buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....

Yellow, black and white. When designing with these colors, there is a fine line between a pop of sunshine and looking like your room is home to a family of bumble bees. 

I've had my eye on a jewelry armoire for a while now. I finally purchased one thanks to the wonders of craigslist. With no room for it in my bedroom, it found a home in my bathroom. However, the light wood was not meshing with my black and white decor. It had to be painted. 

Turquoise? Red? The same celery green that punctuates the majority of my house? Nah. I kept going back to yellow. 

So, thanks to the ridiculous "no spray paint" laws in Chicago, on a trip back from Indiana, I purchased two cans of sunshine   yellow paint at a small town hardware store. Once home, I prepared to paint. Let me tell you, I think there are two reasons spray paint is banned in Chicago: 1) of course, graffiti 2) it is ridiculously hard to paint in a tiny courtyard without totally covering your neighbors deck in Sunshine Yellow gloss paint. 

But after much blood, sweat and tears -- well just a lot of sweat -- I finished it and couldn't be happier. It totally gives my bathroom the pop of color I was hoping for, and the yellow is a nice happy color to see first thing in the morning. Behold... 

My bathroom is not conducive to picture-taking so this is the best shot I have. The yellow goes perfectly with the black and white design I have going. The bath is attached to the master bedroom and the bedspread and accent towels have the same damask-like pattern. 

Even after my issues with the spray paint, this was a fairly easy project. I removed the handles, and it was a miracle I kept track on the teeny tiny screws. I sprayed it with the drawers intact - simply because I was too lazy to tape off the inside of each drawer so I wouldn't spray the fabric yellow. It actually worked out fine, nothing stuck together. The only problem I discovered was with the side doors. Closed, they look great. Open, that's another story. But you live and learn. 

Maybe I'll fix it someday, but really no one but me sees it and I'm cool with it. My little burst of sunshine is a bright sunny spot for me on dreary mornings before work, and I couldn't be happier with it. But I am officially retiring my spray can until I have a yard or really cool neighbors who don’t mind yellow speckled cars.

-j