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".
TTrash 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!
