Paint Colors For A Small Bathroom With No Natural Light – Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may make a commission if you decide to make a purchase through one of my links, at no cost to you.
If you have a windowless bathroom, you might be looking for some tricks to make it look clean and fresh. After several years of looking at my drab guest bathroom, new paint created an opportunity for just that!
Paint Colors For A Small Bathroom With No Natural Light
Almost every room in my house has at least one source of natural light. But two rooms — two small, windowless bathrooms — proved particularly difficult to redesign. My guest bathroom, for example, is perfectly functional; But because of the way it’s closed, I don’t like being there. And if I ever have guests over again, they probably won’t either. I think it might be part of dealing with quarantine, but I’m bored and wanted to solve this dilemma once and for all.
Choosing A Paint Color For Our Small, Windowless Bathroom
This post is sponsored by Ace Hardware. All opinions, terrible puns, and other words written here – for better or worse – are 100% my own. 😉
It took some trial and error, but thanks to some inspiration from the Clark+Kensington 2020 Color Trends palette, I think I finally got it! If you find yourself facing a similar problem (perhaps a jack-and-jill bath or basement bathroom), consider these tips for both solving natural-light problems as well as shortcuts to getting a clean, professional paint finish. The post with more details is below, but you can also watch the conversion on video:
The first thing you might notice from the “before” photos is how yellow the bathroom looks. Soft white light bulbs are of course common, but when there are no windows in the house, you can rely on the color cast from the lightbulb. In this room, the soft white didn’t work and left a hint of yellow
. I hated how every time I picked something up (like the vanity I’d been patiently waiting to install), the light would find a way to mess it up.
Beautiful Bathroom Color Schemes Designers Recommend
I’m sure you’re probably thinking, “Why not just change the light bulbs to daylight or bright white? I would — except I made the equally unfortunate choice of picking a light fixture that didn’t use standard bulbs. They’re getting harder and harder to find.” , and I decided enough was enough! Not only did I need new paint, I wasn’t going to spend another dime on special bulbs. I love picking out new fixtures, so it was hardly arm-twisting.
A few years ago, I also installed a Bluetooth-enabled bath fan with an LED light It gives a bluer tint than I like – not quite daylight – but it’s a step in the right direction and
Interference from soft white bulbs. I use this light to select my paint. Does the difference just see the change in light? I already like it better. 😊
The existing walls were partially covered in a grayish-purple color. It’s actually a very pretty color by itself… in the right room. But over time, I realized that it was completely the wrong color for this bathroom. The lighting, countertops, and tiles didn’t play well with the undertones, making everything look sickly and dirty. It’s kind of amazing how much paint affects a room. After I added this paint color I was put off making any additional creative progress on the design!
A Quick Refresh For The Guest Bath! • Ugly Duckling House
I say it’s “partially covered” because I failed to even finish the first paint job. After removing all the wallpaper and repairing the drywall here I had a little more patching to do near the old light fixture. I’ve painted most of the rooms and finished the patch work, but put it off. A word to the wise: if you’re covering joint compound this way, be sure to seal it with a primer.
Painting — even if the new paint has a primer, like the Clarke+Kensington line does. The main cause is called an event
. A patched area of wall like this is more porous than a finished or pre-painted wall, so there’s a chance that the paint will absorb and when light hits the wall the gloss will disrupt the uniform look (one spot looks duller than the rest), or really messy. ). More coats may be needed for uniform coverage, so primer is your best bet to avoid this and it’s cheaper than buying more paint to do another coat!
Ace Hardware sent me a care package earlier this year as inspiration, full of sustainable natural products (many of which I’d never used before and was excited to try). They also sent a paint sample and information on the Clarke+Kensington 2020 Color Trends picks.
Best Paint Colors For Small Bathrooms
Seeing these nature-inspired colors, I knew it would be a great opportunity to revisit, as K says, “the bathroom is where inspiration goes to die.” 😂
Tip: I was able to order my paint over the phone and pick it up at Ace Hardware the same day.
Let’s also address paint, specifically: It’s probably no surprise that as a home improvement blogger, I’ve painted my fair share of walls.
I’ve experimented a few times with different brands and paint lines (sometimes it’s the same brand, but a different type of paint). And despite most brands of paint
Best Paint Color For A Small Bathroom With No Windows
Combining primers these days, I’ve yet to find one that can do a single coat, with no flashing or touch-ups, when there’s a significant color change (like going from this dark mauve to a much lighter creamy white). I was expecting two coats, and it really needed two. But, not only bad coverage after one, either:
After the second coat dried, I took a step back and closely inspected the finish. The main thing I noted about this particular line: there is a significant difference
Clark+Kensington is another brand of paint finish that I have used in my bathroom before. I can’t really explain the difference exactly, but it’s… butter? Velvet?
Generally, it is recommended to use satin or high gloss in the bathroom. But since I worked so hard to repair the old drywall, I didn’t want to put too much brightness where I could see every little flaw in the wall (that would be too defeatist). Instead, I went with an eggshell finish; It’s flatter than satin, but still washable enough for this room (I explain the trade-offs between gloss and other benefits in this post if you want some more info!) It was a perfect balance. Hopefully, you’ll see the great texture left on the wall in more “after” pictures in this post!
Paint Color Ideas For A Small Bathroom To Make It Feel Big
I started by painting the entire room in white opal. I love this color! I bought a gallon of it with the Ace Hardware gift card they sent me, but I need less than half to do two coats at home. So, I’m pretty sure I have enough to paint the initial bath with it as well (after refinishing the shower there, I’ll never get back to finish the final paint job… guess procrastination paid off, ha!). I compared the color in the guest bath (with no windows) to natural light (preliminarily) and it looks great in both situations. Highly recommended, especially since it’s hard to find a nice balance on white wall colors (I don’t like overly yellow “warm” whites, and it’s not a pure white that feels sterile and hospital-like). It’s a nice, simple white that’s warm enough to play off the cool green on accent walls and doesn’t pick up any blues, greens, or purples in the process.
I also used the remnants of the Natural Home palette as inspiration to pick a color to create a small accent wall. Despite my fear that this room was probably too small to work on such a paint feature, I’m glad I went with my gut and did it anyway. The greens, blues and grays of the Color Trends palette took me to Far Away Land, which is kind of soft, dark green with just the tiniest touch of blue and lots of gray.
After the white opal paint dried, I measured and taped a section of the back wall with tape for the newly painted surface. I’m not planning on keeping the mirror (all those little decorative parts of the frame get dusty, ugh), but it has a medicine cabinet attached, so I’m still on the hunt for a replacement. Since I
Keeping the vanity intact, I measured 4″ from the top to create my paint line. There was no concrete argument in this; I just thought the spacing worked.
Designer Approved Bathroom Paint Colors
Regular painter’s tape walls are prone to peeling new wall paint, especially within the first few days (curing time can be a
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