Scavenger Chic

Outdated Bathroom Makeover

• By Joan
• February 17, 2021
• 7 Comments

Outdated Bathroom Makeover

A few weeks ago when I showed you the window with the faux mercury glass treatment, I mentioned that that was just a piece of a bathroom makeover project I was doing with my son Kevin and his wife Mollie.  I’ve been trying ever since then to get back to their house to  put a few final touches on the bath and to take the final pictures.

You won’t see the window/mirror in these photos except in the reflection of the new mirror.  I couldn’t get back far enough in the hallway to include everything in this small powder room.

The weird thing about this bathroom, which you probably wouldn’t notice at first glance, is that the toilet sits about a foot away from the wall.  The bathroom countertop extends over the toilet tank.  If you took away the old laminate countertop the toilet would be hovering in the middle of the room.

I asked my son how he cleans behind the toilet because its just not reachable.  We don’t.  Ewwww.

The mirror covered the entire wall behind the vanity.  There were 2 sets of these Hollywood lights on the side walls.  If you Google builder grade vanity lights, these are the lights that pop up.

Removing Wallpaper

Some of you may like a nice vintage foil wallpaper but it doesn’t go very well with a modern farmhouse style.  It had to go.

The top layer of the wallpaper peeled off fairly easily leaving only the paper backing.  In a perfect world with a perfect wallpaper, all the layers would have come off in one large peel.

If you are left with the wallpaper backing, grab a bucket of warm water and a rag and start rubbing down the wall.  You want the water to penetrate the paper and start dissolving the glue underneath.

The streak of whitish wall on the right is totally dry, the medium beige wall is wet but not ready for scraping just yet.  The streak of  darker wallpaper in the corner is totally saturated with water and is ready for scraping.  Just wetting the wall down and waiting for the water to penetrate will take about 20 minutes.  If you hurry this step too much you’ll end up doing more work than is necessary.

All the wallpaper is off but I’m left with this yellow bumpy stuff on the wall.  That’s the wallpaper glue.  There is commercial wallpaper glue remover on the market but warm water will also work.  Scrub down those walls once more until you’re left with a nice smooth glueless wall.  You might have to use a combination of putty knife and rag to remove the glue layer.

Patch any holes and gouges now before painting.

The walls are painted, or at least most of them.  They will need a second coat but it is a start.

We started peeling the wallpaper in October and we got the room mostly painted.  We didn’t want the room torn up for the holidays so this is where we left it until picking up the project again in January.

Having let the bathroom sit and marinate for a couple months we were eager to get started.  Kevin was off work for a week and he was serious.  Demolition only took a couple hours.  The slate tile came up way too easily having been laid directly on the plywood subfloor.  The thing dangling from the ceiling is the old ceiling fan which is going to be changed out to include a light and moved to the center of the bathroom.

For best adherence a tile floor should not be installed directly on to plywood.  The plywood will expand and contract over time causing cracks in your tile or grout. There was a reason the old slate tile just popped off.  That was great for demo purposes but not for a tile you want to have stick around a while.

Before laying tile install a cement board on top of the plywood.  Use a notched trowel to spread thinset mortar over top of the plywood.  Lay down the cement board then use specially made backer board screws to guarantee there will never be any movement.  Check out this youtube video here for more detailed instructions.  It’s much better than the two pictures I’ve included.

Finish up the cement board with tape and additional mortar to seal the seam between the backer boards.

The cement board was a step we didn’t think we would have to do but it only set us back a couple of hours.

We had three options for what to do with a toilet sitting in the middle of the room…a) move the pipe (too expensive), b) have the countertop span the entire space again, just replacing what was already there (still yucky dirty), or c)build out the wall behind the toilet giving the illusion that the sink is set back in a cubby.

Option C it is!  You may notice that there are more 2x4s here than are normally needed in a stud wall.  Just planning ahead for a few shelves.

Drywall complete on the new toilet wall but a lot more hole patching and spackle coats to go for this new wall and where we had to move the wiring.

Like I said, lots of spackle and hole patching to go.

Ceiling fan/light installed. 

With most of the drywall complete, finally able to lay the tile.  The little white dots are tile spacers to keep everything perfectly aligned.

Behind the sink we installed black shiplap.  These were salvaged boards from an old bar that came with his house.

We prepainted the boards before installing so we could paint the lip of the shiplap and the edges without slopping over onto the bathroom wall.

Walls sanded and painted, floors grouted.  Time to call it quits for the day while the grout dried.

The original bathroom cabinet was a plain white laminate.  The above cabinet was from my oldest son who had pulled it out of an old kitchen.  It was the perfect width and height but we didn’t realize that a kitchen cabinet is 3 inches deeper than a bathroom cabinet.  We only realized that little detail when we checked to see what the new countertop would look like.  Whoops.

The cabinet was still useable, we just had to trim 3 inches off the back and reinstall a couple of 2×4’s to give the back stability.

 

Son #3, stopped by so we put him to work installing the shelves.  We didn’t have to worry about hitting a stud in the wall because we had planned ahead.

You can find the shelf supports here.6 Pcs Floating Shelf Brackets 8 Inch Heavy Duty Wall Mounted Industrial Metal Shelf Supports

 

The shelves were completed with a vintage 2×8 chunky piece of wood pulled out of my garage.

The shelf supports have a hole in the bottom so you can add a screw directly into the shelf, so no tipping.

 

The mirror is from Hobby Lobby.  As always, wait for one of their sales when it’s half price or use a coupon. It’s 29″ width is perfect for a 31″ cabinet.

The lights are from Lowes.

The marble vanity top is from Home Depot.

The vanity was from brother Keith…no link here. 😆   Thanks Keith.  Your brother owes you dinner.

 

 

The last step was to add a piece of quarter round around the edge of the shiplap to cover all the ends.

The bathroom still needs some kind of artwork on the back wall.  Have to find something perfect to go with the upcycled window.

This was the first of 4 bathrooms in his house that need a makeover.  Kevin, feel free to call me any time.  I always like working on someone else’s  projects more than my own.

Stay inspired.

 

 

Also from his house was this wet bar transformation.

 

And using reclaimed fence boards to enclose a ceiling.