bathroom makeover

How do you handle stress?

Some people eat. Some people drink. Some shop, or garden, or run, or a whole bunch of other activities that are good (or bad!) stress-busters.

It’s a bit different for me, I guess.

I redecorate. Or move furniture around. Or refinish old furniture. Or paint the walls.

This weekend, I wallpapered.

Well, not just wallpapered…I removed the “old” wallpaper I put in my bathroom this winter. I’ve never really been happy with it. It was nice, but not exceptional.

So, I took it down and I’m happy to say that it actually came off even easier than it was reported it would. In fact, it was easier to peel off the long, still intact, full panels of wallpaper than it is to peel off those annoying price tag stickers.

It was down in less than 10 minutes. And the paint on the walls was still in perfect shape.

After it was down, I realized that I hadn’t even taken any pictures of it…so what you see here was the pre-wallpaper (on one wall only) look.

Of course, I had a new plan before I started this little adventure. I saw another wallpaper that I really loved a little while ago. But it wouldn’t work in my bathroom because of the brown-ish laminate countertop.

So finally, I decided to try my hand at painting the countertop because I didn’t want to cough up the cash to replace it.

It’s not that hard, although I was a bit nervous. But I did my homework and then asked for extra guidance before buying the materials. All you need to do is:
• Clean the existing countertop
• Give it a quick, light sanding
• Clean it again. Then clean it again (!)
• Use a dense foam roller to give it one even coat of melamine paint
• Wait for it to dry
• Give it another coat
• Wait for it to dry
• Be careful and treat it gently for about a day or so to give it time to dry and harden

That’s it. Now it’s a fresh, clean and updated white laminate countertop and I couldn’t be happier with the results! (Note: I wouldn’t do this to kitchen countertops…)

Now that the countertop was taken care of, I splurged on the wallpaper I loved and got to work. Instead of tackling a “feature wall”, I decided to go bold and do the whole bathroom.

It’s a bold pattern, but it’s got a sort of vintage-y feel too. Brown, teal and metallic keeps it from looking like grandma’s bathroom.

It makes me happy. What else can I say?

Mixed with the existing white, glass, and brushed nickel accessories, it came together even better than I envisioned. Tres chic.

I’m not going to lie…it was a big job. Lots of nooks and crannies in a bathroom to paper around. A sharp exact-o knife for trimming and a lot of patience are key.

And when I noticed that I was getting a bit sloppy, I stopped for a break (and went outside to enjoy the beautiful weekend!)

Well, it’s Sunday night, the job is done and I’m feeling a lot less stressed than I did at the end of last week. Some good physical labor and something different to focus my brain on always does the trick to blast any stress away.

Just in time for Monday to roll around. Sheesh.

Now, I really ought to think about learning to run…




For more about rouge, visit www.littlered.ca or check out past blogs at www.justalittlerouge/blogspot.com