Thursday, August 26, 2010

Powder Room Reveal {Part 2}

Pin It
I recently renovated our powder room.  If you missed the post, check it out here!

Just a quick recap of what it looked like before and after:

Before


After:



Alrighty.....that's the simple steps of what I did.  I'm going to go number by number and give you tips, tricks, and how-to's!

Painting the Room
I only painted the room 3/4 of the way down because I knew I would be wallpapering below.  Save yourself some time!

TIP: Buy GOOD paint.  This will save you so much time and effort.  Cheaper paint doesn't cover as well, and you wind up doing more than one coat.  I have never had to paint more than one coat with the Valspar paint from Lowe's.  It's worth the extra money!



Light Fixture

  • If you've never installed a new light fixture, try it!  It is SOOOO easy!
  • Turn off the power to the room @ the breaker box-very important
  • Unscrew the old light bulbs, and take down the old fixture.  This is a figure it out step.  Every fixture is a little different to take down.
  • Match the wires for the new fixture to the wires coming out of your wall.  Black to black, white to white, and ground to ground.
  • After matching your wires, wrap them in electrical tape, or use the little caps that come with most fixtures to secure them together.
  • Install the new fixture using the directions.
  • Mine went from this to this:

Bead board Wallpaper
    • I bought pre-pasted wallpaper that is paintable.
    • I did not use extra paste.  
    • I simply measured 36 inches (that's how tall I wanted mine; you can do any height you like), and cut the wallpaper.
    • I then dipped the cut length in water. 
    • I let it sit in the tub of water for 30 seconds or so, and then I pressed it on to the wall.  
    • I used a smoothing tool (made for wallpapering) to smooth out any air bubbles.  
    • Work from top to bottom!  Have paper towels handy to clean up the paste that oozes out the bottom.  You will get ooze!
    • Measure your next length, dip it in water, and press it on to the wall.  Very easy!!!
    • I think it looks pretty dang good for wallpaper.


Chair Rail
 
The chair rail trim I used is technically window casing.  I loved how thick it was. (Mine is 3.5 inches tall)  I also thought that traditional chair rail stuck out from the wall too far.  If you want to do a chair rail in a room, pick out trim you like! It doesn't really matter if it's chair rail trim or not; chances are it will look good, and no one will ever know!  I don't think you would know mine was really window casing :)

After measuring and cutting the trim, I held it up to the wall where I wanted it and leveled it. Make sure you level!  You don't want it all wonky looking!  After leveling it, I attached it to the wall with liquid nails, and used the nail gun in a few places. (in the pics below you can see the nail holes, and where all the seams don't line up yet)


Baseboard Trim
Because I have an inability to cut in a straight line was in a hurry, some of my wall paper was uneven, and didn't sit flush with the baseboards.  Also, I'm a "do it as fast as possible" person, and didn't take the time to make sure I cut even.   Sooooo, I bought some inexpensive trim to cover up the wallpaper's unevenness at the bottom and make my baseboard taller, all at the same time!  Genius, right?


I don't remember exactly what type of trim it was; just some I thought would look nice on top of my existing baseboards.  It was about 1.5 inches tall.  I measured the trim and cut it.  I again pre-painted it.  I  then attached it to the walls with liquid nails, and used the nail gun in a few places.  No need to level this step.  The baseboards were already there, so I just put the new trim right on top.

Caulk

This stuff is my new BFF.  Seriously, it's amazing!!  It covers so many flaws. 
  • I used a cheap caulk gun from Lowe's.  

  • I used LATEX caulk.  The cheapest they had.  The cheap kind is just as good as the expensive stuff.
  • Latex caulk is paintable, so once it dries, you can paint it to match your trim.
  • Caulk along the top and bottom of any trim that you add.  Also, caulk in the corners where your trim meets.
  • To get professional looking lines when caulking, use painter's tape.
  • Tape a little above where you are going to caulk

  • Using your caulk gun, run a thin bead of caulk along the edge of the tape.  Smooth with your finger!  It will look messy.

  • Immediately remove the tape.  Don't let the caulk dry!  The tape will pull off all the caulk if it dries.

  • Look at how SMOOTH those caulk lines look!

  • Reapeat this until you have caulked the top of the trim, and the corners where the trim meets up.


Mirror

I used an oval mirror we already had.  It was brown to begin.

 

  • I love the details; I thought they looked really feminine!

  • I carefully taped off the mirror part, and gave it a primer coat.


  • After the primer coat, I used Krylon (Ivory) spray paint.  2 or 3 coats; I was careful to get in all the cracks and "swirlies".




Trash Can and Hand Towel

  • Using an existing flower pot, I spray painted it, and hot glued on some pink ribbon.

  • I bought a white hand towel, and used fabric glue to attach the pink ribbon.  Should be fine as long as I hand wash the towel....

Toilet Paper

  • The basket I used is actually a bread basket from Target.  It is the perfect size for three rolls of TP!  And, it was on clearance; awesome! 



Well, that's all I can think of!  E-mail me at alittleofthis.alittleofthat.blog@gmail.com with any questions! 

14 comments:

  1. I love this, it looks amazing! It's re-dos like this that make me want to add a powder room to our house!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well done, Sarah! I've always been scared of wallpaper, but reading this post makes me feel like I could do it :) thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  3. The flowerpot trash can is genius! I love the blue color it is so fresh! Breadbasket turned tp holder, you did a great job of repurposing throughout!

    ReplyDelete
  4. It looks fantastic. I'm in the middle of planning a bathroom makeover in our house and I'm so excited. I'm in the debate with what I want to do with the walls. How hard was it to paper behind the toilet?

    ReplyDelete
  5. I've been considering the bead board wallpaper as opposed to actual paneling, and you may have swung the vote.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi! The powder room looks great! I am wondering how you went from a 3 light to a 2 light, was that tricky to do? I would imagine there would be a hole of sorts to fill? Nope, I would never know that was window casing. Thanks for the caulk tip, I'll have to try that when I actually get around to doing my rooms! Oh, and ya, is it hard to install the beadboard behind the toilet? I will email you with these same questions just in case that's easier.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I luv the TP basket, so clever and chic!

    ReplyDelete
  8. The color is beautiful! I've never thought of using painter's tape when caulking. I have always wondered why mine looks so crappy! Thank YOU so much!

    ReplyDelete
  9. I adore this! The color is perfect and I'm dying to try that beadboard wallpaper.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hi Sarah, I love your website!! What size paint brush roller do you use? looks like I have the same texture walls as you. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  11. I use a 9 inch roller; it has worked great for all my paint projects! Thanks for stopping by!

    ReplyDelete
  12. OK, can you come to my house please and re-do my bathroom? Seriously...

    ReplyDelete
  13. Thank you SO much for sharing this! I was searching online for a few days trying to find inspiration to do my powder room. I JUST got back from purchasing that wall paper! I'm going back tonight to pick paint and will be doing this project this weekend!! Thank you, Thank you!!

    ReplyDelete
  14. I've posted a link back to your site. Thanks again for this! My powder room is turning out great!

    ReplyDelete

I truly enjoy and appreciate EVERY comment! Thank you for taking the time to comment, and stop by my blog!