All the white painting is done!  If you missed the last post on painting the tile, tub, and shower tile, check it out here.  Now comes the fun part.I ordered this stencil from Etsy.  The shop owners were really great and the stencil is well made and super easy to use.  I ordered a 12″ stencil because the tile is 12″.  The stenciling was easy. A bit tedious, but easy.To get started, I taped the stencil in place and used a dark, grey acrylic paint to color the stencil.  I used a paint brush and did a simple dabbing/swirling motion.  Once finished, I removed the stencil, but CAREFULLY so that no paint leakage would smear.  The first few were a bit tricky, but I was able to get into a good rhythm about 4-5 tiles in. For those of you who follow me on Instagram, there is a story linked in my profile that shows a snippet of the painting method.

Once the stencil came off, I used a Q-tip to smudge off any run-offs. And there were a lot of run-offs. haha  I literally used an entire container of tips.  Not exaggerating.  That’s where the BUT TEDIOUS part of the “easy, but tedious” came into play :).  Here are a bunch of pictures to show how the stenciling went.The hardest part was around the toilet and under the vanity.  The tile spaces there are really small so I ended up cutting the stencil down so it would fit better.  After the floor was finished and dry, I went back with the white paint and did a few touch ups.

Next, the floor took 3 coats of polyurethane to seal it.  I used a satin poly so it is not very shiny.  The painted floor would have be fine without it, but once I added the acrylic paint, it needed to be sealed so it won’t chip off.  I used a 4″ foam roller to do the poly.

I’m so glad that I took this little risk.  I think the floors turned out really great.  It was fun to do something different in the bathroom and, yet again, I can’t believe how much a little work can really transform a space.

Next up, I’ll share a few other easy changes I made in the bathroom and show you some final pictures.