Pretty bad huh? That wall paper, those cabinets, the toilet that wiggled. It was dark and depressing and somewhere you only used if you absolutely had to.
Let's take an even more in-depth tour of the awfulness.
There was this light fixture. Installed in every residential home since the dawn of time.
Then we have this faucet. I'm really scared to think of WHY it turned black on the bottom . . . we scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed that thing so at least it's a clean two-toned faucet.
Now let's get up close and personal with the wallpaper. It's the stuff nightmares were made of! They must have purchased it on sale because it's in the bedroom too (or it was, it was the second room to tackle). Who wouldn't want to gaze on the imminent slaughter of serene wild beasts at the hands of weapon wielding englishmen while brushing one's teeth?
Oh the shower rod, how hideous though art. So gold (colored) and no, just no.
An up-close look at the wallpaper and the shower rod. Sad times.
Now that I've documented the hideousness it's DEMO TIME!!!!
First the mirror came down. We have a lot of these bathroom mirrors like this hanging around the house. Anyone have a good idea how we can upcycle them or donate them? I'd figure out how to hang them around the house but that seems a little narcissistic maybe . . .
Then we had to rip down the wall paper! Die you villainous fiends with machetes!
Oh btw, this wall paper came off in entire sheets. There was no backing. I literally grabbed a corner and pulled and it came off in huge sections. Easiest wallpaper take-down of my life. Medium-well hates me, she battled for two weeks straight last summer with mom and dad's bathroom to get their wallpaper off!
Once the wallpaper was down we took off the towel bars and that ugly shower rod, but they left massive holes in the walls. So it was time to fill the holes. Start with a putty knife and spackle.
Grab a blob of spackle and attack the huge hole!
Blob it on really well getting into all the crevices, but don't worry about getting it smooth because I just sanded it later. Oh it says it's paintable immediately. It lies.
Here the bathroom is all wallpaper free, spackled, and taped. Ready to paint!
Cutting in. How I wish you could just go to town immediately with huge swaths of color all over the walls to really see some progress, but no, you have to outline the whole thing first and THEN you can fill in. I'm not that patient when it comes to home renovation if you couldn't tell. Although, surprisingly, waiting for paint to dry only takes about an hour!
Here I am trying to reach behind the toilet because I'm positive that anyone coming to our house will use that bathroom and peer behind the toilet and see that two inches of wall I couldn't reach. Thankfully this was the day we had the toilet replaced so when he removed the old toilet, dad swooped in and quickly painted the spaces I couldn't reach and finished before the guy came down to install the new toilet! Super paint daddy to the rescue.
New toilet in all it's glory with a painted wall behind it.
New faucet for the vanity.
Pretty finished painted walls! Two coats thank you very much.
Dad helped me hang the new shower bar and the towel hooks. The shower bar arches out so you don't feel like you're taking a shower in a prison, and I don't ever take the time to hang my towel on a shower rod but I will hang it up on towel hooks.
Then it was time to stain the vanity. Got it all taped off. I sure go through a lot of painters tape if you hadn't noticed. Just supporting the economy.
I've seen this gel stain on pinterest constantly so I decided to purchase some and use it. It works pretty well and is REALLY easy to apply. No fifty coats here! And no drips! That may just be the nature of gel stain in general but this is the only brand I've used so far and it's worked out well.
Here's the first coat. Not very pretty but if you've ever tried a dark stain on anything else you'll be amazed at how dark this first coat actually got!
And finally after two weeks it was finished! Voila! Pretty blue walls, stained vanity, new curtain rod, new picture, new toilet. Ah it's so nice to take showers now :)
Here is the vanity! It's has a new brushed nickel mirror to match the new brushed nickel faucet and matches the new brushed nickel toilet paper holder and matches the new brushed nickel light fixture. Dark stained cabinets and cabinet pulls to match the vanity top which looks a whole lot classier now that it's set against dark wood instead of builder grade oak.
Since you couldn't see the light fixture with the light on creating glare, here's a pic with the lights off. I think it's quite pretty :)
Here's a close up of the new vanity. I could have gone with three coats of stain instead of two, but I wanted some of the wood grain to show through to make it look stained instead of painted.
I got new light switch and outlet covers for the light switch and outlet. They tie in with the trim.
Ah my pretty hydrangea picture with ties in with the purple hydrangea theme I have going in my bedroom :) And the dark frame semi-matches the cabinets.
And finally my new towel hooks. So much nicer than a double towel rack for sure, and your towels actually get dry since they don't have to be folded to hang. The theme I had going was gray, white, and blue so the towels and the rugs are gray.
All in all I think it turned out pretty nicely, although it was expensive! All those accessories add up, but in the end it was worth it.
Before:
After!!!!:
One room down (which is subsequently the smallest room), six more to go . . .
