She Came in Through the Bathroom Window

As promised, here are some before-during-and-after shots of our semi-completed bathroom renovation. During the intercession next week I'm supposed to start contacting tiling/flooring people so we can get our kitchen and bathroom floors done. (They currently have REALLY ugly linoleum.)

I think this wallpaper pattern was decorative plates. It was pretty bad.

When we took the (first layer of) wallpaper off we discovered that the previous owners had papered over an earlier (different pattern) layer of ugly wallpaper. When they had trouble with the wallpaper glue, they used a staple gun. Brilliant, right?

When we got the second layer of ugly wallpaper off we discovered that the previous owners had neglected to prime the walls prior to putting the wallpaper up in the first place. Which was why we were peeling pieces of drywall and sheet rock off with the wallpaper.

At this point we had peeling, pitted walls with big gouges in them and Adam and I wanted to close the door and forget we'd ever had another bathroom. This was before we started sanding the walls. Then we primed the walls. Then we painted them lilac-gray which looks very pretty on the swatch but looks like you just spent an hour painting your walls dirty white. (Incidentally, we have a nearly full gallon of Olympic low-VOC lilac-gray paint if anyone's interested...)

AND (even with two coats) the dirty white paint didn't cover any of the gouges and nicks in the walls that we'd failed to sand. So then we really did close the door and forget we had a second bathroom for a while. We quit for the day. We ordered pizza. We blamed each other for the poor color choice. (In the interests of full disclosure, dirty white was totally my fault.)

The next day we returned to Lowes, picked out a new paint color, bought a bucket of joint compound and a second spatula-thing and attacked the bathroom with renewed vigor. We applied a skim coat to the walls, then we sanded them and while we waited for the walls to dry we thought about applying another skim coat...but realized that at this point we didn't care any more and it was time to paint before our attitudes got much worse. So we painted.

Ta-da!

We also replaced the hardware (towel bars, etc.).

Done!