Almost Done!

The guest bathroom is looking better. In fact, I think it’s safe to say it’s almost done. If you’ve read “A Whimsical Door”, you’ve seen this bathroom before. Other than the door, it’s always been the ugliest bathroom I’ve ever had. . . with the possible exception of the one I had in a rental years ago, which boasted black and white toilet wallpaper similar to that pictured below.

I searched “Toilet Wallpaper” and found this, which may actually be the same exact one I had. Whenever a guest would ask to use the restroom, I would always explain before they went in that I had nothing to do with the wallpaper selection!

Over the years I have tried to make the guest bathroom cute and whimsical, although that dull, brown wallpaper was making this a difficult mission. I spent a lot of time researching everything from “how to remove wallpaper” to “should you paint over wallpaper” and had pretty much given up the idea altogether.

But then, in an effort to remove some little wood decorations I had stuck on the walls years ago, I realized that the wallpaper was actually pulling off at the same time.

In “That Sinking Feeling”, I showed you how it looked with some of the wallpaper removed. I knew I had to get the wallpaper off in that section before having the sink installed. But after that, progress was extremely slow.

I decided to replace the shower door with a shower curtain, but I ran into a problem when I tried to take off the screws. I was able to remove the larger ones, but the smaller ones would not budge. I left the shower curtain in its package for several months while I tried to figure out what to do.

Then one day I was trying again and I wiggled the door a bit. To my amazement, it began to separate from the tile! Removing the ancient plastic grout with a screwdriver, I realized that the large screws I had removed were the only ones attaching the door to the wall. The smaller ones were just there to hold two pieces of the metal doorframe together.

The shower was now ready for its new, sunflower themed curtain! Don’t ask me if I’ve been tempted to do a mosaic on the shower walls! I’ve already thought about it, but if I did, I think I would do sunflowers instead of sea animals.

Now, all I had to do was take the rest of the wallpaper off and decide what color to paint the walls. I decided on “Illuminated Sky”, and bought a sample to try it out.

When it was time to go back to Carlos’s store for the rest of the paint, I had obliterated the name of the color, except for the word “Sky”. This made it necessary for the paint department employee to do a bit of research, in order to make the match. After a few attempts, we concluded that it was “Illuminated Sky”.

Unbeknownst to me, the sample can of paint isn’t exactly the same as the “real” paint. According to the paint department people, sample paint doesn’t stick on the wall as well, among other things. Not knowing this, I had used the sample to paint the area around the sink, only to find out that I had to go over it again.

Meanwhile, the slow, painstaking process of removing the old wallpaper continued.

I discovered that if I ran hot water in the shower until the room was filled with steam, the paper would peel off quite easily.

There had been a hole in this wall, where I had taken off a toilet paper roll holder in years past. I had tried to camouflage it using various “decor tricks”, but now I had the answer. I would install wainscotting!

I ordered two packages online and placed them on the floor outside the bathroom door, where they stayed, (did you guess?) for several months.

Gradually the room was starting to take shape.

Finally, using my favorite Liquid Nails, I got the wainscotting up with some degree of success.

I just need to put the “chair rail” along the top of it. But I do have one, so it’s just waiting until I get inspired to finish.

Meanwhile, I decided I needed a mosaic tissue box holder.

This mosaic project can be a separate post, but it came together pretty quickly.

Voila! Now you’re pretty well caught up on the guest bathroom project. Hope it was worth the wait!