What happens when you begin a DIY powder room remodel with a four-month-old, while going back to work? Oh! And don’t forget the pandemic (hello, shipping delays)! Well, chances are it will take you much longer than you think to get it all done! 😉 But today, more than six months after starting this project, I’m sharing a look at our new powder room and details on what our DIY remodel entailed.

For those of you who missed it, we moved into our home in the summer of 2020 when I was six months pregnant. Of course, my biggest focus last year was creating a designated space for our baby and getting the main communal areas into a functional state. I also put a lot of the little energy I had at that time into designing the nursery. It remains my favorite room in our house, which I guess is a good thing seeing as I am in there every morning and night – much, much more than I realized I’d be before Liam arrived!

So, as last year was coming to a close and I had a couple months of motherhood under my belt, I began thinking about the next room I’d focus on. The powder room came to mind first for a couple reasons. First, it’s a room almost everyone who visits us uses. Second, it made me claustrophobic every time I went in there. The previous owners installed a large cabinet above the toilet and there were multiple safety bars and large towel bars nailed to the wall. It just felt like too much for a small space!

Fast forward to February, and I had a vision for the powder room. I wanted something brighter, with white paneling and wallpaper. I already shared the inspiration for the powder room with you all so I won’t re-hash that. But, if you are looking for similar bathroom ideas, check out that post! Now, here’s a look at the starting point, how the powder room looked before we got our hands on it.

BEFORE

How We Remodeled the Powder Room

We started gathering supplies in January and started the deconstruction process in early February. With a lot of help from Will, we remodeled the powder room completely on our own. Here’s a run down of exactly what we did from start to finish:

Removed the cabinet above the toilet and all fixtures that would be replaced — shelf above the sink, towel bars, toilet paper holder, mirror, and light fixture.
Removed baseboard, trim and the entire sink in order to install paneling.
Cut down all the trim and baseboard to fit. Thankfully, Will made all these cuts! This part was tricky and required another Home Depot run because I realized the original trim piece would not fit at the top of the paneling the way it needed to.
Installed bead board paneling, followed by the trim and new baseboard. Will showed me how to use a nail gun and it was super easy once I got going.
Painted paneling, trim and baseboard. We used Benjamin Moore Simply White and love how it brightened up our space without looking sterile. There’s a slight warmth to this white that really compliments our wood floors too. I got samples of other white paints and was shocked how different some of them looked once in our powder room. There were bizarre purple and green tones coming through. DEFINITELY get samples if your room does not have windows like ours. I think that makes it trickier to know how paint and different colors will show up.
Installed wallpaper! This was one of the more timing consuming steps. The wallpaper I first ordered ended up not working. The repeat of the design was much greater than it appeared online and in hindsight I should have asked the seller for those details. I ended up with several panels that were a few inches too short. So, I had to either place a whole new order for the original wallpaper or find something else. I debated what to do for a while. Then, I stumbled across this wallpaper and decided to go for it! The geometric floral print struck the balance between being overly feminine and super masculine. Even though I had to remove the wallpaper I had just installed a reinstall new, it worked out in the long run. I love our wallpaper and highly recommend it to anyone who wants to install some on their own. It was very easy to work with.
Uninstalled old sink faucet and installed a new polished nickel faucet to the sink. We opted to keep the porcelain pedestal sink that was in the powder room and just updated the faucet to match the towel ring and toilet paper holder.
Caulked around where the wallpaper met the trim. This is an easy way to make DIY wallpaper look like a professional did it.
Touched up paint.
Installed new light fixture, towel ring, toilet paper holder and mirror. The mirror was an awesome budget find. I loved that the wood coordinated with our floors and the size of it doesn’t overwhelm our small powder room.
Placed photos in the wooden frames (They were backordered for 2 months, but they were worth it. I love them!!) and hung them above the toilet.
Hung frames and did all the little finishing touches – set up tissue box cover, soap dispenser, monogrammed hand towel and our trash can (similar).

Here’s a look at our work in progress. The paneling and trim above was installed but not painted at that point. The original wallpaper I went with is also shown above. Unfortunately, I got two-thirds around the room before realizing the panels I had left were too short!

AFTER

So, there ya have it. Our DIY powder room remodel was officially done in mid-July when the last piece – the frames for above the toilet – finally arrived. Despite, the shipping delays and the wallpaper fiasco that added a lot of time to this project, I’m so happy with the way it turned out.

Through this project, I realized there’s an extra level of satisfaction and empowerment that I get from chipping away at a home project and transforming a space into something that is mine. It’s easy to say this is not the last home project for us. It’s only the beginning and I’ve already bought supplies for the next one. I’ll share more soon.

If you’re remodeling a bathroom or did one recently I would love to hear all about the details and inspiration behind it!

Cheers!

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