Project 1: Redo the Half-bath

So, the half bathroom was decorated with one of the most hideous wallpaper designs ever. A sort-of mauve-y pink with tiny blue and white flower designs. The ceiling was painted a cream color with a high gloss finish. As with most of the house we found a screw in the wall that had previously held a wall hanging of some sort (I believe it was flowery as well). I'm not sure what the previous owners had against traditional nails, but I'm not sure I've ever found a nail in the wall - it's always screws. The light fixture is one of those vanity lights that were so popular in eighties homes. I actually don't mind these lights when there's a source of natural light as well, as in the master bath, but for bathroom under the stairs, vanity lights are too much and too ugly. The rest of the fixtures and mirror are cheap and ugly, but not offensive. Finally, the door to the room does not open properly - one must go down the hallway beyond the door in order to open the door, and the lightswitch is placed so that it is difficult to locate.

This is the first real project that we're undertaking without the intervention of a hurricane. This is also the only downstairs room that is undeniably hideous. N suggested that we delay work on the library (which is the project I'm most interested in) in order to fix the public bathroom downstairs, and I admit that it makes sense.

First, the wall fixtures had to come down. The towel rack and mirror came down easily. The toilet paper holder, however, caused the first real problem. The screw heads had rusted through, so that at the first application of a screwdriver the head was stripped. N eventually cut off the holder using a Dremel bit, and then pulled the rest of the screw out of the wall. The toilet tank came off easily compared with the toilet paper holder.

Then I began to remove the wall paper. I began on the far wall, which unfortunately had been papered over twice, with the second layer almost directly on top of the first. Both layers are the same pink design, so as my mom suggested, it seems someone was unhappy with the first application, so they papered over it. The walls of the bathroom were not painted before application, although the majority of the wallpaper came off without the use of DIF. A few areas of the wallpaper have been more difficult to remove, and I continue to pick away at them.



N removed the door between the second bedroom and bathroom upstairs in anticipation of that project, and brought it down to see if it would work to replace the half-bathroom's current door. We have the door handle, mirror, shelf, soap shelf, towel rack and toilet paper holder already selected, thanks to my great mom. We still need to select a color (although we like yellow) and look at light fixtures and perhaps a new sink and cabinet. We considered switching to low-flow toilets for the public bathrooms, but decided against it after remembering an experience in a hotel room that we shared with friends that involved a low-flow toilet. For our master bathroom, a water-conserving toilet will be appropriate; for general public use, however, the old toilet will suffice.

Detail of the wallpaper:




More pictures of the vanity, light fixture, and where the mirror used to be screwed to the wall:





Our new accessories are from Restoration Hardware, the Eaton collection. Here's the only good picture I could find of the hardware, although it shows the faucet and lights, which we weren't able to buy from the same collection. Anyway, it's the feel of the hardware that this picture shows: