POWDER ROOM REVEAL...FINALLY !

We decided to get the wallpaper project done the weekend since I had everything ready. My budget did not allow me to get outside help to hang the wallpaper and I wanted to do it myself ourselves.

Being extra nice (making sure no arguments, agreeing to everything that Mr. Tweaks said) and batting lot of eyelashes all week long, Mr. agreed to DIY.

It was lot of batting.

Oh wish, just batting those eyelashes could get him agreeing to everything I want.

On a Saturday morning, woke up all excited. The previous night, I had all the supplies ready. Scissor, ruler, pencils, an aluminum foil tray, an exacto knife, an old credit card and old towels to clean the mess.

Mr. Tweaks measured and we marked and cut the first wallpaper. Using it as a template, we cut rest of them while making sure the diamond design aligned with the next one.

Once we had cut all of the wallpaper, we immersed the first one in a big aluminum foil tray filled with water to wet the paste on the back of the wallpaper. Like so.....

via

A minute later, I pulled the wallpaper out of the tray. And slowly Mr. Tweaks hung the first one smoothing out the bubbles with his hand. There were few wrinkles and it did not align correctly with the ceiling. A minute later, the wallpaper rolled down. 

Between some swearing and few tears, I tore threw that away and started again. This time with lots of patience and a little prayer. I so badly wanted this to work.

Mr. Tweaks comforted me saying we have never done this earlier so it might take couple tries..

And he made sure not to utter a word (about hiring someone to do it).

The second time Mr. Tweaks stood on the ladder and I handed him the wallpaper, which he aligned along the ceiling first and ran his hand over it very slowly starting from the top to bottom with an old credit card, removing air bubbles.

We waited for 3 minutes and when the wallpaper did not fall off the wall, I did this....

Via

By the time we hung the third wallpaper we were a semi-pro. Two hours later we had finished hanging all of the wallpaper. After lunch, I painted the section below the wallpaper. Later in the evening, we went to Lowes to pick the chair rail to cover the separation between the wallpaper and paint.

Next day morning, I measured and cut the chair rails using these the saw and miter box. The miter box are very helpful when it comes to the corners.

via

I did not do a good job for this corner, so I used plaster of paris and covered the gap between the chair rails.
Then I painted the chair rails and base board with white paint.

 

The next weekend, one of our friend, helped with hanging the light fixture as well helped Mr. Tweaks to change the faucet.

So here are all the pictures of the powder room... 

You know the story of the mirror and the spray paint. 

I decided not to hang anything on the wall behind the toilet. It would make the small room crowded. I picked this fake succulent on the toilet water tank from Ikea during one of my previous visit. The pot is from Ikea too. The tissue box has been with us for few years. I gave it a coat of brown paint.

This is how it looks with the lights on.

I found this brand new towel ring on eBay for $2. And if I bought 2 of them, it was free shipping too. I used one here and the other one lying in my hoarder pile in the garage.

Used an old basket to store the extra toilet papers.

I was so happy with the result that I every half an hour I would just open the door, give a glance and walk back. And every guest had to take the tour of Powder room with complete detail. Pity our guests.

A final before and after.

Here is the budget break down:

Wallpaper (Lowes): $10
Mirror (Craigslist):$20
Faucet (Lowes):$25
Light Fixture (Lowes): $6
Chair Rail (Lowes): $10
Soap Dispenser( Bed Bath & Beyond): $15
Faux Flowers (Michaels): $4
Towel Ring (eBay): $2
Succulent on the toilet (Ikea): $8

The total came to $100, I did not add tax to any of the purchases...:-)
I did it, the complete makeover for $100 plus the tax. 

Linking at:
http://www.homestoriesatoz.com, http://www.simplydesigning.net, http://www.notjustahousewife.net, http://theturquoisehome.com, http://myuncommonsliceofsuburbia.com, http://www.astrollthrulife.net, http://www.madetobeamomma.com/2014/05/hit-best-shot-17.html, 
http://diybydesign.blogspot.com/,
http://www.frommyfrontporchtoyours.com/ 
http://glamorousbride.blogspot.com/ 
http://www.serenitynowblog.com/, http://www.thriftydecorchick.com/

THIRD TIME'S THE CHARM??

Couple of weeks after I got the wallpapers and Mr. Tweaks was convinced that wallpapers will look good in Powder room, we planned the execution. Of the project.

We had to make sure, we had enough wallpaper to cover the powder room. We wanted to hang it ceiling to floor. When we measured, we were short of 2 feet of wallpaper. Just 2 feet. 
We called every Lowe’s in 20 miles radius to know if they had any available at their store. 
I prayed a little before calling each store. But no luck.

Mr. Tweaks suggested, “We can skip the wall behind the toilet and paint it a different color.”

NO WAY.

Mr. Tweaks, “How about we leave out the lower wall behind the toilet. Anyways no one is going to peek in there.”

NO WAY. Very predictable that we were short of wallpaper.

I remembered seeing few powder rooms with half wallpaper and half paint. I went to garage to check for the leftover paint from this closet project. But it was little too dark to match the grey on the wallpaper. 
I took an empty can, poured the grey paint and mixed some white paint (from the same project) till I got it to match the lighter grey on the wallpaper. 

There, I saved some $$ on the paint. And used what I had. Going with upper half of the wall with wallpaper and lower half with paint was such an easy solution. I know I am smart like that. Thank you.

When I told Mr. Tweaks what we were going to do, he breathed a sigh of relief. 

He reacted something like this.

He still did not know we were hanging the wallpaper. 
That weekend, I spray painted the light fixture this color. I removed the glass covers, covered the  wiring. 

Light sanding and 3 coats of spray paint later….

I did not use primer for this project. 

Left it dry for a day and the light fixture was ready. The next day I worked on the mirror. 

I removed the mirror from the back of the frame and sprayed 3 coats of this yellow paint (which I had).

This is an iphone picture so the color on the frame looks different.

Wall paper: Ready
Paint half the wall.: Light grey prepared

 Mirror: Ready

Buy a new light fixture: Ready

Change the faucet: Bought it

Everything was planned. Except the professional to hang the wallpaper. Mr. Tweaks was hoping there would be no more changes. Third time's the charm????

Hope you all have a wonderful long weekend !

CHANGE OF PLAN

Does it happen with you guys that you visit a store for something and you end up getting something else? Or is it just me? Mr. Tweaks will walk into a store, pick what he is in for and he is out. I can never do that unless I am in a time crunch.

Ok, so I go to Lowe’s to pick paint for the powder room that I was planning to do that weekend. Since no one was at the paint section to help, I walked around the aisle to the clearance rack. There were lots of stuff on clearance in very good condition but nothing that I wanted. I saw 2 rolls of wallpaper. Marked $5 each, from $20.

I stood there for few minutes thinking. Where do I use it?

The color was grey and I liked the design. This is the one.

I picked both the rolls and walked towards the paint section.
There were million thoughts going in my head. Seeing the expression of the couple that walked by my side, I realized, I was talking to myself. Loud. In my native language.

I had a light bulb moment by the time I reached the paint section. I can hang the wallpaper in the Powder room. I decided not to buy the paint that day and sleep over the plan of using the wallpaper.

When I left Lowe’s, I felt I was there for few hours but was actually for only half an hour.

Driving back home, I was mentally making the changes and tweaking my plan.

I was so excited, that as soon as I stepped in the house, I announced to Mr. Tweak: “We are hanging wallpaper in the Powder room.”

The look on Mr. Tweak’s was, “Oh my God, what next.”

He did not respond. And I did not want to do this project without his approval.

Couple days later, I was showing him these pictures (my way of convincing):

Love the color and the Moroccan design on this wallpaper. The chandelier is beautiful. Each of these Powder room had grey wallpapers and were simple, fuss free decoration.

Traditional Powder Room by Wayzata General Contractor BohLand Homes

Traditional Powder Room

Modern Powder Room by Ambler Architect Diane Bishop Interiors

Contemporary Powder Room by Langley Home Staging KASHMIR DHALIWAL FINE REDESIGN.

Traditional Powder Room by Chicago Interior Designer Alan Design Studio

Traditional Bathroom by Alpharetta Interior Designer Great Spaces!

Contemporary Bathroom by Minneapolis General Contractor REFINED LLC

Traditional Powder Room by Nantucket Design-build Shelter 7

Traditional Bathroom by Needham General Contractor Hawthorn Builders

Seeing these beautiful pictures, Mr. Tweaks was convinced that our Powder room could look as beautiful as these. He ended the conversation," Hire a professional to hang the wallpapers. They know their job."
What do you think I did? Did I hire or DIY?

POWDER ROOM INSPIRATION PICTURES

When I decided to do the Powder room makeover, this was my to do list. 

Paint the walls.

 Change the Mirror or work around the present one. (Remember my $100 budget?)

Buy a new light fixture.

Change the faucet.

New towel hooks/ring.

Accessories like framed art above the toilet, soap dispenser, vase or flower pot or plant.

The wall color I wanted to go for was either white or lighter shade of grey since this powder room does not have any window. When I searched for the inspiration pictures, I did not find many that I liked and these are couple I liked, so had them pinned. 

This first picture has the similar layout as our powder room and very similar pedestal sink. I liked the grey wall paint and minimal decor. Except the mirror, which I felt is too big.

Before and After

This was the second picture I liked, again for the wall color. Both these pictures are from the same powder room.

After

So I finalized on the lighter grey color for the powder room. I showed few pictures to Mr. Tweaks and he too preferred a lighter color paint. 

And what else did I find....

I found the faucet for the sink at Lowe's. I loved the chrome finish and yes the price too. $25.

I read the review on the website, which were good and shared them with Mr. Tweaks. His argument was since the price is low, the product may not be good. 

So now where was I with my planning:

Paint the walls.: Light grey shortlisted.

 Mirror: Ready to paint.

Buy a new light fixture: Found it.

Change the faucet: Bought it

New towel hooks/ring.

Accessories like framed art above the toilet, soap dispenser, vase or flower pot or plant.

Now, I was left with few small items and my rollers are ready to roll on the wall.

What color did I paint the mirror? The light fixture?

FOUND MY LIGHT !!

Next thing I found for the powder room was the light fixture. With $80 in my pocket budget, I went on the search. I browsed Home Depot and Lowe's website, and anything I liked was $50 and more. I still had to purchase the faucet and the paint. Me and my big mouth….why do I talk so much? Ah ha…about talking…I can talk well through midnight without a yawn. Ok..now let’s not change the subject.

One evening, after dropping our son to his karate class, Mr. Tweaks and I drove to Lowes to return something. While Mr. Tweaks was returning, I walked over the aisle to have a look at the light fixtures. Mr. Tweaks joined me and saw the look on my face and said, “Go ahead, purchase which ever you like. Forget about the budget”.

Even I wanted to give up...enough was enough... and then I saw this at the end of the aisle on the top most row. It was marked $20 down from $100.

It was like “clouds opened and some rays of sunshine came through and the angels sang” moment.
 

I asked the employee who got the fixture down from the display, the reason for the price slash. He said, it was one of the last piece. Good for me. The metal part can be painted.

At the register, the cashier who took the $20 price tag off the fixture, said it was a good deal. And when she scanned the bar code, she had a surprise look on the face. She scanned it again.
The reason:

Yes, $6.02.

Did I dance and swirl and jump? No, I did not. But mentally I did.

You can see that I bought it in September of 2011. Its an old project.
What color do you thing I painted the metal part of the fixture?