All of this began because our toilet needed to be replaced. Since the toilet was being removed I figured now was as good a time as any to remove the GORGEOUS wallpaper that existed. (Yes I am being sarcastic) As you can see in the photo the awful green and creme lines and scrolling has been needing to be removed for a while so now was as good a time as any to get it taken care of! This is the second bathroom in the house where I had to remove wallpaper and the other room taught me several things.
For one? The rollers you are supposed to use to break up the wallpaper before soaking will leave marks if you push to hard. Seems like a no brainer but Tyler and I learned the hard way with our guest bathroom so THIS time I decide to do without the rollers. SURPRISINGLY this time around it was a much simpler and quicker process. First I used a hair dryer to try and help release the glue from the paper then I just began tearing. I think because this bathroom has a shower the wallpaper may not have adhered as well to the wall because most of it came down super easy.
Several of the walls did need repairing so that was a pretty quick fix with some spackle, sandpaper, and fine sander. The large wall behind the toilet I didn't bother repairing because I decided on TOP of taking down the wallpaper and painting, I thought a pallet accent wall would look nice. So yeah didn't need to fix it because it would all be covered anyway!
Then it was time to remove the toilet! Thanks to Today's Homemaker, I was able to do this fairly quickly with the hubby helping by carrying the toilet! For those of you who may not know how to remove a toilet the first thing you have to do is get rid of all the water! Turn the water off and flush the toilet! Most of the water should be gone this way but to get the last little bit out, fill a large bucket (or wastebasket like I used) with water and hold it high above the toilet and dump the water in. It forces a lot more of the water that way! I used an old towel to soak up the last little bit and it was water free! Next I removed the water tank hose, and unscrewed the bolts holding the toilet to the ground! THAT was when I discovered how disgusting removing a toilet is! Once the toilet is gone you haven remove the remaining wax and clean the flange off! GROSS!!!! I was thoroughly disgusted but got the job done!
Next was the easy and fun part. PAINTING!!! Which I happen to love to do! And yes even cutting in, I really love all aspects of painting to this was fun! I went ahead and put two coats on everything and one coat on the accent wall so if there were cracks in the boards you wouldn't notice the wall behind. Worst part of painting though was trying to paint above the tub when the ladder didn't really fit well in the tub. The problem resolved though with my super handsome hubby coming in and literally holding my butt to balance me as I finished cutting in the ceiling! Fun times!!!
Next began the fun experiment of creating an accent wall! Handsome guy had to help me though because I made a really bad no no when I started. When you can't reach above the tub DONT try to stand on tiptoe and hold a board up for measuring. Yup I did that and the result? I dropped the board, WHICH of course had to land on the tub, WHICH in turn broke a large chunk out of it! So yeah YAY ME! Now I get to learn how to repair a broken tub! We will get to that in another post.
Sad Panda :-(
So once I figured out I needed help from handsome hubby, we got to work and it was a lot simpler than we thought! Using 1 1/2in nails we just hammered each board in making sure at least one of the nails went into a stud. Then it was all a matter of measuring out boards. He would put one on, then another starting at the ceiling. If it didn't fit he would mark where a cut had to be made, hand it to me to cut, then he would knock it into place and hammer it in. Really pretty simple and kind of fun for us to do together. The top half of the wall just above the tub took us maybe 20 minutes and then I was out of sanded and dry wood.
So the next day when I had more wood ready I got up early before the girls were awake and within 40 minutes I finished the whole wall!!! Toward the bottom it was a little difficult as I needed to work around the water hose from the toilet, but a pencil and ruler helped with that! So wall was done paint was done so it was time to add some fun details!
The toilet holder was the first thing and was super easy as well! I removed the existing holder and measured out the distance between the two screw anchors that were already in the wall! Taking a small piece of wood I had laying around I measured out distance and drilled the holders attachments directly through the wood into the screw anchors. Took a little playing around to get it right but once it was screwed on properly it was pretty simple to reattach the holder to its attachments and it was all done!! (And super cute by the way)
Before we did that though Handsome hubby arrived home and helped me install the new toilet! I thought this would be super complicated but the directions made it super simple and quick! Only problem? Not a long enough toilet hose. So that had to be done later but the rest of it went together pretty quickly! Hubby is awesome as he just does what i tell him since it is pretty easy for me to pick up and understand instructions!
So then it was time for not fun part! The wall shelf installation! I am telling you SO NOT FUN!!! Poor hubby had to deal with me all flustered and frustrated that I couldn't seem to figure out the best way to do it! Needless to say, though I nearly shed a few tears, we DID successfully install it! It was well worth the extra effort though as it fits in perfectly with the rest of the bathroom!
So then it was time for not fun part! The wall shelf installation! I am telling you SO NOT FUN!!! Poor hubby had to deal with me all flustered and frustrated that I couldn't seem to figure out the best way to do it! Needless to say, though I nearly shed a few tears, we DID successfully install it! It was well worth the extra effort though as it fits in perfectly with the rest of the bathroom!
I took the door off of the little linen closet we had in there as the two doors were always hitting each other and clashing! A little reorganizing, some decorative things out on the closet shelves, on the pallet shelf, and a fun frame make the room have even more character! What a long three days of work, with lots and lots of breaks for time with sweet littles, bumps in the road, and of course the regular housework on top of it all! Honestly I would do it all over again to get the final result! I am beyond pleased and can't believe how well it turned out myself!
Well that's it! The whole shebang!!! I will post more about the tub endeavor next time! For now? This is already a super long post! So till next time...
Inspired by Him,
Kat
