Egads! It Might be Seafoam!

I’ve wanted to redo the downstairs bathroom nearly since the day after it was last painted in 2010.  I had picked out a moss green and let the painter paint the ceiling the same color.  The small half-bath was totally overwhelmed by the dark color.  The vanity was a natural maple color, very light by comparison.  Also, the painter, in his haste to complete the job in that airless space, used the outside trim color of white to touch up the baseboards that were clearly not white.   Swiss Coffee and white can not be more different!  (OK, I may be a little bitter about that little snafu, but I was done with the painters by the time they left.  If you want something done right, yada yada).   

It was not a happy place.

Lately I have been drawn to the colors in this placemat (minus the smear of guacamole or whatever that green smudge is):

I love the combination of turquoise blue and cocoa brown, so I decided to use those colors to redo the bathroom.  I spent weeks with paint chips on the wall.  I picked one (that incidentally no one else preferred) because it exactly matched the bottom left color in the placemat and would brighten up the space.

I started by righting a wrong and touching up the trim in the correct color:  Swiss Coffee.  I also repainted the ceiling in the same color.  Good thing it’s small, my arms got really tired!

Then I painted the walls.  Do you know how painful it is to paint a small bathroom?  There’s corners and edges and fixtures and….jeesh!  I had to be a contortionist to get some of the areas!

So then it was this:

And all of the sudden, my contemporary and trendy turquoise looked decidedly….

SEAFOAM GREENISH

Yikes!  I had visions of bad 1990’s southwest decorating, the allure of which I admit I have previously succumbed to.

This is not my house, but I may or may not have had a living room decorated very similarly at one time.  Incidentally, this photo comes from a website named uglyhousephotos.com.   Ouch. 

Could it be that my modern day turquoise harkens back to seafoam green? (Not to self: do not buy mauve towels!)

My family all nodded yes, assertively.  I dragged all my friends through that small bathroom to boost my confidence that the color was NOT, in fact, seafoam.  They asserted that the color was definitely turquoise and oh so beautiful and very NOW.  (My friends also tell me my butt doesn’t look big even though I know it does.  I think friends should do that for friends and I was kind of banking on that.  Just saying.)

Did I mention how painful it is to paint a half bathroom?

No choice in my mind but to continue on.

So I painted the vanity cocoa brown and added brown towels:

OK.  Much better.  It will have to do until the next trendy color comes along.  (Because, by then I will have forgotten how painful it is to paint a small bathroom).  Still could be slightly pastel.

I blame the Swiss Coffee.