Friday, July 20, 2012

Bathroom Makeover!

The one thing I like about LJ, from back when I used it, is that LJ allows you to put a bunch of pictures behind a cut so people who don't want to have to load 50 photos don't have to. But if you are reading this, IT'S TOO LATE and your browser is churning along trying to download a lot of pix of my boring bathroom. Sorry about that.

I forgot to take before pictures, but here's a photo that shows you the ugly light fixture that was in there before, the weird shade of brown on the wainscotting*, and the struggle I had getting all the wallpaper and glue off the walls.


This project has taken me weeks. Once I got the wallpaper off, it took me hours to get all the glue off too. I got it done, though. I was motivated. I wanted the bathroom to look fantastic. And it does now, because BEHOLD the after picture:


To get it this way, I had to put about 400 coats of paint on every flat surface. I ended up going back in last night and repainting the wainscotting* a different shade of white, because the shade I chose before actually looked gray.

I also repainted a little blue table that's been in one bathroom or another in various family members' homes for probably my entire life. It was dark blue and now it matches the aqua color on the walls:


And here it is actually in the bathroom. (Yes, I know I that drawer is messed up. Just don't look.)

The bathroom is probably cleaner than it has ever been, even right after the house was built. I still need to scrub the floor, but everything else is sparkling. And I am exhausted. Because look at the mess in this picture and realize that that was the first of three separate painting events. Also, you can't see that the tub was still full of gummy, snot-like pieces of glue I'd scraped off the wall and hadn't cleaned up yet.



Here are a few more pictures of the glory that is my clean, fresh bathroom.

 I love love love that shower curtain. This is my scrubbed-out bathtub. No glue snots left. Oh, the former shower curtain was rust-red and gold. It is now in a landfill.

The new light fixture casts interesting patterns on the walls because of the faceted shades I picked. I like it. Incidentally, I installed the toilet paper holder myself. I am handy that way.









Oh, and the final picture is me, originally taking a picture of the light fixture but it looks like I was trying to determine some setting on the camera. This one's not very flattering, either to me (my hair needs brushing, for one thing) or the reflected living room, which looks like a disaster zone (the rest of the house has had no love since I've been working on the bathroom). But I never post pix of me so this is what you get.



*I'm not sure I have that word right. It looks funny.

10 comments:

Diana said...

Wow! It looks wonderful. And the semi-before picture shows why you wanted to do all that work.

Wainscotting is spelled correctly unless you're British then it should be wainscoting. :)

K.C. Shaw said...

I like it SO much better now than before. I forgot to mention also that the wallpaper border came down first and was the thing that unhinged me enough to do all that work. It had outhouses on it, no lie.

Richard said...

I remember that border paper--it was truly, truly horrific. And you've lost weight. :)

K.C. Shaw said...

I have lost a tiny smidgen of weight, but not enough to really show. That's just kind of a flattering picture weight-wise (which is why I posted it even though my hair is awful).

Cate Gardner said...

Love it. And it looks like it was so much work.

K.C. Shaw said...

It was, but worth it.

Anonymous said...

That looks so good! And hey, nice to "see" you!

K.C. Shaw said...

Good to "see" you too!

Kelly Robinson said...

Oh, wow. I am so not handy. Or neat. I can't imagine pulling off something like this.

K.C. Shaw said...

My spirit is willing, but I'm not all that good at this sort of thing either. I probably still have paint in my hair.