Our Powder Room: Painting the Walls Sage Green

I’ve been the biggest advocate of white walls for as long as I can remember. So when we bought this house, it was a no brainer to ask the builder to paint everything the same shade of white. He told us to choose a Sherwin Williams color so we went with Extra White. “You even want the trim white?” he asked. “All of it, please!” I said.

After a few months of living in the space, I couldn’t be happier with the decision. The home is bright and spacious in its light hue. But not so coincidentally, there were the two rooms where the color was just falling flat – both spaces only have north facing windows: Henry’s nursery and our first floor powder room. The white wasn’t bright, it was almost grey and like I said… flat? I’m not sure how else to describe it. But the white wasn’t doing either space any favors.

So a couple of months ago we decided to paint these two rooms. I would have loved to wallpaper the powder room if we were going to be in this home longer than a couple of years; but because we aren’t it didn’t seem like a worthwhile investment.

I wasn’t sure what color to do in the powder room – I had been thinking light blue – but a reader actually suggested we go with a dark green which piqued my interest. While I wasn’t sold on dark green, I did like the idea of a moody sage pulled from the antique rug we have in there. All of a sudden, I started seeing similar sage wall colors popping up repeatedly in my Instagram feed… here are a few favorite spaces in a similar color.

Photo by @themakerista
Photo by @studiomcgee
Photo by @finding__lovely

I was able to partner with Farrow & Ball on this project and the color we went with is Lichen by Farrow & Ball in their estate emulsion finish. We hired painters for the job because F&B is a clay based paint (truly 0 odor!!) and we wanted someone who had experience painting with it.

 

Here’s our powder room before:

 

Here we were testing Farrow & Ball paint swatches:

There are actually only three Farrow & Ball colors on the wall. The darker green is Lichen. The lighter green is French Grey. And the grey blue is Parma Gray – which we ended up doing in Henry’s room.

I loved how the green looked against the brass mirror – and you can’t see it above but there is an antique rug on the floor that compliments the green so well.

 

And here is the after!

 

And here are some photos shot with my camera (not iPhone) which definitely alters how the color looks:

This camera has a fixed lens so it was impossible to get a wide shot of the full space.

 

All that’s left to do is hang something – art probably – on the wall next to the toilet. The window is frosted so we won’t be doing any kind of window treatment. It honestly feels SO much better in this new hue! It feels more finished if that makes sense? Just what it needed.

 

SOURCES:

Paint, Farrow & Ball Lichen

Vanity, source unknown but this is kind of similar

Mirror, Pottery Barn

Wall sconce, Wayfair (polished nickel)

Faucet, Kohler Artifacts collection (polished nickel)

Towel ring holder, Kohler Artifacts collection (polished nickel)

Toilet paper holder, Kohler Artifacts collection (polished nickel)

Crystal cabinet knobs, Schoolhouse Electric

Faux roses, NDI Florals (love this style also)

Hand soap and lotion, Murchison Hume (amaaaazing smell)

 

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