If you’re new around here, thanks for stopping by and welcome! I am Lauren Caron, an interior designer and the founder of Studio Laloc, an interior design firm based in Seattle, Washington. On the side my husband and I are remodeling our home that I’ve given its own hashtag #ourseattlecraftsman. We’ve renovated our kitchen, scullery and now we’re on to the Powder Room. This is my first foray in participating in the One Room Challenge partnering with Better Homes & Gardens, and I’m really excited to be a guest participant. I hope you stick around and follow along as we make our 70s bathroom into a modern day jewel box! If you missed last week’s post please check out it via the link below!

WEEK 6 POST

Here we are in the home stretch! I am feeling the heat as we try to pull it all together. Last week the big accomplishment was the wallpaper. I started in the middle of the week, ‘finished’ on Sunday, but moments after I was ‘done’ I made an awful mistake and realized I had a ton more work to REDO.

I hinted at making a huge mistake on my feed and it’s just another classic example of my OCD taking over… In order to be successful at installing wallpaper you have to have a certain level of patience as well as a certain capacity of focusing on details. I would say I am highly detail oriented and slightly patient, but also my focus on details can get the better of me, especially in situations like these.

You see, I had to make a decision on how I was going to handle the beam in this room. Since this space is complicated with a lot of jigs and jogs, applying the paper was not easy. I needed to consider each volume - or wall, and how the paper was going to run on them. With the beam though it creates two vertical volumes and an additional horizontal volume. You also must consider the vertical repeat of the paper when laying it out within the space and how that repeat is going to be affected by the changes in volumes.

In this case, if you were to just run the paper over and down the beam, it would throw off the entire pattern throughout the room. Making one wall off from the rest. Because of that, I needed to figure out how to make the beam look like the paper seamlessly ran across it from the one corner, but also below it to connect with the repeat throughout.

Initially I decided I would treat the volume of the beam as the leading volume and turn the paper’s horizontal repeat at the corner where the beam and the mirror wall meat. Then I would run the paper down the beam, cut it to get the match to line back up with the mirror wall and then be good to go.

That was fine, except in the corner under the beam, to the right of the mirror. When I finished papering the first time, I saw this as an annoying inconsistency. Most people would not even pick up on it, but for me it was a blaring issue. So I decided I would at least fix that one part and leave the wall with the beam as it was. I didn’t love how the tigers would meet up and not match perfectly, but I was willing to ‘follow the rules of the wallpapering game’ so to speak. So as soon as I finished that minor repair, and wiped the excess glue from the corner, the INK WORE OFF the wall with the beam! DAMAGING that entire section! Which then meant I would have to replace that! I panicked and tried to pull the paper down knowing that it wasn’t completely dry. BAD mistake there! It tore the wall apart. Then I realized I would have to remove the rest of the wall…. damaging the wall even further.

This DUMB mistake set us back 5 days worth of progress. Jack would have to repair the wall before we could repaper it. But that would require using this specific drywall sealer called Gardz, which was only easily available from Amazon - not Lowes, Home Depot, or local hardware stores. So I placed the order immediately but with COVID-19 still happening, the one day prime order took 3 days!

While waiting, we couldn’t do much else in the room. The space is so small that adding the vanity back in would not work, and we didn’t want to install any fixtures like the sconce or mirror because they could potentially get in the way of the paper. So we decided to wait until the sealer arrived and then would start the process of repairing the wall, before papering it all over again.

The process involved, having to spackle the wall and sanding it two times, before we could prime it for the paper. 5 days after my initial wallpaper completion, I was able to start back up on papering. I managed to finish it that afternoon. Although I will say it took a lot of math and I was VERY stressed about the whole ordeal. I thought that I had purchased 3 rolls of paper, but was only able to find 2, and I was literally at the end of my second roll. I was certain if I made another mistake we would be in MAJOR trouble. The paper is now on backorder of over 6 weeks! Thankfully, Jack helped me through this and we figured it all out, utilizing as little paper as necessary and finished the wall. I made a few slight changes to my plan and I have to say it looks SO MUCH better! Also, I found the 3rd roll a few days after I finished during clean up!

After completing this room, I can honestly say that I loath wallpapering and even though I plan on torturing myself in the future, I am not looking forward to ever doing it again!

For anyone setting out to do it on their own, you have to make sure you order plenty of extra paper, and do all the proper prep work. The most time consuming aspect of wallpapering in my opinion is figuring out how to lay it out throughout the room. If you don’t plan it out, you will run into issues. And if you do so incorrectly, you’ll end up in my shoes.

THE TO DO LIST

Demo Bathroom - Complete
Remove Pebble Dash from Walls - Complete
Reset plumbing to accommodate new fixtures and design - Complete
shift toilet waste pipe over 3” - Complete
Set electrical placement of overhead light fixture, wall sconce, plugs and switches - Complete
Remove existing window and swap with new - Complete
Create inset for medicine cabinet - Complete
Install insulation - Complete
Sheet rock walls and ceilings - Complete
Mount tongue and groove beadboard paneling - Complete
Set trim around window - Complete
Mud seams and smooth coat over sheetrock - Complete
Fill nail holes in beadboard - Complete
Prime walls & ceiling - Complete
Order door - NA/Complete
Order paint - Complete
Finalize window treatments & order fabric - Complete
Make window treatment - Complete
Install floor tiles - Complete
Install door - In progress
Install baseboards and trim
Paint paneling, trim & ceiling - Complete
Install medicine cabinet - Complete
Wallpaper above paneling - Complete
Modify vanity cabinet drawers to accommodate sink & plumbing
Install plumbing fixtures - Complete
Install countertop and backsplash - Complete
Install hardware fixtures - toilet paper holders, towel holders, etc.
Photograph room

As you can see there are only 5 action items left on our to-do list! I can’t believe we’re almost there! And as always, remember to check out the other One Room Challenge Participants and to follow along on Instagram! And to check out Better Homes & Gardens who has partnered up with ORC as this year’s media sponsor.