Take Photo

Bathroom Makeover Week! Day Two!

Welcome back to "As the Bathroom Turns".  Yesterday I shared that I am spending this next week getting back to blogging basics and posting about our real life timeline of a guest bathroom makeover we are taking on before we have company next week.  It sure is scary putting yourself out there for everyone to watch along... having to share every single detail that goes wrong and every mistake we make.  Will we be able to get it done in time?  Will the paint colors all work with the shower curtain?  Will the floors go in nicely or will we have a fight on our hands?  Only time will tell....

Day two had a little added drama.  Nothing as awesome as the daily soaps you may indulge in.  No one mysteriously went missing and came back from the dead and no saucy affairs took place {that I know of}.

But let's start from the beginning shall we?

As soon as I published yesterday's post, I literally ran to dig out my primer.  The kids were playing at the neighbor's home and priming is something I can do while my Mr. was at work.


I started by priming the base of the vanity cabinet.  It was installed white, and had a nice glossy finish to keep it easy to clean in the bathroom.  I didn't snap a photo of the primer on the cabinet itself, since you really couldn't even see it.  But it basically went on in a single, nice thin coat.

Then, I put out a drop cloth on the patio table, and brought the vanity doors out there to work on those.


My primer of choice for this project was Kilz Odorless because it is what I had on hand, and I have been very happy with it in the past.  It is an oil-based primer, and I again, did a single nice thin coat.

The back of the can said, "Jen, you only have to wait an hour for the primer to dry and cure before painting."  That made this super excited girl even more excited!  Who's with me?  Waiting is the pits.

So after I waited my hour, yet before I dove in with my paint, I did take a minute to sand down the cabinets with a fine sanding block.


This ensures that any brush strokes are minimized and helps achieve that super smooth finish in the end.


Next came the oh-so-beautiful deep navy blue.  I went with Martha Stewart's Wrought Iron, and had it color matched to Behr's Marquee paint.


I used this paint when working on our patio, and it went on so wonderfully, that I fell for it fast and hard.  I guess that is where the romance in this bathroom drama comes in.  The paint and I needed to be censored for television.

Although it is intended for exteriors, I thought that using it in the bathroom would mean that it could withstand our wild and crazy boys and guests, moisture and water, and hopefully look lovely for a nice long time.  The semi-gloss sheen would also mean that I would be able to easily clean it as well.  Did I mention how nicely it went on? 

Here are the cabinets after my first thin coat.


Ready to set the timer for another hour and finish these puppies up within the same day, this can wasn't as nice.  12-16 hours before re-coating?  I broke it off then and there. 

By now, my hubby was home, and so were the kids.  So he went to work in the bathroom to do what he could.  We had two tasks on the agenda.  Getting the light installed and removing the trim.  First, the light.

I guess when the original medicine cabinet was installed, since the lights were built into the cabinet itself, the wiring went right from the wall to the cabinet.  When we went to install our sconce, the first thing the hubby questioned was how we were going to hold that sconce up on the wall?  What would support it so it doesn't just fall out?


We would need a junction box installed before we could move forward.  Sigh.

So, onto the trim.

Typically you would remove the trim and then paint.  However, My Mr. didn't have the time to remove the trim on Monday night, but I had the time to paint.  I had to take it while I had it.  I knew that once the trim was removed, we would be laying down floors that were taller and installing new trim, so ultimately the new trim would still go above where the old trim and paint met.  I also knew I could easily touch up any spots on the wall where the trim was removed, if necessary.

To get started, the hubby used a painter's multi-tool {basically a fancy spackle tool that can take on a few extra jobs} and slid it carefully behind the trim.


Then, he nicely tapped it with his hammer to get it down behind the trim, and began angling it a bit to pull the trim from the wall.


Once it was removed enough, he used the back of his hammer to finish prying the trim away.


And repeated those steps around the entire perimeter of the bathroom.


Here you can see our trim-less bathroom, and the first coat of navy on the vanity.  You can also see how we organize while we project. HA!


So fail number one was not being able to install the light {and living in a town where you can't quickly run to the hardware store at 6:30 at night because it is already closed}.  Fail number two was one that broke my little heart and almost caused me to flee the scene, only to return in some overly dramatic way ten years from now.

The mirror.

I have been holding onto this white mirror for years.  It came as a hand-me-down from a family member and it is a very simple mirror with a very simple white frame.  I always knew that someday, it would be perfect above this vanity.  We never used the medicine cabinet that was initially in the bathroom since this bathroom had so much storage already.   I was just waiting for the day the medicine cabinet would be gone so I could swap out the mirror.  And it was finally here. 

And apparently, in this soap opera, size matters.  Because my oh-so-perfect mirror was two inches too big.


Guys, I had all sorts of ideas for this mirror.  I was going to do a fun little paint treatment to it, and had been falling asleep each night thinking about how much I was going to love it.

Drama.

And that is what we got done on day two.  Trim removed, vanity primed and first coated.  Renovation Raiders may laugh at the slow progress, but we were excited to have gotten that far.

So today we are off to get the rest of the supplies we need to make another attempt at installing the light fixture, and it is my goal to find a new mirror.  HomeGoods better come through for me, or our guests will be gazing at a blank wall.  I should also get the vanity completely finished up, you know, as long as no illegitimate child shows up at my door to slow me down.

Until tomorrow...