I knocked out a few minor (but big impact) bathroom projects this weekend. One included hanging a quatrefoil mirror, then trying to figure out how to say ‘quatrefoil.’ I’m going with ‘kat-fwah’ because I took too much French in college, and I gotta use it somehow. (Seriously, ask me how to say ‘chaise lounge,’ I sound like a snooty patootie!)

On to the pictures! If you’ll recall, our bathroom was a vision in cream. Cough.

hall bath before

To save money, I used some leftover paint from our living room – kitchen – hallway. First, I patched the walls seventeen times (UGH NOT REALLY BUT IT FELT LIKE IT) then primed the patches and trimmed it out.

hall bath painting moonshine

The rolled it out. Hint: Taking off the toilet tank makes painting the bathroom a billion times easier and cleaner.

Note: I color corrected all of these photos. And I flat out failed photographing the new light fixture. Like, bad. But I changed out the light bulbs (from soft white to bright white) so it’s much better, as you’ll see below.

The light below is what we got. It’s Portfolio from Lowe’s. We got it on sale for $38. It has bad reviews online, but we like it! We have the four light brushed nickel version in our bathroom and it’s perfect.

bathroom inspiration mood board

Then came our kat-fwah quatrefoil mirror. Yep, the same one above. We got it from Lowe’s for $60. What you didn’t see behind the scenes: Lazy Saturday morning, I hadn’t bothered putting on a bra! Thanks, giant sticker label!

allen roth quatrefoil mirror

But that black wasn’t jiving with me. So I gave it a few layers of paint.

Mmmm, perfect! Haha. Just kidding. OR AM I? No, really I’m kidding, I didn’t stop there. I did at least four (possibly five?) thin, even layers of plain ol’ white semi-gloss paint. Straight off the shelf. I had it laying around because I use it to touch up our trim.

allen roth quatrefoil mirror

After the black beneath was completely hidden, I gave it a layer of gloss water-based polyurethane and used a razor to scrape paint from the mirror. The polyurethane will protect the latex from nicks (since I didn’t bother priming it or anything).

And here it is hanging.

allen roth quatrefoil mirror bathroom

But let me back up real fast. Remember the bad lighting?

Yep, THAT’S the difference bright white bulbs make in a bathroom with no natural light.

So there you have it. We’re ankle deep in this bathroom thing now, and given that we’ve put feet on the vanity, we’re going to HAVE to rehab that floor. Eek! I just need to go to The Tile Shop to grab the other 20 square feet of tile we need.

Do you have any fun or unusual mirror shapes in your house? Or, better yet, do you know how to pronounce ‘quatrefoil’? Haha.

2 Responses to Bathroom Update: Paint, Light, Quatrefoil Mirror

  1. Ashley says:

    I love the lighting tip! We’re in the midst of updating our master bath that has zero natural light. New bulbs are now on the list. Thanks!!

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