Our budget bathroom remodel is nearly complete. All we still have to do is paint the trim white, which should be a breeze compared with all of the texturing and painting we’ve done so far. I’m hoping to get it done tomorrow. For now, I thought I’d show some of the before and after pictures. We decided not to change any of the big (expensive) parts of the bathroom. The tub, sink, and toilet are all just basic white. The counter is laminate, but it’s a pretty neutral tan/light yellow color – no avocado green or funky print. The mirror takes up nearly all of the wall over the sink, and makes the room feel much larger than it actually is. All of those things stayed the way they are, so I didn’t take pictures of them. We changed the walls, towel rail, and outlet covers.
First, here’s a picture of the wallpaper that was in the bathroom when we bought the house. We didn’t paint over the part that was behind the mirror, so when I removed the mirror last week to texture around it, I got to revisit our floral jungle wallpaper:
I am not at all sure why anyone would pick this print, especially for a small room like a bathroom. And they put it over nice white walls. Different strokes, I suppose.
When we bought the house, we wanted to be rid of the gigantic flowers and vines, but we were broke and apparently not in the mood to take the time to actually remove the wallpaper. So we bought a gallon of mauve paint from Home Depot’s "oops" rack, and slapped the paint over the wallpaper. Here’s what we’ve had for the last six years:
The first picture shows the gold towel rails and light switch cover, and the mauve-painted wallpaper. The second picture shows just how bad the painted wallpaper looked. All around the room, you could see where the edges of the paper were, and where the seams were on the walls. Not our best DIY project by any stretch of the imagination.
So I spent the last two weeks fixing things up. I peeled off all of the wallpaper in any place where you could see a seam or an edge. Then I textured all over the walls, and now they’re a soothing light tan color. The color combined with the texture is very reminiscent of an adobe style wall, and the bathroom is a nice peaceful place now, rather than being and eyesore:
You can no longer see any traces of wallpaper. The texture covers everything, and give the room the feel of solid plaster. I’m especially pleased with my $3 wooden towel rail that I scored at the Habitat for Humanity thrift store near our house.
It took roughly 15 – 20 hours of work, and about $40 to turn our bathroom from an ugly room to a very nice one. We’re thrilled with the end result. I had planned to paint our bedroom next, but I think I need a break from painting for a bit, so we might tackle another project first (or take a week off!) Either way, I’m inspired. I don’t think that the pictures do justice to just how bad the mauve color was or how good the new color is, but you should be able to click on them to see detail. Trust me – it’s a whole lot better now!
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