Thursday, March 20, 2008

Show and Tell Friday - bathroom redo

I was over at Sweet Home and Garden Chicago, Carolyn's blog , and enjoying her tales of remodeling and home improvement.
My tale today is of much more modest proportions, but today for Show and Tell, I thought I'd show you what I've been doing, re-doing our master bathroom. It is not even finished, but it looks considerably better than it did.
I hate to call it a full-scale remodel, because there were no walls smashed out or cabinets installed. When we moved in, I knew I’d get rid of the metallic w/ butterflies wallpaper in our master bathroom, I just didn’t think it would take me 7 years to get it going! I guess a more accurate description would be a ‘work in progress.’ (Please don't even bring up the RED SINK!)
We still need to put up the lights and buy and install towel racks or hangers, change out the red sink for a white one, and etc., etc.
I put paint chips up to help me think about what color I wanted. They were up for years. My friends initialed the ones they liked the best, and then teased me when they came by for another visit and the paint chips were still there, but nothing had been done.


So – we tore off the wallpaper, that was easy. Cleaning off the leftover adhesive wasn’t hard, either.
I chose a light blue paint for the walls , and painting the walls didn't take long, it is a small room.
Then things got bogged down, because I decided white floor boards and trim would look a lot better with my cool sky blue than the brown/black floor boards and trim I had (and this color of trim is throughout the house, it goes with the wrought iron!!). You can see the dark brown trim and door trim in these pictures. My lovely and enthusiastic helper is there, too!
I painted the walls a light blue, wanting something calming, like the ocean for color. We ended up with Behr brand paint in a lovely color called ‘Cool Sky’. The middle color in this paint chip is 'Cool Sky.'

My DH took the (brown) door off, and I sanded and painted, and painted and sanded the door. It came out looking tolerable. The bathroom trim took a lot of coats of white to cover the dark brown/black shade. And, I do enjoy painting, but I am a sloppy trim painter, so there was a lot of fixing and wiping as I painted the trim. That all takes a lot of time.
So now the walls are done, the trim is done, the door is painted and rehung, and I even painted the bedroom wall next to the bathroom a lighter shade of blue. I am happy with the effect.
Oh, and I took apart the mirror and spray painted it, changing it from gold to silver. I think it looks great; my DH is still not so crazy about the mirror.

So, a lot of work, but big improvements, I think, and still more to do. In this last picture you can see the lovely, unwallpapered walls, the new silver mirror, the white (instead of cream) light switch covers. YOu'll have to take my word that the white trim is an improvement, I am too tired to add another picture!

Usually I'd say to be sure to head over to Kelli's blog to see what else is going on today for Show and Tell, but I think she is not doing show and tell this week.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Now why would you want to rip out that lovely metalic butterfly wall paper? Wha???
Just kidding.
Your bathroom looks ten times better even with the you know what.
When we first moved into our house every and I mean every room had a different floral wall paper, except the kitchen which had butterflies, so see, I feel your pain.

Jean said...

What a difference! I like the blue and silver. Can't wait to see it finished. That red sink does take away from the entire effect!

Unknown said...

Wow... what a difference, even with the Thing Not to Be Mentioned! And I LOVE that silver mirror--why doesn't your husband like it? It looks GREAT with that blue wall color!

Muum said...

Chigiy, I can sympathize with the wallpapered rooms, I only had two to deal with. (next up- the black faux wormwood paneling in the basement?)
Blackswamp gal, DH and I like to cover ALL sides of an issue! That's why we still don't have the hardware purchased and installed (i.e. towel racks or hooks, etc.etc)

Beki - TheRustedChain said...

Oh that looks so much better! We're flipping a house right now so I can definitely relate to how much work it is.

Diana LaMarre said...

Wow, Muum, it looks like you have been working very hard. It looks great. I love the blue and silver color scheme.

Please send me some of your wall paper removing energy. I have a border that I can't bring myself to start removing. The one I did 5 years ago still haunts me....it took days. I will never, never wallpaper anything again!

Kylee Baumle said...

Wow, Muum!! You've been busy! And I love what you did with the mirror! We used to have one just like that in our bathroom. With two girls and just one main bath, we put in a large rectangular mirror that went the entire length of the vanity (4 feet). That way we weren't all fighting for mirror space. But I did love that mirror. I don't even know what happened to it!

I know you said not to mention it, but you know, I don't know if I've ever seen a red sink before now. Red is my favorite color! In almost everything...