Our first major project of the house ended up being a huge ordeal. We had been frustrated with the black, cream and gold wallpaper in the main bathroom since we first started renting - so naturally, painting the bathroom would make a good first project once we owned the house. Plus, the wallpaper was peeling off anyway, so it seemed like this should be a simple job.
This pair of pictures shows off in some detail what we found once we started in on the walls. The top layer (all waterproof vinyl) came off easily in some places but took lots of painstaking effort to flake off afterwards. Below that was the backing layer for the vinyl paper - we used lots of fabric softener and water to remove this. Finally below that was a second layer of backing applied directly to the sheetrock. Argh!
Obviously a previous owner had made an attempt to peel the wallpaper but gave up before removing the original backing and simply papered over it. The worst area was over the shower, where we found a third layer of a waterproof white paper that needed removal as well, probably to protect the walls underneath.
Getting wallpaper off wallboard is a very difficult, time-consuming job. What eventually worked best for us is spraying the area liberally with a fabric softener and water mixture (until it was thoroughly saturated), then using a putty knife nearly parallel to the wall with a lot of force to separate the backing from the walls. The idea is to get underneath the paper and push to force the glue apart. For the most part this worked well, although it left a lot of small nicks and scratches in the cardboard that needed to be patched up with joint compound. A good patching tip: use a wet sponge to "sand" over the joint compound, which helps smooth the surface without producing dust. By the time we were done putting putty on the walls, we were pros with the knife.Finally after tons of prep work we were ready to paint. We used Killz Premium brand primer which was rated well for keeping mildew down, as it's a wet area in here. Then we rolled on two coats of semi-gloss Dutch Boy interior latex paint (in "Freefall" color). Some scratches still showed through afterwards, so I went back with sandpaper and refinished again - this helped cut down on unsightly divots. The end result was a nice blue bathroom to offset our existing orange, yellow and red color scheme. Perfect!
Finishing touches: we replaced the gigantic square mirrors with a pair of nice white-framed hangables from TJ Maxx, and added an over-the-toilet cabinet for storage space. The final paint job isn't perfect: the sink wall was heavily textured before beginning, and the paint job came out uneven since sanding didn't smooth it out properly. We still need to add another cabinet between mirrors to cover that up. Also needed: a towel rack, and pure white replacements for the sockets.
All in all, a good (if very time-consuming) first project for the house. Next up will hopefully be something much simpler. I'm still looking at redoing the floors in the bedroom with laminate, but our daughter has already begun pulling wallpaper down in the dining room, so we will see what comes next.
