Storage Room Progress (Plus Paint Color Options)
I’ve made some good progress on the storage room, but it has been slower than I expected. I’m okay with that, though. I’m not working on a schedule, and I don’t have a date by which this project needs to be finished. So as long as I’m using my time wisely and working diligently, I won’t be hard on myself for this taking longer than I wanted it to take.
The good news is that I got all of the concrete board and drywall off of the walls with the exception of that bit in the upper right corner that I can’t reach until the bathtub is out.
And I finally got the big mirror off of the wall. I was nervous about that because it was a 1/4″-thick mirror, so it was a heavy one, and I really didn’t want it to shatter. I managed to get it off the wall in one piece by cutting the drywall around the mirror and pulling the drywall with the mirror off at the same time. I almost dropped it because of the weight and the bulkiness, but somehow, I got it down to the floor and out of the room without even so much as a chip or crack in the mirror.
The hardest part of this whole demolition process has been getting all of the debris bagged up and carried outside. I still have a whole bathtub full of debris that has to be bagged up and removed before the bathtub can be taken out. But I’m pretty sure once it’s emptied out, I can get the bathtub out by myself. It only weighs 66 pounds, so if I can tip it up on its side and get it onto a furniture dolly, I can wheel it outside by myself.
I decided to hold off on removing the drywall from the ceiling until everything else is out of the room (toilet, bathtub, and the rest of the debris). The main reason I decided to wait is because I don’t want the ceiling wide open for long. Even though we have spray foam insulation in the attic, it will still make a big difference in temperature once that ceiling drywall is removed. Even just opening up that window area to the sunroom has made a big difference in the temperature in here (and in the whole bedroom area when the doors are open), so having a wide-open ceiling to the attic will make it even hotter during the hottest month of the year. So I want to hold off on removing that until the day before the drywall guys are scheduled to be here. (Yes, I’m hiring out the drywall. Yay!)
Yesterday afternoon, I finally started removing the tile on the floor. I was so nervous about this because I wasn’t sure how easily it would come up or how big of a mess would be left behind. I had flashbacks of removing the tile the first time around, and that was a huge job. But that was very different because when our house was built, they installed tile with a very thick mortar bed that was at least an inch thick, if not thicker. But this time around, it’s so much easier. The tile and the mortar are coming off of the concrete board pretty easily. So once all of the tile debris is removed, I’ll be able to unscrew the concrete board from the plywood subfloor. I’m really hoping that the plywood underneath the concrete board is in great condition so that none of it needs to be replaced.
So the whole thing looks like a huge mess right now, but I’m really close to the finish line on the demolition. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now.
The plumber is coming today to give me an estimate on capping off all of the plumbing and rerouting the plumbing for the new sink. And then I’ll get the rest of the demolition done over the weekend, and hopefully he can come early next week and get the plumbing done. And then I can schedule the drywall guys to come mid-week next week.
Of course, even though I’m surrounded by ugly, dirty debris, I’m thinking ahead to the pretty things. And what’s been on my mind is paint colors for this storage room. I want this room to be colorful and happy, so I tested out a few colors that will coordinate with the wallpaper that I plan to use in here. I only have enough wallpaper to use on the upper walls, so I’ll do a chair rail and then paint the lower walls in a solid color selected from the wallpaper. Since I want this room to be fun and colorful, I don’t want white wainscoting. So I picked out a few colors directly from the wallpaper.
First up is this pink. This is actually very close to the cabinet color in my studio, so I’m not sure that I would want to use this color again. I kind of like this color being unique to my studio.
And then I tried a brighter, bolder pink. Since this is a storage closet that sits behind closed doors, I might be brave enough to try this one.
I also tried orange since orange is prominent in our bedroom. This is probably a bit much for me. I don’t know that I like orange enough to use it on walls.
And then I tried yellow. I haven’t used yellow prominently in a room since we lived in our condo, but I loved our buttery yellow walls in the living room of our condo. It might be fun to bring that color back.
And then I tried a green. Green is nature’s neutral, so it’s generally a pleasing color, but I don’t think it gives me that punch of bold color that I want for this room.
And finally, I tried a lilac color. Anything in the purple family is a challenge for me. If I’m going to use any color in the purple family, I generally gravitate towards really deep, dark eggplant. This would definitely be out of my normal comfort zone.
The only one I ruled out immediately is the orange. I like orange accents, but I don’t love orange walls. The rest of the colors are still in the running, although these are just general representations of colors that I might use. None of these are actual paint colors. I like all of them except the orange, but since I’m in my pink era right now, I’m leaning heavily towards that second pink. I mean, this is my one and only opportunity to have bold pink walls. Matt will never see them, and they’ll be behind closed doors. This is my one chance if I ever want pink walls.
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
I like the pink with the wallpaper, but I love the yellow (pink is normally my fav). Whatever you do will be stunning, as always. It’s terrific you are hiring out the drywall!
LOVE the yellow!! I just love blue and yellow together (your old blue and yellow bedroom was my favorite) and that beautiful wallpaper looks great with yellow. So that’s my vote!
I love the yellow too. So calming.
Yes, I LOVE the yellow even though I’m generally not a big fan of that color.
Sounds like you want pink walls! 😆 Be brave using the brightest pink and it will be a fun treat to enjoy every time you open the doors to access that room🩷
You’re correct in saying that this is the best place to do a color you wouldn’t use on any other wall in the house- go for it!
Yes, I agree. The bright pink says “you.”, Kristie.
Hmmmmmm?….. just one question…if this is to be a “Storage Room/Closet”, what about the possible accidental bumps & scuffs to the lower half of the wall? Would a darker color, like the blue background of that really fantastic wall paper? And a lime green oversized chair rail???
That sounds like a fun combo! I’ll do a mockup of it.
Atta Girl…! Love to see it… thanks for considering it…
Love the sound of this. Can’t wait to see the mock up.
Great job persevering through the hard work and not fun part, the demo! As far as the paint color, I think the yellow just makes the wallpaper sing!
I think the bold pink and the bold orange are absolutely brilliant! Remember, a lot of the color is going to be obscured by cabinets and equipment.
Are you still planning to put a tankless water heater in the room? You haven’t mentioned it recently, but if the plumber is coming, you’ll need to discuss that with him!
I’ve decided to go with either an outdoor tankless or a tankless in the attic so that it won’t take up any space in this small room.
Go for the pink you know you want to! Besides it’s really pretty!
I think the hot pink (the second pink) would look great. The lavender looks too pink – almost baby girl pink. If you decide to go with yellow, how about the brighter, deeper yellow that’s in the (wow – that’s disturbing. As I’m typing the word yellow for the second time, a bright stripe of yellow with an ad appears across the bottom of the screen :O ) upper left side of the top of one of the larger flowers (the one with bright orange and a lighter orange in it too). It’s brighter than the buttery yellow in your sample picture and also maybe has a dab of orange in it. I’m also intrigued, though, by the one suggestion of going with the dark aqua and separating it with a wide lime green chair rail. That would really tie in the foyer.
Another vote for the yellow! They’re GORGEOUS together! And it doesn’t compete for attention with your beautiful wallpaper like bright pink would.
Love the wallpaper, but my color needs aren’t as punchy as yours, so I’d lean to the yellow or green. But a bolder color might be good as it would peek out around the equipment so you’d get pops of color here and there.
Good progress; I’m glad you’re getting help with the drywall.
I hope you keep shopping colors aee yiu not. O. Drbecause none appeal to me but its as always what you prefer
In addition, if you are going to be moving Matt’s equipment in and out are you not concerned about scratching or tearing the walpaper. I hope you and Matt and furbabies have a great weekend.
Matt’s equipment that will go against the wall isn’t tall enough to scratch or tear the wallpaper. It’ll be below the chair rail.
I think the ads that keep popping up mess up my response
I didnt care for any of paint colors. Keep looking for a color
You love. You are better with color then I am.
In case you’re interested— I use DuckDuckGo as my browser, and there are no pop-up ads at all!
I think something dark would be really pretty with that paper.
What about using the beautiful teal color that is the background of your wallpaper? It would be continuous for the eye and not distract away from the wallpaper pattern, which is the real star and focal point. And color drenching is very chic now as well.
Here’s another thought, the deeper rasberry colored tiny flowers jumped out at me so thats a different option if you want a good contrast. I was wondering how you’re keeping the dust down in your bedroom suite since it would probably be too hot to work in that room closed up? I don’t know what we’re all going to do when you finish your house. Maybe you’ll show us how to do more crafty things. I’ve been in my home here for 15 years and like you I don’t seem to be able to finish a project but as I’m working on it another thing starts up in my brain. Sometimes that causes me to leave finishing a project for a while but eventually I get them done. What is this brain type? I have a zillion different interests and am always starting something new.
I haven’t done anything to keep the dust down. I’ll just give the whole area a good cleaning when I’m done. I’ll have to put up plastic before the drywall mud is sanded, though. That’s way too much dust to let fly around the bedroom area.
We’ve got a long time before I’ll be done with our house. I still have lots of projects planned, both inside and outside. But if I ever finish, I also have a massive file filled with ideas of things I want to make and built just for the fun of it, and then I can give them away or sell them. But I’ll never stop creating things.
I really like the yellow. It’s a softer happy color that brings out all the colors of the wallpaper. My second choice would be the dark pink. That color brings out the pinks in the wallpaper and everything else just seems to fade to background. I think you lose some of the beauty of the wallpaper. I don’t really care for any of the other colors. But you always make good paint decisions so it will be fun to see what you decide.
Instead of capping the plumbing, would it make sense to put the bathroom in the sunroom remodel against the storage room wall and tie in to the plumbing under the storage room, rather than capping and then adding new plumbing later for the planned bathroom? The hall to the guest bedroom/gym could then either be in between the bathroom and closet or the closet could be moved down as well with the hall against the back wall.
yellow, green, lavender are my pics. It looks really hard to bag up drywall being all different sizes etc. I feel sorry for Matt having to listening and feeling all the hammering and pounding. I guess he can have earplugs. That bathroom/storage room plumbing idea from another poster sounded like a good idea.
Refresh my memory. You plan to have cabinets covering the entire wall to the left, a utility tub on the wall to the right next to the door and an open space under cabinets or shelves between the utility tub and the back wall. Is that correct?Would you only be installing wainscoting on the back wall and the right wall excluding the tub area? I think that may look chopped up. Are you painting the cabinets the same color as the wainscoting? I like the dark pink and green. I don’t care for the yellow as it has a lot if green in it and looks muddy. I’d prefer a brighter yellow. I also think the dark blue background of the wallpaper would be dramatic. Installing the wallpaper on the ceiling would be unexpected.
I would go for a deep blue, in the same tone as the background of the wallpaper, but darker. I think that would really make the bright colours in the wallpaper pop.