No matter how much you hate your room - take your “before” picture. DIY Blogger Lindsay Ballard of Makely School for Girls tells Glidden® about how good it feels to compare your “before” and "after" pictures once the paint project is done.
Have you ever noticed how the DIY and design shows on HGTV and DIY Network always show a “before” and "after" montage at the end of the show? They do that because of the dramatic impact it has on the viewer.
Adding a gray paint color to a previously white room can make it look completely different. Here is an example of my Before and After:
Have you ever noticed how the DIY and design shows on HGTV and DIY Network always show a “before” and "after" montage at the end of the show? They do that because of the dramatic impact it has on the viewer.
Adding a gray paint color to a previously white room can make it look completely different. Here is an example of my Before and After:


Before bathroom
Before
You should always take "before" and "after" photos of your own projects too. The time you put into transforming a room will be that much more valuable if you can compare your final results to the original.I know that it can be difficult to grab that camera when you really don’t like the “before.” Take my powder room for instance — I was horrified for anyone at my house to use that boring, bland bathroom, let alone put it on the Internet for the entire world to see.
But, I knew I was going for big changes in this room, so I wanted to have a reminder of how much it would really change.
I ripped out the pedestal sink and replaced it with a sink vanity I built out of a friend’s old kitchen table. Instead of staining it like a traditional vanity, I painted it with Glidden’s Dover Gray, which I find to be a perfectly neutral grey. I put three coats of really good polyurethane on the wooden surfaces so that I wouldn’t have any problem with the water splashed from the sink. The pedestal sink I replaced was just fine, but now I have a real showstopper piece for my guests to use when they visit my home.

Blue bathroom with vanity

Blue bathroom with stencil background

Blue bathroom with accessories
Going Blue
I also needed to get rid of the blah blah builder’s beige, so I painted the whole room in a deep navy, similar to Annapolis Blue by Glidden®. I added a great graphic stencil on the back wall in Glidden’s Baritone, the same color I used in my dining room, next to the powder room. The stencil gives the room a unique feel, but the repetition of the same color from the dining room to the powder room unifies my entryway area.One of my favorite ways to freshen a room is to clean and repaint the trim work, which I did during my powder room makeover. Glidden Door and Trim Paint is exceptionally easy to use without the irritation of brush marks and drips. I’m tempted to repaint all of the trim in my house with it now.
A few accessories—such as updated fixtures, a custom piece of artwork, a pair of vintage shutters and a retro owl statuary—brought my powder room from "ho-hum" functional to "holy cow" stunning.

Before and After bathroom montage
After
After putting in a lot of sweat equity, I now have my own great "before" and "after" montage.Dramatically different, yes? Sometimes, I feel like I should frame the “before” and put it in the bathroom next to Hooty McOwlface. Perhaps that would be a bit too much, even for me.
As always, please refer to the Product Label, Technical Data Sheet and Safety Data Sheet for safety and detailed application instructions.
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