The last people to live in the house decided to paint the walls and shower surround with milk chocolate brown paint. We are not sure why they did this except maybe to cover all the dirt and mildew instead of actually cleaning it. The cabinet used for a sink was crooked and falling apart with a green laminated countertop. There is a window in the bathroom but no ventilation fan so it stays damp most of the time. The only part that we liked is the original cast iron tub that desperately needs to be refinished.
We started by ripping down the plastic mobile home sheets that were being used as a tub surround. They reminded me of what you would see in a trailer. Under the sheets, we found ship lap which we would have loved to keep but we needed something that was waterproof. We decided to use wooden beadboard instead but we needed to make it waterproof as well.
We rebuilt the frame around the window with a farm house frame and I hope to do this in the rest of the house as we tackle each room. All we did was stack lumber to create a very unique window surround.
We did some searching on the Internet and found someone who had used marine paint to waterproof wood in a shower. Now, marine paint is not something easily found and it turned out to be quite expensive for such a small space, so we decided to use appliance epoxy instead. We had seen it used on another web site and it seemed to work well.
Appliance epoxy comes in a spray can and the fumes are terrible, not to mention that the paint gets everywhere. If we had been smarter, we would have sprayed the paint into a container outside and then painted it on with a paint brush in the bathroom, but evidently we are not that smart.
The paint did go on and we had to wait several hours before we could put on another coat. This gave us time to recover from all of the fumes. We still need to put on a third coat at some point but it seems to be holding up very well.
We used reclaimed barn wood to frame out the front of the tub to add character to the small room. We also used the same wood to line the wall over the sink before we put the mirror up. We love the look of the wood and we are so glad to be reusing wood from a shed that is on the property before we pull it down.
We also replaced the toliet and decided to put in a pedestal sink to maximize room. My husband also built a bookcase at the back of the tub to give us more storage space. We don't have a linen closet so we needed somewhere to put all of the bathroom clutter.
We have been shopping at a local antique shop and we found a cabinet that works well above the toliet for more storage. All of my essential oils and homemade beauty products fit very well there.
All in all, we are very happy with the way the bathroom turned out. We still need to refinish the tub but it is okay for now. We painted the walls a very pale blue, which we don't like but we will repaint soon. It is a small space but it ended up with a lot of character.
