Please do me a favor. If I EVER mention that I'm thinking of tackling a major home-improvement project when my children are out of school, please drive to Oklahoma and SMACK ME.
After much wailing and gnashing of teeth, I have finished the Great Master Bathroom Project of 2006. Though technically, it should be called the Great Master Bathroom Project of 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006--that's how long there has been some sort of remodeling disarray in this room. I WISH I had "before" pictures, though some things are best forgotten. Our house was built in 1982, and the bathrooms were all terribly outdated when we first moved in. To quote my Hubs, this particular room was "urgly with a capital urg".
The cabinets were a non-descript, mousy brown, as were all the doors and trim. The wallpaper was hunter green and white striped, with waaaay too many flowers weaving in and out of the stripes. I started ripping it down within months of moving in four years ago. Lo and behold, there was more wallpaper underneath, and y'all...this paper was ivory colored with peach and beige and gray (yes, GRAY) paint splatter shapes.
(Can I just pause here to ruminate on the fact that this was apparently ATTRACTIVE in 1982? What, may I ask, were we thinking? Maybe we were so distracted by the Cold War that all our good decorating sense was temporarily suspended. Who knows.)
Anyway, this awful paper was, evidently, applied with Super Glue. As I ripped it down, chunks of sheet rock came down with it. Lovely.
What to do, what to do...I refinished the cabinets and painted all the trim/doors white. But that still left the dilemma of the walls. I wasn't wild about re-papering (it's expensive and not exactly the look I wanted), and painting was out of the question with such damaged walls. On the advice of a neighbor, I decided to try a technique called paper bagging. I'll publish the how-to tomorrow for Works-For-Me Wednesday, but today I wanted to show you the finished results:
Here's a view of our new-and-improved bathroom from our bedroom (the light fixtures aren't finished yet, obviously):
Here's the wall directly behind the double sinks:
We've had that mirror for years, and it perfectly matched the new cabinet finish. But since it's opposite our big vanity mirror, we get that mirror-in-mirror effect like you get at dressing rooms. I'm not wild about that: A) because I don't like looking at my hindquarters while getting ready, and B) it's a bit of an existential crisis too early in the morning: Am I here or there or here or there?....:
Anyway, here's a close-up of the finish on the walls:
Last shot, I promise...here is a shot taken from the shower. I wanted to show off the finish on the cabinets, but the flash kind of messed it up. It's sort of an antique, distressed, walnutty sort of look:
If they ever give an award for Most Transparent Blogger will you please remember, my friends, that I showed you a picture of my TOILET, for Pete's sake?
That's it. Mission accomplished, and I'm pleasantly surprised at how it turned out. Despite all my complaining, the paper-bagging was actually much easier than wallpapering, and I'm pretty pleased with the overall effect. I still have moments of wondering if it looks like, well, bits of paper bag glued to our wall. But in the meantime, my kids are having a ball looking at it--it's kind of like watching clouds. So far we've found Idaho, Alabama, George Washington and Elizabeth from Pirates of the Caribbean.
*UPDATED TO ADD* My snarky friend Jules has had a little fun at my expense--go see her version here.
The how-to will be coming tomorrow. Hope you'll consider coming back to participate in Works-For-Me Wednesday. Remember to read the guidelines here before participating.
