Sunday, April 25, 2021

A Bathroom Refresh and How To Remove Crackle Paint

Every winter I like to do an indoor home remodeling project.  We've lived in our house for almost twenty five years now, and let's just say, it was starting to look pretty dated and needed a "refresh".

 The past five years or so I've been pretty busy turning my son's old bedroom into a Beauty Room, transforming my daughter's old room into a Guest Room, giving a fresh look to our Master Bedroom, and even adding a Bedroom to My Living Room. This winter I really outdid myself, as I not only finished painting my entire sunroom and craft room white (more on that in a later blog post) but also giving a very dated bathroom a fresh look.

This year, I had only planned on painting the sun room and the craft room white to match the family room that I had painted the previous year.  All the rooms are open and connected to each other, so I really wanted just one cohesive color.  Well, even though that was a big project as the rooms are quite large with high ceilings, I ended up finishing it a lot sooner that I thought I would;   SO, I decided to scratch another room off my "To Do" list, not realizing how long this small room would take to finish.

Before I show the "Before" picture, here is the remodeled version:



BEFORE                                                    AFTER



Now you're probably wondering why this little room took me so long.  It's because when we bought the house I "Cracked" the walls with Crackle Paint.  Ugh!  It was one of the biggest mistakes of life.  At the time everyone did special painting effects on their walls and the "Tuscan" look was really in style.  I thought it would be really cool to have walls that looked like they were cracked with age.  


But the crackling effect was a disaster as the room always felt and looked dirty.  And worse yet, every time someone showered the hot steam would cause the paint to peel off the wall.  If you look on the left side of the picture where I handwrite the wore "Before", you can see the peeling paint.  The middle and right of the picture is what the walls looked like as I was painfully stripping layer, after layer of paint.


To remove the crackle paint, I first googled "How to remove crackle paint".  The advice was, "Just scrape the old paint off and prime over it.".  I tried it, and the second I primed over it, the paint cracked again.  In the picture below, you can see what the wall looked like when I first just used a putty knife to scrap away the old, flaky paint.


Well, scraping and priming didn't work, so onto Plan B.  I did more research and was told to use paint stripper on one post but other posts said "Don't use paint stripper, it will destroy your walls!".  I felt I had no choice, it was either paint stripper,  or cover the walls with wallpaper.  So I bought the gentlest stripper there is,  Citris Strip.  I had to paint the stripper on THREE TIMES, and use a heavy duty paint scraper after each coat.  In the picture below you can see where the brown paint is that's after two layers of stripper, and the green/yellow color is after three layers of stripper.  


Once the walls were stripped of paint as much as possible (even after three attempts, I still couldn't get all the paint off), I then used a paint thinner to remove the goo left behind by the stripper, and then I had to sand.  It was a very long, tedious process and I wanted to burst into tears and cry multiple times.  The only way I got through it all was I kept picturing in my mind how beautiful the room would look when I was done.

The picture below shows the wall after the process was finished, and waiting to be primed.  Notice, how after all the stripping and sanding I STILL could not get all the brown paint off the wall, but I crossed my fingers, and went ahead and primed the walls anyway.

When I was done priming the walls, only a few spots continued to crackle, so I took some Spackling and applied it over the crackling paint, and that seemed to do the trick.  No more cracked paint!


After priming, I painted two coats of semi-gloss "China White" on the walls, and did a high-gloss white on all the trim and the interior of the closet.  Even though I never changed the flooring, the sink, cabinet, or fixtures, it felt like a brand new room!  The room now feels so clean and fresh.  The tired, dated, dirty old look was gone!

Now let's take a tour of my new bathroom shall we!  This is the room if you were just entering it from the hallway.  I did not buy any new decorations for this room, I used old decorations I already had.

The room faces west and has two large windows that bring in a lot of light, so I hung a plant in the window.  The chair was always in the bathroom, but it used to be white, and I painted it with black chalk paint to match the picture on the wall and the lighting fixture.


I kept the same bath rugs as I did not think they were ready to be replaced yet, plus, my cat loves them and I knew he would not be happy if I got rid of them 😀.  But, I did get new window curtains, a new shower curtain, and new towels.


I love the look of hotel bathrooms, they always look so fresh with all white linens, and I wanted my home bathroom to have that same "clean, fresh feeling".  I found this white shower curtain at Home Goods.


The lace panels inside the windows have always been there, and I kept them for privacy reasons,  but the white curtains are new and are from TJMaxx.

The round table was also always in the bathroom, I just added some new decorative pieces like a mirrored tray, a trinket box, and an African violet.  All these items were actually in other parts of the house, and I just relocated them.


I did pick up a new ivy plant from Walmart.  The macrame hanger I already owned, but I purchased it from Amazon.


The beautiful light this room gets, plus the steam from the shower, make the plants very happy.  

The pretty little pot the African violet sits in is new this year from Michaels.



The only new fixture to the bathroom is this wall mount lighted magnify mirror.  Every time we stay in a hotel room, I would fall in love with these mirrors and wished I had one of my own.  So I looked on Amazon and found this one!  


I cannot recommend this mirror enough!  It lays flat against the wall when not in use.  When you want to use it, just pull it out away from the wall.  It has two sides:  one is magnified and the other is not.  Both sides light up.  


The shelf and all the decorations were already in the bathroom, I just moved the decor around a little and gave the shelf a fresh coat of white paint.

I basically use the shelf to store Q-tips and cotton balls in antique containers.  Also on the shelf are decorative soaps and air freshener along with a couple of decorations.





On the wall to the left of the toilet is an old picture that has been hanging in this same spot ever since we bought the house.  I've always loved this picture, and I saw no point in replacing it.



I think this Bathroom Refresh is a great example of how you don't need to do a big remodeling project to update a room.  The bathroom has the same flooring, cabinet, counter top, mirror, and light fixture it always had...but simply painting the room a modern white and adding fresh window treatments and a new shower curtain, brought the room out of the 90's and into 2021!

I couldn't be happier with my new bathroom.  I love how bright, clean, and fresh it looks.  I love how the sun streams through the windows, and how happy my plants look in the space.  It was really worth all the effort and time to transform it.

Have A Great Day!  Amy






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25 comments:

  1. I like changes that you made. Your bathroom look so clean and fresh now.

    New Post - https://www.exclusivebeautydiary.com/2021/04/guerlain-shalimar.html

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  2. Yes, they were very interesting, that's why I painted over them.

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  3. How frustrating that it took so long to get the old paint off! I think it was worth the effort though as the room looks so light and airy now, you did a great job! :)

    Hope that you had a good weekend! It's a nice relaxing long weekend for us.

    Away From The Blue

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    1. It was such a frustrating experience, but so worth it Thanks Mica.

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  4. Our bathroom is in desperate need of a refresh, especially the tile inside the shower/tub!!!
    I can imagine your frustration trying to strip the wall but it turned out wonderfully and love how it's so light and bright there now with the pretty ivy.

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    1. I would have loved to put a new tub surround in, but the one we have is still in good shape, but I did get some new handles as the old ones were rusting out. Bathrooms and kitchens are always the hardest room to remodel aren't they. Perhaps that's why we see so many dated bathrooms and kitchens when we look at homes for sale. Yes, it was totally frustrating, but now that it is over, it was worth it.

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  5. Wow.. what an incredible job. Paint really is a miracle worker.

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  6. What a beautiful room! That sounded like it was SO much work but well worth it in the end.

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    1. Thank you! It definitely was a lot of work, but I was worth it. I should never need to do anything else to this bathroom for the rest of my life.

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  7. Looks amazing Great job Cris

    http://www.photosbycris.com.au/?p=14593

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  8. This turned out so beautiful Amy. That is so much work to get the old paint off that way. The things you don't realize...ugh!!
    OXOX
    Jodie
    www.jtouchofstyle.com

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    1. Thanks Jodie! No, I never dreamed it would be so hard to remove the crackle medium. I thought I could just paint over it...wrong. Well, we learn by our mistakes, don't we?

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  9. wow, that looks AMAZING now! isn't it amazing how trends are very near sighted and you don't really think about what will happen when you decide you are OVER it. i got exhausted just by reading how hard it was to repaint this bathroom, so i am sure all of the tears were well deserved. it looks so peaceful and serene now!

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    1. Thank you so much. Yes, I so agree about trends. They are just so in style at the time that you can't even imagine when they will be out of style. I wonder the same about the Modern Farmhouse trend. I'm seeing so many houses being built on that theme too and I wonder if they will look dated in 10 years?

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  10. Looks great! Thanks for linking up with Happiness is Homemade!

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  11. The bathroom looks great! I totally relate to the Tuscan style getting me in a bit of hot water as well. Although not as distressing as changing your wall, I added textured paint and a glaze above the chair rail in my dining room. I am about to paint it a crisp and clean greige but I am not removing the texture. I just can't. You were quite the trooper and again, the end result is amazing. Thanks for sharing with #omhgww. See you next week.

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    1. Thank you! I'm so happy someone can share in my misery about the Tuscan style. I didn't mention it here, but I also stuccoed my entire 1500 square foot sunroom when the Tuscan style was in, and then I faux painted it. I have since repainted it white, but no, I did not remove it either. It actually looks quite nice painted white. Oh trends! They do get us in trouble don't they? I guess it's best not to go overboard with trends. Every time I see someone cover their walls in ship lap I wonder if they will regret it in 10 years. ha ha.

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  12. Amy this is an amazing transformation so bright and clean. I love all the space in the bathroom. Thank you for joining on on #omhgww each week and hope you will join us again soon! Theres a surprise next week!♥

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    1. Oh, thanks so much! I can't wait to see what the surprise is!

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  13. Amy, it looks amazing! I do love the brighter colors for a small bathroom space. It sounds like a nightmare though that you were not prepared for with all that paint stripping! I can totally relate to starting a project and then having it bring you to tears when it becomes so much more work than you had anticipated! But the end result is wonderful! Thanks for sharing the process and your photos with us.

    Shelbee
    www.shelbeeontheedge.com

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    1. Thanks Shelbee! I'm glad you can relate. I thought I'd have the room done in a week cause it was so small, and it ended up taking months.

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