Bathroom Renovation: Picking the Right Paint and Loving the Progress

Our poor bathroom sat with a big old hole in the wall for nearly two weeks while we waited for the electrician to return from holiday. It was one of those awkward renovation pauses where a lot of work is done, but it still doesn’t feel like a room you can use in comfort.

Until the electrician returned, we at least managed to keep the sink and toilet connected and functional. It wasn’t beautiful, but the essentials worked, and that made living through the renovation a lot less stressful.

While waiting, I started playing with paint swatches. I taped sample chips directly onto the wall and compared different shades against the existing fixtures and lighting. I find it impossible to pick a final color from a tiny chip alone — seeing a larger swath of paint on the wall makes all the difference.

I’ve been collecting bathroom inspiration for a while; if you look at my Pinterest Bathrooms board you’ll notice a clear pattern: I’m drawn to blue and white palettes. Those images guided my search, but I still flipped back and forth between options several times. Choosing paint is exciting because color transforms a room, but it’s also daunting because small samples can be misleading.

After reading customer reviews, studying photos, and thinking about how natural and artificial light affect undertones, I finally committed to a color: Seasalt from Sherwin-Williams. We don’t have a Sherwin-Williams nearby, so I brought the swatch to our local Benjamin Moore store and had them mix a match for me. It’s a small workaround that saved time and let me get going sooner.

The unopened can sat in my entryway for a couple of days until I decided to paint the walls that were currently in place. Technically it’s out of the usual renovation order to paint before drywall finishing is completely done, but I used the “one wall at a time” strategy. Painting a visible section early helped me decide with confidence whether the color would work in the room.

For me, seeing a full wall painted is the only way to know if a hue is right. Swatches can be fickle; light changes throughout the day and a shade that looks cool in morning sun may appear warmer under evening bulbs. Once painted, Seasalt felt calm, fresh, and surprisingly versatile. It shifted subtly with the light in all the right ways, giving the room a tranquil, layered look.

As I write this, my handyman husband is sanding and applying the next coat of mud to the new drywall. Hearing him work away is a reassuring soundtrack to the renovation — each sanding pass and coat of mud signals progress. It’s those small, steady steps that turn a project into a finished room.

Lessons learned along the way:

• Test paint on a sizable area, not just a chip — a full wall gives a truer sense of the color.
• Consider how light throughout the day affects undertones before making a final decision.
• If your preferred brand isn’t local, a reliable store can often match colors from a swatch.
• Accept that renovation order can be flexible; sometimes doing one visible task early helps you make better choices for the rest of the project.

When a room starts to show color, even in the middle of a mess of tools and dust, it feels like the renovation is finally moving toward a finished, livable space. I love watching that change — it’s motivating and oddly satisfying.

Progress, however small, is worth celebrating. Woo hoo — I’m definitely loving the transformation and can’t wait to see the finished bathroom come together.