How are we already at week 3 of the One Room Challenge? That flew by! The good news is that we have made some progress on the actual work that needs to happen, not just the design plan. So that’s a good thing, right? Hurray for progress!

If this is your first visit to Prairie Girl Home, you might want to get caught up by checking out week 1 and week 2 of our little bathroom makeover.

So what did we get done this week?

We removed the old tile around the toilet, sink and medicine cabinet. My husband in his eagerness accidentally removed one of the shower tiles as well. I tell you, it was VERY difficult not to tell him to just keep going and take it all down! I was so tempted. The problem wasn’t that the tile was hard to remove – it wasn’t! The problem is that we don’t have the time or the money right now to replace it, or at least to replace it with what I would like. Isn’t it funny how these little renovations can quickly become an “if you give a mouse a cookie” situation! If you don’t know the children’s book I’m referring to, basically a mouse asks for a cookie, but then once he has the cookie he wants a glass of milk, and so on and so on until he has asked for so many things that finally he loops back around to asking for milk and cookies again. So I had to restrain myself and my desire to just rip it all down and start from scratch. This reno is all about working with a small budget and using what you have to create something beautiful! So the tile around the tub stays!

We did get two coats of primer up on all of the walls and the ceiling. We just used some leftover primer we had from another project, it didn’t cover as great as I had hoped, so I need to go over a few more spots again.

We also got the wainscoting up! Oh, and by we, I really mean my husband.

He is completely in love with his work, and of course feels we should just stain the wood for a true “cabin” feel. Nice try, hun, but that ain’t gonna happen! He was only joking, he knows I looooove white. I like to ask what his opinion is, but fortunately he completely trusts me with pretty much all of the decor decisions around here, otherwise we would be living in a very dark house with a lot of stained wood, red and plaid! When we’ve finished a project, he usually admits that he didn’t trust my vision at first but that he loves the end result.

I really struggled with the decision about how high to make the wainscoting. It seemed everything I read online said to make it either 1/3 or 2/3 the height of your wall. Ours ended up at 4’9”, or just over half the height of our walls.

I wanted it to be high enough that it covered the entire area behind the sink, as well as that little shelf at the bottom of our medicine cabinet. My husband said he thought it should clear the lightswitch. I thought it should be high enough that we could hang hooks that hold our towels from the trim piece, but still short enough that I could hang artwork just above the trim piece. So we ended up at this height. Now I’m just a little worried I made a mistake. I’m worried that it cuts the room in half and makes our walls look even shorter than they are. Well, quite honestly, we aren’t changing it now. I’m just happy that we have made some progress. Also, things always look so much better once they are painted and the room is finished. The middle of a project is never pretty!

We ended up having just enough boards to finish the wainscoting, so the ceiling will not be planked. It was only a maybe on my idea list, not a big deal. I’m really not too disappointed, maybe next time!

I think our door needs another coat of paint. I used Benjamin Moore Onyx, colour matched in Behr’s semi-gloss interior. I painted all of our interior doors in this, but they have always look streaky when the sun is shining directly on them.

I also made a quick stop to one of my new favourite little thrift shops. I had picked up a frame there a few weeks ago, so I went back to see if they had another similar one. I found it’s twin! Check it out!

The empty frame was $2 and the frame with the oil canvas was $10. I don’t care much for the artwork, I bought it just for the frame.  I’m completely in love with the ornate curvy details. I wasn’t planning on using gold, but it would pop against all the grey beautifully. We shall see. I may end up just spraying them white. Stay tuned. I will also need to DIY some art to go inside of them. I have a few ideas, we’ll see what I can come up with in time.

I also came up with another idea this week, but I really don’t know if I have enough time to complete it before the end of this challenge. I almost forgot about these old tree stumps we have in our garage, that I had planned on turning into side tables.

They’ve been drying out for almost two years, but they still feel very damp. I’m not sure if that’s because they were sitting on the cold concrete garage floor or if it really just takes that long to properly dry them out. The bark has been peeled and we did start sanding them. They need a lot more sanding! I thought one would be cute right beside the tub, where the little white cabinet was. I love the storage cabinet, but it does take up quite a bit of room. I love the idea of a little stool beside the tub where we could set a little book and a cup of tea during a bath. Ah, sounds relaxing, right? I would probably paint it white, or maybe do a white wash, because that’s what I do – paint things white – but they would still look super cute and go with the birch wallpaper I have picked out. I’ll have to see if I have time to get to this little project.

I also decided to pop into a local flooring shop, just to see if they happened to have any remnant pieces that would go with my design plan. I still will probably end up painting the old lino floor with a stencil, like I originally planned, but I’m a little worried about durability. Not to mention it would save a lot of time to just have something new installed, which I’m assuming would only take a few hours at the most. Priming, painting, stenciling and then adding poly to our existing floors is going to be a big job, with lots of drying time required. Did I mention this is our only bathroom? Yikes. I’m not sure how exactly we’re going to handle that one. Quick drives to the corner gas-station? Begging the neighbours to use their washroom? Port-a-potty??? Hmm. I don’t think I really thought this idea through properly! Maybe buying a new sheet of vinyl is the way to go. The shop didn’t have any remnant pieces that I liked, but I did find some interesting options that we could order in.

How completely gorgeous are those mosaic options? It’s almost exactly what I had in mind for a stencil! These are all from a company called Mannington. The patterns I have shown you above are called Filigree and Empire. They both have a few different colour options, but I think all of the ones pictured above could possibly work. I would need to bring in my wallpaper sample to see which option would be the best fit. I’m still not sure what to do, because while these are not insanely priced, we hadn’t planned on doing the floor as well. I’m just not sure I want to invest the time and energy and money into painting the lino when I’m really not sure if it will hold up to use!

So we obviously still have quite a few decisions to make, but here is how our to-do list is looking now.

1. Remove old tile surrounding toilet, sink and medicine cabinet. DONE
2. Prime walls and ceiling. DONE
3. Add wainscoting to lower half of walls. DONE
4. Add trim, prime and paint and add hardware to medicine cabinet.
5. Paint ceiling.
6. Paint trim.
7. Fill the really big knots in the wood, prime and paint wainscoting.
8. Repair chipping grout, prime and paint shower tiles. Silicone around tub.
9. Install window privacy film.
10. Install wallpaper on top half of wall.
11. Install new light fixture above medicine cabinet.
12. Add shelf above door for extra storage???
13. Change out sink faucet. (I think I have decided on one that is affordable, but still keeping an eye out for anything used that might pop up.)
14. Change out toilet. (I’m too cheap for even the cheapest one at Home Depot – $110 – but I think I can find a decent on at the ReStore for $50. I’m not too picky as long as it is just a basic white, round toilet in decent condition.)
15. Prime, paint and stencil old lino floor OR buy new vinyl floor and install.
16. Choose fabric, sew and install sink skirt.
17. Spray paint chandelier, buy battery operated candles, install.
18. Sand and paint tree stump side table???
19. Decorate! (Shower curtain, artwork, hooks for towels, toilet paper holder and other small decor items.)

Hmmm, somehow my to-do list actually got longer, not shorter. Oh dear. Well, we will just have to see what can be done in the next three weeks!

Thanks for stopping by! I will be back next Thursday with more progress. Don’t forget to check out the progress of the featured designers and the other guest participants of the One Room Challenge over at Calling It Home!

As always, you can also follow along with progress updates over on Instagram, @prairiegirlhome.

Kari