Our bathroom upstairs is no master suite, but it's in a lot better shape now than it was when we started! It's made up of two small rooms--the front one with a sink and linen closet, and the back one housing the shower, toilet, and window. Shockingly, the doorway between the two used to have a real door hung there. I don't know how you would have gotten them all open/closed at once. That's one door in the house that was long gone when we got here.
Like the downstairs half bath, this bathroom was wallpapered. But this bathroom has a shower, and over time the moisture inherent in that type of room had done its work. The paper was dirty and peeling. Some seams were taped shut with Scotch tape. We were thrilled to strip that baby clean!
Under the wall paper were all kinds of surprises, and once again, Tom had some fairly major drywall repair work to do before we could get to the pretty stuff.
Also on my wishlist for this room was a new fan. The fan-light combo in the shower portion of the room was awful. A yellowy-brown horrible color with a yellowed plastic light lens. I just knew a new, white fixture would go a long way to cheering the whole room up. And since the same fan was in the guest bathroom downstairs, we could make that one a bit more cheerful too.
I priced replacement fans and for the size we needed (that fit the hole in the ceiling), we were looking at about $70 each. Which is a bit more than I wanted to invest in bathroom fans.
Then Kyle pointed out that there was actually nothing WRONG with the fan. Or the light. Both worked admirably. My complaint was purely aesthetic. So we looked into focusing our fix there.
Turns out, you can buy a replacement lens for our model of light for less than $10. And Home Depot delivers to the store for free, so no shipping. So for $10 each plus one can of white spray paint, we went from awful to much, much, much better.
HUGE improvement! One of those things that was so easy once we actually did it, and makes me much happier.
Once Tom had fixed all the drywall issues (including some out and out holes hidden by the wallpaper). It was on to painting. And here's where I'm not 100% pleased with my choice. I picked Sherwin Williams Cucumber, a pale green that is down the card from Pickle that we used in the dining room.
Kyle did the painting in this room because we ran out of time/money to pay Tom for another room, and we went with a painted ceiling and walls the same color. In the shower room--with its big window and new, white light fixture, I love it. It's cool and cheerful and feels clean. In the sink/vanity room--with inset can lights that are a bit more yellow and at night when daylight isn't pouring in--it feels more yellow, more neon.
When Jennifer came to tour the finished product one evening, she said thoughtfully, "I really like that color (the shower room), but I'm not sure about this one (the sink space)." Unfortunately, it's the same color. Same can of paint. Just really different lighting. I think there's a lesson in there somewhere.
But even so, it's a WORLD better than the wallpaper that was there before. It'll stay for a while because for most of the day it's just fine--and I really like the color! If we get to any other bathroom renovations in here eventually (we have ideas) then we can rework everything--color, lighting, layout, the whole nine yards.
But right now we're just so happy with the fresh clean paint and that nothing is held together with tape!