not-so-quick bathroom fix

I have yet to share any pictures of our main bathroom.  There's nothing terribly wrong with it...except for the nasty green sponge paint it was sporting.  It made me cringe every time I've gone in there since we moved in this past May.  Sherwin Williams was having a 40% off sale this weekend so that gave me a good excuse to go buy a can of bathroom paint and fix 'er up!

It was supposed to be an easy project.  There's wainscoating on the bottom half of the walls so the area that would actually require paint was fairly small.  To make sure the green didn't sneak through the light colored paint we chose, we decided to throw a quick coat of primer on the walls.  About 20 minutes later, the priming phase of our bathroom makeover was done.  (Joe manned the roller while I took to the trim and cutting in.  For someone who admittedly isn't very patient, I really enjoy that tedious task for some reason.)

A short while later, I went to check on the primer to see if it was even close to being dry.  It was...but I also noticed something else...bubbles.  There were bubbles forming on two of the walls.  Uuuugh.  That horrible green sponge paint was actually over a layer of wall paper.  People who paint over wallpaper should be thrown in jail.  We couldn't ignore the fact that there was wallpaper under the paint and we certainly couldn't ignore the bubbles on two of our walls.  After several curse words and a few attempts at pulling off chunks of wallpaper, we realized two things:  1.  Whoever papered the wall did an amazing job.  We couldn't even see any seams.  Without the bubbles we never would have known that crap was even on the wall.  2.  The wallpaper was only on two of the walls.  It appears that the paper was only on the walls that were a part of the original bathroom.  We think the original bathroom used to end about halfway between these two windows.  (Warning:  Horrible green sponge paint + still having to use my old, junky camera = a nasty sight...)

So, we spent 20 minutes priming the entire bathroom and another 5 hours trying to scrape wallpaper off two of the walls.  Luckily, the walls underneath the wallpaper were white and in perfect condition so no repairs or additional priming was necessary.

I still want to paint all of the orange-y wood work, replace the fixtures, replace the vanity and install a new steam shower - and Joe wants to install a $5,000 toilet.  We dream big.  For now, we'll settle for a fresh coat of paint.

Scroll on and off the pictures below to see the before and after...

Despite the sweat and patience that was lost during this 'quick" project, it was all worth it.  The bathroom feels twice as big and I don't have that sickly green glow when I look in the mirror.  Well, I still have a sickly glow but that's attributed to pure exhaustion and not green sponge paint.

(In case you aren't able to see the before and after pics above, here's what you missed...)