Here’s a question for you… consider it an honesty check-up…
Do you now have, or have you ever had, a room in your house that you literally could not stand the look or feel of yet you did not fix it? You procrastinated instead.
If you said yes then you’re on my team because I sure have and I’d be willing to bet that your reasons mirror mine pretty closely.
- The room just needs so much work! It needs a complete overhaul!
- It will take too much time!
- It will cost too much money!
- It will disrupt our life and cause too much chaos!
Those are the reasons I lived what feels like five lifetimes with a bathroom we pretty well hated! I mean really… we didn’t like the cabinet, the walls, the tile, the tub, the toilet, the light, the mirror, etc., etc., etc. We just didn’t like this bathroom.
The funny thing is that I felt like everything had to be done and the biggest part of it all was the tile in the tub/shower area. And once you rip the walls out of the tub area, might as well replace the tub. And if you’re going that far there is no sense in not replacing the sink, and the toilet, and the fixtures. And if we’re doing all that, then…
You get the point. It becomes a snowball and before long you just close the door and walk away.
Ain’t nobody got time for that!
Keeping The Tile Changed My Worldview
I’ve been procrastinating awhile… a decade give or take. The good thing about that is that the tile in the tub/shower is kind of feeling vintage cool to me lately. What had once been the main thing I felt had to go started becoming something we might be able to work with… and that made all the difference.
Once I started thinking about working with the tile, then the vision came together.
Here’s what we did:
Bye-Bye Vinyl Wallpaper
OMG that stuff was design horror. I think I might need therapy over that wallpaper.
The paper backing didn’t come off right away but that was easy to deal with by spraying some water on it.
Shiplap Style Paneling Two-Thirds Up
We made some awesome looking paneling from about $24.00 worth of thin plywood. Can I get an amen?
While we’re on the subject… I have a pet peeve about words that go all wrong. For example… “Subway Tile”… ok, that’s actually called “Running Bond”, but whatever. Same thing with Shiplap Paneling…Um, no it’s not. It’s really V-Joint Paneling most of the time but they call it Shiplap on Pinterest and that’s what people search for so I guess I have to come down off my professional high-horse and call it that too. #follower
Whatever you call it, the paneling was super-easy to make on a table saw and just nailed right up easy-peasy.
HomaxⓇ Pro-Grade™ Orange Peel Texture
The top portion of the walls remained exposed as part of my design. I needed them to look great great great! Enter the super-easy and pretty much perfect Homax® Pro-Grade™ texture cans. I had never used these before and I was literally stunned by how quickly I was able to get professional results.
HomaxⓇ, who sponsored this project in part, sent me both the latex and oil-based versions of the orange peel texture. I went with the oil-based because I wanted to be sure I had good adhesion with the surface beneath the wallpaper, which was somewhat of an unknown to me. The oil-based texture also drys very quickly, allowing the project to keep moving. But if you want easy clean-up and you know that your wall is good (such as new drywall or latex paint) you might want the latex. Both are the same price and available at major home centers.
Be sure you check out the video and you’ll see just how easy it is to get professional looking orange peel results with the HomaxⓇ Pro-Grade™ texture.
Wrap the Cabinet and Counter!
This part of the project was an actual first for me… but I’m sure it won’t be the last time I do this.
I’ve recovered laminate cabinets and counters before with more laminate and that works fine, but it’s a big job anyway. You have to remove the sink and fixtures, you need a big work area, and it’s messy. On a cabinet this size, before I did all that I’d just put in a new cabinet.
But I didn’t want to do that! If I’m building or buying cabinets anytime soon, they’re going in my kitchen! So we did a wrap! Just like a vehicle wrap or a wall wrap. It’s a self-adhesive vinyl printed on a large format HP Latex printer… which I happen to have (another story – wild hair).
Don’t miss the video on this! It came out a million times better than even I had hoped for. The counter looks like real travertine marble, even to me and I’ve been a licensed contractor since 1991! The cabinet looks like beautifully matched and finished real wood. Just look at the pictures!
What I don’t know is how long it will last. I mean this really is kind of uncharted territory, but I truly believe large format printing is going to revolutionize home surfaces in a big way. Maybe this is one of them!
From Ugly to Awesome in No Time Flat
Overall I am really just beside myself with joy over the outcome of this project and I offer it up to you as PROOF that procrastination doesn’t pay! I’ve been living with that sorry excuse for a bathroom for years! The remodel took less than four days and cost me about $300.00 most of which was for a new toilet!
I could have been getting up every morning feeling happy and pumped up by the bathroom (which is my first stop most mornings, of course)! Instead I had to run the daily gauntlet of depression and self-doubt that came from that wallpaper. Ha! I’m only partially joking.
Bottom line… don’t put it off! Remodel it now!
~ Tim
Here’s the video of the entire project from start to finish:
This is a sponsored article written by me on behalf of Homax. The opinions and text are all mine.