If this is your first visit to Prairie Girl Home – welcome! I am glad you stopped by!

Currently we are participating in Calling It Home’s 6 week, One Room Challenge and we are giving our outdated 1955  bathroom a cottage glam makeover. If you missed the updates from the previous weeks, you can find them here:

Week 1 – Our Cottage Bathroom Makeover

Week 2 – Our Cottage Bathroom Design

Week 3 – Cottage Bathroom Progress

Week 4 – Trim, Paint and Other Progress

So that brings us to today. Week 5. I’m pretty sure we could also label week 5 as the week mama goes crazy, cries in a corner and says, “I just want this to be over so I can have my house back!” Yup. We are at that point in the renovation. The point where the rest of the house is completely suffering, just because of one little tiny room makeover! At first, it was just one other room that became a mess – my office. After five weeks, the mess has now spilled over into every room. So if anything, I can’t wait to be done this little makeover because it means all of the paint cans and supplies can be put away and our house can go back to normal! Did I mention that we took this bathroom reno on just as we finished up our kitchen reno? So it’s basically been 3 months of chaos. It’s time to end the madness!

So what did we accomplish this week? Quite a bit of patching, caulking, sanding, priming and painting. When I left you last week the wainscoting had received one coat of primer. After that one coat a lot of the imperfections in the wood were showing up. I find that after the first coat of primer, you can really see clearly what needs to be patched. So I ended up spending a lot of time caulking gaps, filling holes, sanding and then repeating those steps when things still weren’t looking right. After all of that, the wood got a second coat of primer.

The wood really soaks up the primer! Tomorrow, all of the wainscoting will get it’s first coat of paint. I’m sure it will need at least two coats.

The medicine cabinet has been trimmed out and has been fully primed. I’m loving the transformation so far!

Here is what we started with:

Here it is today, after we trimmed out the mirrors and added some very basic trim to the top and bottom.

I am always amazed at the power of simple trim and paint. Seriously, the change gets me every time. If you can’t afford to make any other changes in your space, just tidy up and paint! You won’t regret it.

The cabinet still needs a couple of coats of paint. This is just primer. We will also be adding some pretty little knobs. It’s all about the details! Oh, and the mirror is a mess because I never bother taping off mirror or windows when I paint. It takes far less time to just scrape off the paint with a razor once you are finished than it does to tape everything off. There’s my painting tip for the day. Don’t waste your time taping off glass or mirrors – just paint them!

My sweet husband was kind enough to give the ceiling a couple of quick coats of paint. For that we used Dulux brand kitchen and bathroom paint, eggshell finish, colour matched to Benjamin Moore’s Chantilly Lace. The cabinet, wainscoting, trim and shower tile will also all be painted in Benjamin Moore Chantilly Lace, but for those we are using their Advance paint. We had quite a bit leftover from when we painted our kitchen cabinets. Since this is a budget makeover, I am all about using what we have on hand! Benjamin Moore Advance is a water based alkyd paint and is designed for use on furniture or cabinets. The guy at my local paint store thought that it would also hold up pretty well in a bathroom. Let’s hope he is right!

If you are looking for a not too warm, but not too cold, clean, white paint colour, try Benjamin Moore’s Chantilly Lace. Our entire living room, dining and kitchen is done in that colour and we’ve been quite happy with it. It also just so happens to almost perfectly match the white in the wallpaper we chose, so that was a happy accident. Don’t you love those?

Prepping the tile was a tedious, time-consuming job. Isn’t it always the prep that just about makes you want to quit? I despise paint prep. The actual painting is never nearly as bad as the prep. I’ll even go so far as to say that I love applying the first coat of paint. Seeing that initial transformation is always the most exciting. Now the second, third or even fourth coats of paint – those I am not nearly as fond of!

I plan on coming back soon to share a more in-depth how to on the painting of this tile, but here it is after a lot of scraping off of old silicone and chipping grout, repairing the spots that were missing grout, scrubbing, caulking around the window trim, more scrubbing and finally – primer.

I used Dulux brand “Gripper” primer. It is designed to adhere to tile. I am thinking I should probably do one more coat of primer and then I can move on to paint. Let’s hope the Advance paint holds up!

I also got around to sanding the tree stump that will be made into a little stool/side table. I thought the sanding would take forever, but it really shaped up nicely after about 45 minutes or so.

Originally I had planned on painting it white, but I’m having second thoughts and I might just end up sealing it as is, or staining it just a touch darker before sealing it. I think it will be gorgeous either way. I’m so happy I made for this little project! I think it is going to add so much to the room.

So we obviously still have quite a ways to go if we are going to finish up this week. First up, a lot of painting! My mom has lovingly offered to come and help me wallpaper on Saturday afternoon. This room is tiny, but there are a lot of corners, a window, a door, a light fixture, a cabinet and a shower surround to work around. That is a lot of tiny cuts! Here is the wallpaper, from Bouclair Home.

I ordered the new vinyl flooring, but unfortunately it won’t be here in time for the reveal next week. This is the pattern I decided on, Filagree Iron by Mannington.

I’m in love with it. Love, I tell you. I’m a little sad it won’t be here in time for the final reveal, but it will be worth the wait. I am hoping to at least get a couple of coats of primer down on our old lino in time for the reveal next week. If I don’t, I’m afraid all of our hard work might be for nothing because the yellowy/beige floor will stick out like a sore thumb next to all of the beautiful bright white!

Here is how our to-do list is shaping up:

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. STARTED
5. Paint ceiling. DONE
6. Prime and paint trim. STARTED
7. Fill the really big knots in the wood, prime and paint wainscoting. STARTED
8. Repair chipping grout, prime and paint shower tiles. Silicone around tub. STARTED
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? (We definitely will be adding this at some point in the future, but I’m not sure if we will have time for it this week. Stay tuned!)
13. Install new sink faucet.
14. Change out toilet. (I don’t think this will happen in time for the reveal next week. The new vinyl floor will not be arriving in time for the reveal and it makes no sense to replace the toilet now, only to have to disconnect it when the floor is installed in a couple of weeks.)
15. Prime, paint and stencil old lino floor OR buy new vinyl floor and install. (New floor ordered, but will not be arriving until May 25th. Will do a quick paint job on old lino.)
16. Choose fabric, sew and install sink skirt.
17. Spray paint chandelier, buy battery operated candles, install.
18. Sand and paint or stain tree stump side table. (I am ridiculously excited to finish this little project! It is going to add such a natural touch to the bathroom.)
19. Decorate! (Shower curtain, artwork, hooks for towels, toilet paper holder and other small decor items.)

There are still a lot of details that need to be decided on. I’m excited to get the “dirty” part of this makeover done with and move on to the “pretty” part. Decorating! I still have a lot of details to decide on – but that’s the part I enjoy the most. Seeing how everything is coming together, and then adding those finishing touches.

Many thanks again to Linda from Calling It Home, for creating and hosting the One Room Challenge. Don’t forget to check out the featured designers progress, as well as the progress of the other guest participants.

Thank you so much for stopping by. Feel free to leave a comment below (if the comment box isn’t showing up below, just click the “comments” link right beside the date at the top of this post) or you can find me over on Instagram. I hope you’ll come back next week for the final reveal of our cottage glam bathroom makeover!