One Room Challenge Week 5: Wallpapering the Bathroom

I’m back with the LAST update of our bathroom before the big #OneRoomChallenge reveal next week. The time has flown by and it’s crazy to think there are only a few days to finish it up. This past week I made progress on the biggest change we’ve made to date. I can now officially say that I’ve successfully hung wallpaper…and the results blew my mind. Seeing that finished wall, with the delicate floral pattern, the century old door and our new glass knobs – it was everything I’d envisioned in my head for this space.

With this being my first time wallpapering, I chose the simplest wall to help ease me into it. It was a basic rectangle and it helped me get into the swing of things. The wallpaper was kindly provided by Wayfair Canada and I’lll be sharing a blog post later this month about it.

The first wall was done in one evening, so I hoped that the second wall wouldn’t be too much more challenging and it would maybe take me Sunday morning and afternoon. The wall ended up needing way more prep work than I anticipated. I spent most of the day repairing and smoothing it out, and didn’t get to start wallpapering until almost dinner time. I was determined to get most of the wall done, at least so the toilet could be put back together…which took me until 2am! But it was worth it to have a functioning bathroom again the next morning.

In preparing for the walls, I also had to open up the registers for the vent. I’ve dusted the grills many times, but had never removed it from the walls, as it was screwed in and painted in place. OH MY WORD. The spiderwebs in there can only be described as something from the cryptkeeper’s lair. I had to stifle a scream while I sucked them up with the vacuum. Garrett helped me clean out the vent, even though I didn’t see any spiders, but the thought that they *might* be there was enough to keep me away, ha! I repaired the edges of the drywall while I spackled the rest of the wall.

While I was in there, I also found little pieces of an old wallpaper on the original lathe and plaster wall behind the vent. It looks like they were a floral vine design, so it’s nice to see we’re bringing that back again. I wallpapered roughly up to the edge of the vent box, as we will be adding a new vent with trim around it that will hide the edge. I’m thinking I’ll paint the inside white or grey before we close it back up again just to freshen things up.

When I got up the next morning and saw the wallpaper in the sunshine, I knew it was worth the lack of sleep. It looked even better than I had hoped and the soft blue of the vanity really pops against the delicate blue flowers in the pattern.

The cream flowers look lovely against the counter too, and I’m glad I kept the fixtures chrome – they add a nice light-reflecting shine to the space. We still need to do caulking around some of the edges and add trim to a few areas too. It’s now glaringly obvious where the original window trim had been cut to accommodate an older vanity here. I’m still on the hunt for a trim piece that we can add to try and blend it in a little better.

The new cabinet knobs arrived from Lee Valley and I could hardly wait to put them on too. As I mentioned last week, I went with two different sizes of old brass art deco knobs and plates for the vanity and closet, and then these brass handles for the dresser in the closet. I still need to hammer in the itty bitty finishing nails on the plate, and add the larger ones to the closet door once it’s painted.

While Lucy was having a bath one evening, I was able to replace the toilet roll holder, using this set of bathroom hardware accessories. It never ceases to amaze me how little things like this can suddenly make a room feel fresh.

At the same time, Garrett was working around the corner to put up the new light above the makeup table. We’ve still got a 3-bulb light fixture to hang above the vanity and are hoping to get it done in the next night or two. These lights were kindly provided by Home Depot Canada and I’ll be sharing another post on them soon.

We’re down to the final crunch with only a week left of the One Room Challenge. I feel like we’ve been making great progress over the course of these last five weeks, but it all comes down to this! Of course there are still quite a few things outstanding and I’m hoping to tackle most of them over the weekend when we’re able to take turns working/watching kids. Here is what is left:

• Finish wallpaper to corner
• Touch up edges with matching paint
• Add trim pieces and quarter round where needed
• Repair window frame with trim piece
• Paint closet doors and trim
• Add closet door knobs and hammer on the vanity knob plates
• Paint vent hole and add new cover and trim
• Hem curtain panels and hang inside windows
• Hang vanity light and mirror
• Organize closet baskets
• Iron and hang new shower curtain
• Add towel rod or hooks
• Shop for fun bits – bathmats, hand towel, plants 🙂
• Clean, clean, clean! – There is dust everywhere!

Come back next week for the big reveal! Check out the One Room Challenge blog to see all the other participants as well.

ONE ROOM CHALLENGE – FARMHOUSE BATHROOM