Every cloud has a silver lining, as the old saying goes. The downstairs bathroom is one of the smallest rooms in the house, but when it came time to give it a face-lift it proved to be one of the largest tasks. On the original house plans this bathroom had a dual purpose. It served guests and has a door directly to the maids room.
The old wallpaper was dingy looking, outdated and exhibited tears from when they had glued it to the wall. My original plan was to strip the wallpaper and then paint the room. I bought a soft grey paint for the walls. Unfortunately, when I started to strip the paper, I found the walls underneath were not in good condition. The walls would need to be plastered in many places to achieve a smooth finish. Which is probably why there was wallpaper to begin with.
Originally, the bathroom had tile around the bottom half of the wall. This was removed by one of the previous owners. I discovered two layers of wallpaper. The second layer was covered in a paint that did not allow for water penetration. This meant I could not steam it off. Spraying it with water also did not work. Using a razor blade I carefully removed a little at a time, by getting the edges wet enough to break down the bond between the paint and the wallpaper. It was a tedious task that took me a month of starting and stopping before I finished.
Having given up on painting the room, I shopped for wallpaper. From Overstock.com I purchased a silver paper with a background pattern intended to help smooth uneven surfaces.
Putting up the wallpaper was a bit of a challenge. As the room is small there is not a lot of space to work in. The pattern match was not difficult, but as a novice wallpaper installer I found it challenging. Wallpapering around the light fixture and the sink were the most difficult. The room has a behind the wall radiator. The prior wallpaper looked bad over the grill. It took some effort to wallpaper the grill, but I am satisfied with the result.
The overall look of the room is so much better. The wall paper was a good choice to hide the unevenness of the the walls. While I might grouse about the amount of time it took to finish the bathroom I like the new look. Now when guests visit they will be stepping into a shiny silver bathroom.