Goodbye Wallpaper

We are in the middle of another renovation.  This time, it's the main bathroom.  Our plan: take down the wallpaper, prime, paint, add new fixtures, new tile, shower curtain, and voila, new bathroom.  This will be the first renovation project without the help of my handy father.  Wish us luck, I think we are going to need it.  

It started yesterday when I went to start the process of removing the wallpaper.  The top layer peeled right off--woohoo.  I took off the top railing of the bead board and the mirror just about fell on me.  I then realized it was going to take more than just a quick scrap to get the rest of the glue off.

Taking down wallpaper is just awful but it was pretty easy for us.  With the recommendation from my wallpaper expert mom, we dowsed the ugly wallpaper from 1995 with Diff, let it sit then scraped the hell out of it.  It took two sprays of the Diff to get everything off.  Then Ange rinsed it with water.  It took us about 5 hours to completely remove the wallpaper but after some hard labor, we are ready to prime and paint.  I'm just glad it wasn't the WHOLE bathroom.

I'm still working on paint colors, but I know I will be painting the bead board on the bottom half of the wall white, and the top half a nice, zen green color to go with my new shower curtain (take a sneak peak).  I'm hoping for a relaxing spa-like feel.  You can take a look at my inspirations on my Rub-a-Dub-Dub Pinterest Board (and follow me too!).

I tried really hard to keep with the corn theme from our kitchen (see here), but I'm thinking it's just not going to work.  The only green that corn produces is the stalk and I'm not about to paint my bathroom that color.

Here's a picture of our bathroom before just to refresh your memory of the awesome bead board and wallpaper.  It actually doesn't look that bad and that's what it looked like when we bought the place.  I forgot to take before pictures of the bathroom we've been using the last 3 years, but to give you a clue, the wallpaper started to peel, the tile is hideous, the towel hook fell off and I was just ready to trade out the dark bead board for something more fresh and relaxing.

 

Next up, after Christmas, we plan to remove the toilet (a project in itself) and paint!  I'll make sure to keep you posted on all our hard work, and if we can manage this reno without the help of my dad.