor. That will keep the sinktop from dominating and let the floor become the room’s focal point.
This approach mirrors what we learned from another bathroom where a darker vanity successfully neutralized a yellow-toned sink. Here, shifting the visual interest to a patterned floor gives us more flexibility for art and accessories to tie the room together without relying on heavy color on the vanity itself.
Progress so far has checked off several important tasks:
- carpet removal
- mirror painting and rehanging
- painting the trim
- painting the walls
- replacing outlets and light switches
We’re roughly halfway done. Remaining items include finishing the vanity, installing the two-toned stenciled floor, and re-attaching the light above the sink. It’s always surprising how much a few targeted updates — paint, a new mirror, some shelving, and removing old carpet — can change a room. We’re excited to finish the floor and share the after photos in a few weeks, and Sherry is already plotting some additional shelves and cubbies for the closet while we’re at it. One update really does lead to another.
Our Favorite Paint Colors
If you’re deciding on paint, here are several colors we recommend and have written about in detail. They’re reliable, versatile choices that have worked well throughout our home:
- The 12 Best White Paint Colors
- Benjamin Moore Edgecomb Gray
- Benjamin Moore Simply White
- Sherwin-Williams Pure White
- Sherwin-Williams Extra White