Saturday, February 26, 2011

From zero to hero

Here's the awful bathroom when we moved in:
Master bath

Busy floral wallpaper. Ceiling and door trim painted pink to match the wallpaper. Wooden shelves, one towel rack, very dark vanity and door. The tub and sink are inoffensive beige cultured marble, and the floor has the original yellow linoleum.

(You can also see the awful hot pink and white crackle finish in the bedroom - I got that fixed before we even moved in.)

I hated the bathroom, but set it as a pretty low priority. When I painted the front room, I ended up with almost a gallon of yellow paint left over, and I started thinking about painting the bathroom yellow. I decided a tiny bright yellow room would actually look pretty good with our existing bathroom furnishings.

I should be finishing the hall, because it is a sign of good moral character to promptly finish what you start, plus it gets depressing when you demolish too many rooms in a house at once. But you know what? With G in SF, there's no responsible adult here to tell me what to do! Hahahahah! Last week I started peeling wallpaper.

I got all the wallpaper off and scrubbed the glue off of the walls without damaging them too badly. One of the seams near the shower had peeled, and those cretins had glued it back down with Elmer's glue. I carefully cut the Elmer's off the wall - took a little of the sheetrock paper with it - then figured out how to match the texture. I sanded and primed all of the wooden fixtures and the walls, then painted the walls yellow and all the wooden trim white. Painting the wooden shelves took for-freakin-ever, but I didn't want to buy more and I thought they'd break up the yellow and look cute white.

Today I got everything put back together.

Here's the little white shelves and our awesome shower curtain:
IMG_2634

White vanity, 33-year-old lino:
IMG_2635

Towel racks:
IMG_2637

I have the wooden plugs that cover the screw holes, but I think I'm just going to caulk the holes and touch up the paint there. The little wooden plugs are gonna be a horrible PITA to paint, and I'm ok with just covering the holes.

I also need to finish the door. I yanked a bunch of doors off their hinges and leaned them against various walls and they're half-primed. I am really tired of not having any doors anywhere, so maybe I'll work on doors tomorrow. They're very hurry-up-and-wait tedious.

Ok, is there anything you'd like to hear more about from the bathroom? I can go into my usual great amounts of detail about how I peeled the wallpaper and prepped the walls, matched the texture of the sheetrock, or painted the walls and/or the trim.

I am really awful about shopping for accessories. I feel like I should acquire some complementary knickknack things for those shelves but I have no idea what. I am going to look for a chocolate-brown hand towel on Amazon, though.

8 comments:

  1. Very nice, Funder, it looks clean and bright with those colors and new paint.

    I can relate on the painting hurry-up-and-wait... drives me crazy. Just when you are all fired up to get stuff done, you have to let it dry...

    I like shopping for accessories at garage sales. I find unique things and don't pay much for them. It does take longer that way. It's something Mel and I like to do, though.

    Ron

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  2. Thanks, Ron! I'm really happy with it now.

    Unfortunately, I suffer from equinitus, and the only thing I enjoy shopping for is horse tack. (Well, and tools, I like buying used power tools. And materials.) There are a lot of garage sales around my neighborhood in the summer, so maybe I'll convince myself to stop and see if they have any tack or tools and also look for knickknacks. ;)

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  3. I think the yellow paint makes the lino look really cute and retro.

    I have given up and hired a contractor to redo my bathrooms. I am refinishing all the cabinetry and painting, so I continue to work on the skills that you and your dad taught me. ;)

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  4. Nice colour choice - I love sunshiney yellow with white. I love it so much I painted my own bathroom, and living room, and hallway those colours.
    As for knickknacks.....knickknacks mean dusting, and dusting is something I don't do much of. So very few knickknacks in my place!

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  5. Very Fugly to Fabulous! Our previous bathroom had pepto-bismol pink walls. It was so pink, we thought the fixtures were pink! Thank goodness they were white.

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  6. Fugly to Fabulous? More like "granny to gorgeous!
    The yellow *does* look fresh and sunny! Our living/dining was a dingy yellow when we moved in (dining still is--yuk--it's waiting for the big makeover!), so I tend not to go there.
    I hate dusting knick-knacks, as well! My bathroom shelf has little stuffed horses all the way across. When they get really grody, I just take them to the back porch and shake them out (worse comes to worse, they could go thru the washer).

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  7. Hi Linds! Thanks very much :) I also kinda like the lino now. It's really worn out, but the rug covers most of it... If you're redoing your cabinets, you are doing a heroic amount of work all on your own. I don't even like to think about my kitchen cabinets!

    Jean, I really love the yellow. I never thought I was a yellow person but it looks nice and bright in the two rooms I've used it in.

    Terry - the previous owner was insane. The front room was pink, the bedroom was pink and white crackle, and the bathroom had a pink ceiling and pink trim. I know your pain.

    ES - we have some cute little stuffed animals, but I think they'd mildew. There is no ceiling fan in the bathroom! The window had mildew in the corners, and the door finish is a bit damaged by the moisture.

    I just got home from visiting my friend, who gave me three small red glass vases for the bathroom. I think they'll look perfect, but I've got a crushing headache descending on me so pictures must wait.

    I have heard of this "dusting" thing but it happens very rarely in this house. Sometimes we Pledge the furniture to watch the cats go flying when they jump where they're not supposed to; does that count?

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  8. Your bathroom looks so much better! I am about to paint my daughter's bathroom yellow as well. It is blue color now but it is just a little too dark for a small bathroom. We don't have a whole lot of knick knacks in our house either. I am not so big on housework and really don't have much of a brain for decorating.

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