Powder Room Reveal {Part 2}

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".

T

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!