When we moved in 11 years ago, the bathroom walls were white and the shower walls had this paneling-type wall board (my parents used the same stuff for the entire bathroom but not in the tub). I think they did this to make a quick sale because when we removed the curling wall (water wasn't good for this stuff), we found out that someone did a cr@ppy job of tiling around the fixtures (I'd show you a picture but I can't get Adobe Photoshop Elements to cooperate and show you a photo and the file I keep on my desktop has been burned to a CD to clear memory on my computer harddrive so I can't access it the way I usually do - I just hope I printed them already and can find them so I can make a scrapbook page later).
Anyway, I painted the cheap flat white paint into a semi-glossy burgundy, kept the pink tile sine I didn't want to mess with that, and had installed a nice new tub surround. The window was a bit tricky but my old handy man that I hired to do this, came up with a nice way to deal with it I think.
Here are the photos of the completed bathroom - just please ignore the mess (dirt in the corners, caulking tubes, toilet paper out, etc) since I hadn't put everything away yet when I took the pictures.
Here you can see the painted wall, the new shower curtain and the new cabinet that was bought two or three years ago (bought it the same time as the one over the toilet but never put it up until I was able to get this project done because I didn't want paint on it and I didn't want it getting dinged up with the tub walls).
Here you can kind of see the new tub walls, the new bath mat (on the side of the tub so the cat doesn't pee on it) and more of the new painted walls. The mirror was also bought over 6 years ago but we've been using it. You can't see it but the light over the mirror has a bulb with a short in it that we'll still need to figure out what to do with it (can it be fixed? or does it have to be replaced?). I had to remove it off the wall (but we didn't "un-wire" it (or would it be "de-wire" - guess I'll have to ask my DH what the opposite of "wiring" would be) to paint around it and I had further proof that the wall used to be yellow before the cheap white paint job.
We're still trying to figure out how to have these faucets. The hot and cold handles both turn counter-clockwise while the middle handle turns clockwise to make the water flow from faucet to shower head. They look nice all pointing down, but the hot water handle is in the way of the middle shower handle when you are ready to move it. They are just a little too close and the handles hit each other. :(
I thought these colorful daisies were a nice addition to the tub. One other thing we still need to figure out, how to get the water to drain out faster. The tub didn't have a stopper and everything could go down if it could fit into the hole (and believe me, my boys have stuffed quite a few things down there during their baths/showers) so now that we have a cover over the hole, the water doesn't drain very quickly. I was standing in water up to my ankles during my shower this morning.
Now my next home improvement project is to decide what to paint the dining room & hallway and I'll be rid of that cheap white painted wall. Someday, I'd love to be able to push the wall out from the back of my house and enlarge my kitchen and dining area so not sure how far I'll go with redecorating if I paint it.
