My First Solo Project - Guest Bathroom Blah to Beachy

12 Materials
$330
1 Week
Medium

We had built our house two years ago and had never finished the guest bathroom. It was blah, to say the least.

View of the sink from the doorway.
View of the light from the doorway.
View of the toilet from doorway.

Our poor guests had nothing to look at while they were....uh....well....doing their business. I decided, for our guests' sake, something needed to be done about that. I decided on a beachy look. I wanted wood on the walls above the sink and the toilet.

The wood I chose was none other than cedar fence slats at Lowe's. I bought two different sizes--4" and 5.5" wide. While at Lowe's, I picked out the stain which was the "Island Water" color of the water based Minwax stain. First thing I did to the wood, I applied a white primer and let it dry. Next, I applied the blue stain with a sponge brush. Then, I waited just a few minutes (mainly because I'm impatient) then wiped it off with an old cloth. Lastly, I sanded it with 180 grit sand paper.

Sorry about the blurry image

After they were painted and sanded, they were ready to attach to the wall. I used my husband's nail gun and level and nailed them to the studs. (It was my first time and to say I was scared stupid is the understatement of the year.) Since the boards didn't end up being EXACTLY the same length, I added a thick rope in the corners to hide the gaps. (This can be seen in the final pics at the end.)

For the chair railing, I nailed 1.5" trim to the wall above where I had hung wainscoting wallpaper. (**WARNING** You might want to use actual wainscoting if you have cats. :-\ )

I used a hot glue gun and glued five rows of rope on the wooden trim. Believe it or not, that rope is going NOWHERE!

New light!
New mirror!
Framed vacation mementos (shells and such)

I still have a few more touches to add, like a towel holder and some kind of wood art on the empty wall. I'll post photos when I'm done. This was my first SOLO project. Everything was done by "yours truly". This project is what began my love for woodworking. Thankfully, I had a wonderful teacher (my hubby!)


UPDATE...

If you have cats, do NOT use beadboard wallpaper.


Check out my latest Hometalk post on how I fixed the unfixable. The link is below.


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Heather McKinney
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  • Kevin Rayner Kevin Rayner on Mar 28, 2019

    Anyone want a cat??!!

  • Linda Abernathy Linda Abernathy on Aug 27, 2019

    Loved the updated one and will probably outlast the other so it was a good choice anyway. Can you tell me how long it took to complete and an approx cost for the whole bathroom redo? Then I can add another 50% for the screw up's I will make doing it! LOL

  • Lisa Lisa on Jun 14, 2020

    where did you use the General Finishes dye on? I thought the stain was minwax Island blue? What color is the wall paint?

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