I just couldn't take that wallpaper any longer. So one day I started pulling the wallpaper down. I'd read about a few different methods on a blog I read. She said her experiences with wallpaper hadn't been too bad, so I was hoping for a similar experience. Of the methods on the blog, I had the materials on hand to try only one. I got almost boiling water and spread it on the wallpaper. Then I started peeling.
I did not have the same experience as the blogger.
As a reminder, here's what the bathroom used to look like. There's this front part that had the wallpaper and border.
Then there's the room with the toilet and tub. It didn't have wallpaper (thank goodness!) but it had a blue paint that I wasn't a fan of, didn't match the shower curtain they had and was a general mess, complete with brush strokes, unsanded patches and what looked to be big clumps of dust.
Now, back to wallpaper peeling. In an hour or two during Bart's nap I got a small portion of the wall next to the mirror done. Yikes! The wallpaper came off in two layers. The top layer was waterproof and came off easily. Then I treated the second layer that was more papery with water and scraped it off. It was rough. That evening Walter and I worked on it together and over the course of a few more hours we finished the rest of the bathroom. This time we used hot water and vinegar. I think it helped a little more, but it was still a mess. Some areas came off really easily while others were practically fused with the wall and impossible to separate. There were lots of patches where the top layer of the sheet rock was torn off as we tried to scrape the wallpaper off. There were also patches where, not wanting to have to dig into the wall, we left some small patches of wallpaper. I was hoping I could sand it down and/or spackle over it. We did finally get some wallpaper remover spray from Lowe's that was good, but just couldn't get some parts.
I think the walls probably were not prepped correctly when they did the wallpaper. My guess is they had removed wallpaper themselves (We found a tiny remnant just behind the mirror.) and had some dug out spots themselves. Maybe that even why they wallpaperd the bathroom to begin with. It's hard to get a smooth wall, as I well know. At any rate, now I know what the weird texture was in the painted part of the bathroom. It was spots where they couldn't get the wallpaper fibers all the way off the wall.
I certainly didn't want our paint job to look anything like what the previous owners had done. I had to get those walls looking smooth. I sanded and spackled my heart out but I still couldn't get the wall smooth where there were the remaining wallpaper fibers. Arg! I decided to go ahead and prime the wall (It needed it with all the repairs I'd done!) and see how it looked primed. After sanding and spackling so much it was beginning to be difficult to see what was what any more. Sure enough, it was clear where the fibers were. Thankfully, now that they were primed they were solid and sanded down easily! I'm really happy with the wall. It's probably my biggest accomplishment thus far.
I didn't know what color to paint the walls. I was running into the same problem I did with the playroom, which was that I wanted it to not look crazy, after all it's the bathroom guests will use, but also be fun since it's the kids' bathroom. Again I decided to go more subtle. I have plans to have towel hooks on the wall, so I figure their towels will bring the fun kid colors to the room. :) I chose an icy blue-gray that matched the shower curtain the former owners left. I kinda can't believe I'm keeping something decorate from them. :) I thought I didn't like it, but I realized that's because it clashed with the wall color.
Here are two action shots. This was before we figured out Luke had acid reflux and wanted to be held all the time. You can see that I'm holding him while rolling. Haha. The reason we really took this picture is because the color looks so different in the two rooms! In the front room where we have bright white lights it looks pretty blue and in the back room it looks decidedly more gray where we have standard edison bulbs. We were both shocked at how different the light makes the color look. Walter actually thought I'd opened a different can of paint!
Still to do:
1. Figure out what to do with the vanity. The counter is yellowish and a the sink is a seashell. A little dated… I'd like to replace the whole thing but unless I can find something I like that fits at a couple discount places I'm going to try, I'll probably just paint it for now. Then later we can save and put in something nicer, or shop around for a while.
2. We need to do something with that shower, too. It's also quite yellow, although it does match the vanity. :) The tub is in pretty good condition, so at some point I'd like to price out tiles. But that's down the road.
3. We'll also eventually do something with the floors. The funny thing is, and I didn't realize it until we started painting, but I actually picked a color that matches the vinyl floor tiles! They aren't the nicest, and I wish they were at least grouted, but they don't clash either. So I'm not too worried about then more the time being. Maybe if we get a new vanity we'll have to do them at the same time. I dunno.
4. This one is out of order. I almost forgot about it. We're going to frame the mirror. We'll do that one sooner than later. It shouldn't be too difficult.
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