24 September 2007

Modern Art?


No! It's our bathroom!

This photo shows the the progression of trial and error in our first floor bathroom.

This little disaster started back in May when I decided to remove the heinous wallpaper as a nice little weekend project. Turns out it was practically superglued to the walls. After weeks of peeling off pea-sized pieces, we were left with several large gouges and not much progress. So what's a responsible homeowner to do? We abandoned ship and worked on the other rooms instead.

Having finished the laundry room and the kitchen, we're now back at work in the bathroom, trying to figure out how to salvage it. We purchased some heavy-duty primer to see if we could paint over the wallpaper and stripped areas. Of course, the difference in texture is evident. Scratch that idea. We researched textured paint, looked into professional wallpaper removal, and tried an array of different methods for removing the paper. No go.

Finally (in a desperate attempt to save both bathroom and marriage) we decided to cover up the entire mess with a textured, paintable wallpaper. While we really didn't want to hang wallpaper again, the bathroom walls are in such dire shape (thanks to me) that we don't have many options. Over the weekend, we hung a couple of strips of the textured paper to get a feel for it. As it turns out, the stuff is extremely easy to work with and covers a multitude of sins. It has a troweled, stucco-like appearance...sort of Tuscan, as my friend Sharon would say. Once it's painted, I think it's going to look really nice.

And while I appreciate modern art, I believe the textured wallpaper HAS to be an improvement.

7 comments:

toners said...

LOL! Back in the UK wallpaper is very common; I remember the "fun" my mum and dad used to have trying to remove it... :) Good luck with your project! Be sure and post some "after" pictures for us to see!

Sherri said...

boy does that sound like our first house LOL good luck with the rest of the project

Lynn said...

Ohhh boy, That is some project. See after trying to remove that wallpaper for a day or two I would've just told dh to take down the wall and lets put up new. Thank goodness he knows how to do that kind of stuff. I'm sure the Tuscan/Venetian walls are going to look wonderful. I love that look. I wanted that in my livingroom but dh won that battle.
Janet, thank you so much for your wonderful comments on my blog today. You always seem to cheer me up. I'm sure DJ will be fine with lots of rest. Pretty much that is all he wants to do anyway ... Sleep. Thanks again,,, it truly means a lot.

Stampernmore said...

lol! I can only imagine what that would be like and it would sooo drive me crazy too! Hope the new wallpaper is better.

Maureen said...

A definite improvement indeed! Reminds me of a wall mural in our first home... the previous owners superglued that sucker to the wall too...

Janet said...

Hey, thanks for the encouragement! Don't look for this project to be done anytime soon...we move at the pace of molasses, remember? I'm just happy that we at least have a plan! Janet

Theresa said...

Your comment about moving on to other rooms made me chuckle. If you haven't already done anything you can prime the walls with Kilz. It works great to basically seal in the wallpaper and make it paintable. The Kilz 2 brand doesn't have the odor.