Finally The Orange is GONE

I’ve left you hanging for weeks, but no more! The orange and grey Harley Davidson bathroom is gone.  It has become bright, modern, colourful…fresh.  For the last few months I’ve been working as a house painter and have learned a few things along the way.  This bathroom was my chance to finally use those new skills in our place.  We are only renting our place, so the possibilities of what we could do to the bathroom were quite limited, but the couple little changes we did make definitely had a dramatic effect.



First of all, I had to remove the old wall paper, thankfully it was only on the bottom half of the walls because it was terribly stuck.  I cursed that grey abstract paper for days.  It wore down my nails, cleaning solution dripped down my arms, I had paper stuck to my socks, but no pain no gain, am I right?  After stripping the wall paper and cleaning the walls 2x I finally primed.  Even just the primer brightened the room.  The orange paint was quite dark, so to save my self a hernia later on, I primed twice.  I also had to lightly sand and prime the baseboards which were still raw wood.  I also primed the ceiling with 2 coats.

Once everything was primed, all gaps around the baseboards and trims were caulked.  This made a huge difference, some gaps were 1/4 inch wide and filled with dust, nasty.  Caulking really cleans up the room and makes everything look much more pro!

Once all the caulking was dry it was time to paint.  I did all the trim first, 2 coats of white.  Just builder white :( but it’s what is in the rest of the house.  Then the walls got 2 coats of “Swiss Coffee” in a Canadian Tire brand paint.  Its a very light cream colour, you'd almost think it was white except when next to the crisp white trim.  All of the paint was bought by the landlord when we moved in and was decent quality.  Not terrible to work with.  This store brand paint is a great option when you’re working with a small budget, however now having used quality paint at work, I’d definitely recommend spending a little more on a higher quality paint, a microfiber roller, and a good angled brush.  There is less splatter and better coverage making the work much more pleasant, almost fun. Painting, like most DIYs and crafts, is much more enjoyable when you have the right tools.

Then I waited patiently for everything to dry so I could hang things up.

P.S. I’m definitely learning that I need to take more pictures of the process, so it’s easier to make sense of what I’m saying.


The bathroom is very basic and only has the toilet and small vanity (which we couldn't do anything to).  We also have to share the bathroom with the cats’ litter box due to a wet basement and a cat that loves water.  So I didn’t want anything on the floor that didn’t need to be.  I hung an Ikea SPONTAN magazine rack and added a basket with extra hand towels and toilet paper to the area behind the toilet.


We’re using glass canister, which used to hold a candle, for first aid supplies and a little green dish found at a thrift store years ago for a soap dish.  I figured a little first aid kit would be more useful in a main floor bathroom because it is close to the kitchen and easy access to guests.

 Under the sink are cleaning supplies and extra cat supplies: litter, scoops, litter bags, and the garbage.  Again the garbage has to be kept away from the cats because they think its hilarious fun to pull things out of the garbage and deliver them to the dog to rip up and leave around the house.  Those loveable little buggers make my eye twitch sometimes.  I also hung up the hand towel because those loveable little buggers also like to knock things off the counter into the litter box.  The robe hook I used for the hand towel had been attached to the side of the vanity for some reason, so I just hung it on the wall beside the mirror.


For the artwork, I had accumulated a bunch of paint chips and arranged them in a pile by their colour numbers.  Starting in one corner, I diagonally arranged the chips so that the pattern was semi random, but still formed a gradual gradation into the other colours according to their colour numbers.  I’m happy with the results, but sometimes it seems like a good light bad light kinda beauty.  By the way, TV gods should bring back Seinfeld.  Anyway, back to the wall art, it’s a perfect colourful injection for renters on a teeny budget…us.


See the litter box is still beside the vanity on the floor.  I’m trying to brainstorm ideas to hide it.  Norm, our older cat stages a protest by not covering his tooties rolls when we try to use the cover on the box.  He just doesn’t like using the bathroom in the dark, can you blame him?  So we need to come up with a cover so guests aren't privy to the cat waste, but also lets in enough light for Norm to feel comfortable.  I’d also like to get some sort of rubber, washable mat to put under the litter box to catch the loose litter stuck to their feet.  There is nothing like using the bathroom in the middle of the night and getting a sock full of litter.

Everything in this mini makeover was already owned, except for the tube of caulking which was $2.  So technically we did a $2 bathroom makeover, pretty impressive if I do say so myself. 

Have you done any bathroom makeovers? What creative solutions have you used for concealing cat litter?  Or maybe you’re a paint chip collector and have a project that you’ve created with them? Share it!