Last year we were blessed to find and purchase our dream home. As exciting as it is to be moving into our new home, the time has finally come to address the unfinished projects in our current home; the extra bathroom.
The one room we knew we had to tackle before we put the house on the market was our extra bathroom upstairs. It was sooooo stuck in the 80’s. The door was closed and the room was ignored for years. No one dared to enter, it was so ugly it made your eyes bleed just to look at it! LOL!
The floor was a dingy, dirty, yellowed linoleum that was curling up along the edges. All the fixtures were a dated antique brass finish, circa 1986. Add golden oak cabinets, a blue toilet seat (what was I thinking?), faux marble counter tops, and a kitty cat wallpaper border and you have one of the ugliest bathrooms on the planet.
At least we couldn’t make it worse, any changes we were going to make could only make it look better, right? Luckily the room had good bones to work with, we just had to peel away the ugly dated finishes and start from scratch.
The first order of business was to gut the entire bathroom to the drywall, except for the bathtub and the white tile surround. Because it was used so little over the last 30 years, it was in surprisingly good condition. A little dusty but otherwise it was in good shape; this saved us quite a bit work and money by not having to rip it out and start from scratch. But the linoleum floor, oak vanity, sink, countertop, florescent light box fixture, towel bars, toilet, and mirror? They all had to go!
Once we demoed the bathroom it was time to address the board and batten treatment we wanted to apply to the walls. It wasn’t hard to do, there are no complicated cuts to make, no mitered corners, just measure each length of wood and make straight cuts. We used primed MDF lumbar for all the board and battens and all the trim. The horizontal boards along the bottom (that serve as the baseboards) and the top rail are 4 inches wide. The vertical battens are 3 inches wide. The trim along the top is 1 1/2 inches in width.
We used glue and then nailed the boards in place. We then caulked along the edges of the boards and then painted it all a nice crisp white in a semi gloss finish. We chose a darker grey color for the walls above and it really pops against the white. It’s such a lovely contrast and looks stunning!
It’s a real showpiece and makes quite a statement.
We purchased an inexpensive mirror and trimmed it out with additional pieces of MDF boards cut to size to give it more of a presence.
We tiled the floor and used the same tile for the top of the vanity. Repeating the same tile on the floor and vanity created a more cohesive look to the room.
project that almost anyone can tackle with good results.
Out of all the home improvement projects we have completed, I have to admit that this room is my favorite, and it was actually one of the least expensive remodels we completed. Painting the room would have been the easiest and quickest way to update the room, but I’m glad we took the extra time and effort to install the board and batten treatment.
The board and batten treatment is such a lovely architectural element and really elevates the look of the entire room! It gives the room much more interest and character than just painting the walls would have.
towels really adds a spa like luxurious ambiance to the room.
Bathrooms have a lot of smooth hard surfaces that can make the room feel cold, but adding stacks of white towels and a soft fluffy white robe helps to soften things up a bit and give the room a more spa like feel.
Now all I need area few candles and a glass of wine so I can take a nice leisurely soak in the tub and admire all our hard work before we sell the house and move on.
Have I inspired you to try adding a board and batten treatment to one of the rooms in your house? If you can use a measuring tape, use a saw to make straight cuts, and use a hammer, then you too can create this treatment on any wall in your home. If you decide to give this a try, please share your pictures! I would love to see how it turns out for you!