Neutrality

It's been a busy week!  Since I took down all the hardware in my bathroom, including the shower curtain and mirror, I haven't really been able to use it at all, so I've been motivated to get moving on my big makeover project.  Before I could get started with the painting, I had to do a lot of prep work to get everything ready. 

My first challenge was to try to figure out whether or not I could remove these anchors that had been securing the screws holding in all of the hardware.

I talked to the guy at the hardware store, and he told me that you could just unscrew them if they were Phillips head types (some of them were), and if they weren't, then you're supposed to just push them back into the wall.  I expressed my shock at this - how can the most elegant solution be to just hammer the hell out of it?  Well, I checked the internet and sure enough it confirmed that that is the preferred solution.  At least it provided an answer to one nagging question, which was what on earth happened to create these holes?

Remember, these are the ones where in unscrewing the hardware, I ended up pushing something back behind the wall?  Well, apparently that's what's supposed to happen.  Then you're supposed to just patch up these holes and move on.  So there were some easy Phillips head anchors that I easily pulled out, and then there were a bunch of other ones that were the less-helpful kind.  These I did try to hammer a bit, but just felt like if I did any more I was going to do some serious structural damage to the wall.  So I stopped when they were pretty flush, and decided to try to fix the rest of it by spackling it up real good.

After doing all the remaining holes like this, I let it dry and then sanded it down to get it flat.  I actually did it a couple of times if I felt like it wasn't totally flat.  Here's what it looked like at that stage in the process:

After getting all of that done, I gave the walls, baseboards, shower, and countertop a wipedown so that I could start painting.  (You'll have to forgive the dirtiness of the tub - it will also get a wipedown once everything is a little more organized)  So without further ado, here's the new look!

Isn't it funny how close the new color of the walls is to the color of the tub?  That was totally unintentional, but I think it's a happy accident.  If you look up at the picture of the tub with the yellow walls, it really emphasizes the difference in the color of the tube from the white floor and trim and just ends up looking dingy.  With this new color, it kind of blends into the walls and looks better, I think.  I mean, don't get me wrong, that tub has to go eventually, but this helps me live with it a while longer.

The color is a nice change of pace.  It's definitely a more relaxing, but more refined color.  Here's a picture I found for inspiration of where I'd like to go with this eventually.

I think this coloring will tie in nicely with the other colors in the house - I'm really into the "natural" colors of the brown and the green, apparently.  I think it'll also just be a calmer room, in comparison to the yellow, which was not a bad color, but very intense.

While it was nice that this painting took me a relatively short amount of time because of the small size of the room, it was also one of my biggest challenges.  I kept backing up or bumping into walls every time I turned around, which resulted in a lot of awesome smudging.

So, to review what needs to happen next, here's the list:

1. Take down hardware

2. Buy tool to remove coat hook screws and spackle over holes

3. Remove anchors for mirror and spackle over holes

4. Spackle over nail holes

5. Clean baseboards and walls

6. Paint!

7. Replace shower curtain rod

8. Buy new shower curtain, towels, and rug

9. Replace shower head

9. Buy and install new mirror

10. Buy and install new towel rod, toilet paper dispenser, and coat hook(s)

11. Think about shelving and how to create additional space

12. Buy and install new shelving

13. Figure out how to cover enormous holes where hand towel holder was

14. Buy and install new hand towel holder

15. Buy and install new lighting

The coat hook was the only one of the hardware thingies that I couldn't remove yet, because it has completely different square-shaped screws, which I couldn't find a tool to fit.  The next thing I'm trying is borrowing one of those little IKEA wrenches to see if that works.  If not, then it's back to the hardware store.  Once those screws come out, I will still have to spackle and paint the holes.

But that might tie in just fine with some other spackling and painting that I think I need to go back and do.  Once I got all the paint up, it was easier to see where my spackling had been less successful, and where you could still see a little bit of the anchors poking through.  

I'm not tooooooo worried about it, because I think in most cases the new hardware will just cover up where these spots are, but I want to give it one more shot with the spackle to see if I can flatten it out a bit more.  

With those wee projects, and shopping for a new mirror and shower curtain, I'll be busy again this week.  Till next time!