Would You Paint This and What Color Do You Suggest?

Mary Insana
by Mary Insana
I'm in the process of painting our hall bathroom which is the bathroom our son and daughter and guests share. It was navy blue with cruise type décor. I'm changing to a light blue grey and I've attached a picture of the shower curtain. Would you paint the built in wood medicine cabinet and sink base? I was thinking of doing a white wash or a pickled look. The baseboards, ceiling and trim will be white the floor is a sand color. I am changing the hardware.
The new color is a blue grey shade. The navy is the old color/
shower curtain
shower curtain. I just have it balancing on the glass enclosure. The light color is the new color
  27 answers
  • Pat S Pat S on Jul 29, 2013
    yes, I would paint the oak white... love the gray!
  • Mary Insana Mary Insana on Jul 29, 2013
    @Pat S I'm leaning to a wash in a white so the oak shows through like a pickled look I'm going to research and look for pictures before I start. I saw beautiful knobs and pulls at Hobby Lobby. I told myself not to buy them before I paint the whole room. I have to give myself incentive to finish the room.
  • Lynn Rinehart Lynn Rinehart on Jul 29, 2013
    I agree, white for the cabinets
  • Sia@South 47th Sia@South 47th on Jul 29, 2013
    @Mary I. i say go with your 'gut'! You have great taste and know what you like! I realllllly want to see the hardware! ;) xo
  • Paper, Patch & Paint Paper, Patch & Paint on Jul 30, 2013
    I realize the oak cabinet is built in, but it overwhelms the space. I would remove ,patch the wall , then paint the wall with a matte finish, not satin as shown. Regarding the vanity, oak does not paint well due to the heavy grain. Also , to get a pickle finish (also out of date) you would have to sand off clear poly first (a lot of work ). My suggestion would be to change out cabinet ,vanity and faucet with a kit from either Lowes or HD
  • Mary Insana Mary Insana on Jul 30, 2013
    Paper,patch and Paint. I appreciate you suggestions. I changed out the sink portion of the bathroom cabinet a couple years ago. I don't want to change the cabinet because of the footprint of the cabinet on the newer vinyl flooring. I also don't want to remove the medicine cabinet since it is the only wall storage in this small bathroom. If I would get a new medicine cabinet it would stick out too far from the wall and overwhelm the small bathroom. In my powder room I added quarter round trim around the medicine cabinet and it looks nice. As I said in my original post I plan on painting the bathroom, new mirror and possibly painting the cabinet and medicine cabinet.
  • Chicken Milk Chicken Milk on Jul 30, 2013
    Chalk paint is a wonderful tool in updating furniture and cabinets, especially if you are going for that "shabby chic" look. It dries quickly and will really do a good job of covering the grain of the oak, as well. I would go with a white chalk paint.
  • Mary Insana Mary Insana on Jul 30, 2013
    @Chicken Milk , I love working with chalk pain and have many pieces I've done. You never know I may end up doing it in chalk paint ! :) I may also wait until I paint the bathroom and see what the medicine cabinet and sink base "say they want to be" lol. Sometimes you have to see most of the room put together before you proceed. I may end up with a totally new idea.
  • I would suggest removing med cabinet and putting a nice mirror up. vanity I would do in a white finish. add a little picture or so on walls with new hard ware, and that would change whole bath with a modern look at an affordable price. :)
  • Kathy Kathy on Jul 31, 2013
    I think you should paint the cabinet white and if you can put in some white crown molding and paint your baseboards white.
  • I'm with the majority here and say paint it white for sure. It will give the area so much more light.
  • Cynthia Freeney Cynthia Freeney on Jul 31, 2013
    Well, I love color, and since the walls are now lighter, I would go for a nice navy blue,matching some of the darkest blues from the shower curtain. I think it would create a nice contrast.
  • Therese Ryan-Haas Therese Ryan-Haas on Jul 31, 2013
    I like the idea of gluing a framed mirror over it. Can build up arount it with moulding to make it look wintow-ish. Paint it all white. Give it a look like this pic 10th pic down: http://www.younghouselove.com/2009/05/house-crashing-and-table-setting/
  • Dee Dee on Jul 31, 2013
    Yes I would paint and have actually done just that. I also painted my walls a gray color. I painted my vanity a deep charcoal gray and framed my large bathroom mirror with charcoal gray. I used SW primer and Pro Classic Acrylic paint and it looks amazing, it dried to a super hard finish. I used white trim on the door jambs and baseboards and added crown molding with the corner inserts so it was easier to install. I do not have a medicine cabinet. If you wanted to take out the medicine cabinet, you would have to re-sheetrock which is a tedious task. I say paint to match.
  • Mary Insana Mary Insana on Jul 31, 2013
    Thanks for all the great suggestions :) I will be painting the trim ceiling and door white. @Therese Ryan-Haas The bathroom on the link you sent is the direction I want to go. I saw this same mirror at Lowes. @Dee I may have thought of taking the medicine cabinet out for about 5 minutes and then talked myself out of it. Too much mess for the quick re-do I want to accomplish.
  • Z Z on Jul 31, 2013
    Mary, you probably know me well enough by now to know I would not paint the cabinets. In this case the cabinets and wall color are almost a contrast so they complement each other. I'm glad you're waiting until you've finished painting before you make the final decision.
  • Mary Insana Mary Insana on Jul 31, 2013
    @Becky I do like the cabinets the way they are too. I am torn over what to do but right now I am leaning toward leaving them alone and getting new hardware. If I paint them and don't like it then to fix it would be a lot of work. I will post pictures and update everyone when the bathroom is done. Vacation in 10 days so all my projects will have to be put on hold soon.
  • Robin Miller Cresci Robin Miller Cresci on Jul 31, 2013
    I would go off white for the cabinets, be sure to prep them by sanding before painting.
  • Z Z on Jul 31, 2013
    You got that right Mary! I've tried to strip paint before, using a heat gun, and it's allot of work. And since oak often has little tiny crevices in it's grain it's almost impossible to remove the paint completely without using harsh chemicals. We looked at an adorable home today in Blair, for our son and thankfully they left all the wood trim and doors in their original stain finish, or I wouldn't have even looked at it. They did paint the kitchen and bathroom cabinets though. They did a great job, but other than making the rooms lighter, it cheapened them in my opinion. If we get the home we'll not tackle refinishing them though.
  • Elisabeth Elisabeth on Feb 10, 2014
    I think painting the medicine cabinet and sink base white would lighten the bathroom and make it look even better. Love your shower curtain.
  • Funnygirl Funnygirl on Feb 11, 2014
    It will look custom if you paint the wood the light blue you have in the shower curtain.Sorry,oak looks dated.accessorize in white
  • Janis Hill Janis Hill on Feb 11, 2014
    I would paint it the same color as the walls so it is 'hidden' since it really isn't an accessory. Otherwise I would go with white to match the trim.
  • Diana Deiley Diana Deiley on Apr 03, 2016
    Well, here's my aha for you: Gray walls, semi-gloss light aqua ceiling, black cabinet, with a few aqua accessories. Just something out of the box! I'm sure whatever you do it will look wonderful. Best of luck.
  • Mary Insana Mary Insana on Apr 04, 2016
    I ended up painting the wall a color called latte, and all th e trim white. I returned the shower curtain and bought a white one to match the whit trim. The accent color I'm using for towels is a deep royal purple.
  • Johnavallance82 Johnavallance82 on Mar 10, 2022

    Paint the trim white. See how you like it. You could always paint it Dark blue, or give it a White Sea washed look and maybe Blue trim?

    • Mary Insana Mary Insana on Mar 10, 2022

      This was from 2013. I’ve painted this bathroom twice since then and painted the cabinets a light latte color.

  • Sandy Hartnett Sandy Hartnett on Mar 10, 2022

    I painted mine in (name of color )emperors gold craft paint…no sanding or removing doors. Look it up on here to see pictures. The grain shows through and it was a few years ago and still looks great! Cost 8.00 for paint.

  • Johnavallance82 Johnavallance82 on Mar 10, 2022

    So why did you post this picture, or did you not take down the question?