Kids Bathroom Makeover—Installing Board and Batten

A couple of weeks ago I gave you this sneak peek at our kids bathroom makeover.  And I think a few people were wondering at my interesting choice of color for the walls as it looks a little like pea soup.

But there was a reason I chose this particular shade of green.  And that reason would be this FABULOUS shower curtain I found at the CSN store:

Don’t you love it?  I looked for a shower curtain high and low and everywhere in between!  I was beginning to think that the perfect shower curtain just didn’t exist.  And then I found this baby.  (And just as a side note—it was $21.99 but it came with a small flaw in the fabric and so I called them and they knocked $10 off the price—so I only paid $11.99 for my PERFECT shower curtain!!—and you can’t even see the flaw—can you?)

Then we decided to add some fun and interest to the walls of the bathroom.  I had found these instructions from one of my favorite blogs (320 Sycamore) for an inexpensive way to do board and batten and knew this would be perfect for this room.

So we purchased a bundle of inexpensive Lath pieces from Home Depot.  My hubby sanded them down and we installed them about 10” apart. 

Even I wielded my little pink hammer for this project.  And oh how we wished we had a nail gun.  But even still, installing the pieces was quick and easy.

Next we added a 1 x 4 piece of primed MDF for the top.

Then my hubby filled all the holes and sanded them all down.

Next it was up to me to caulk all the edges and paint it up.  This was the time consuming part.  But I think it turned out awesome!

Next we added some handy little towel hooks and put up my FAVORITE bathroom art: pictures of MY BABIES.

Its not 100% finished yet.  We still need to paint the trim around the door (and I would like to paint the vanity cupboards eventually as well) and we are going to be framing up the mirror as well.  Oh yah, and I also think I might want to paint those picture frames.

But for now—I think we can call this bathroom improved.

Before:

After:

And now we can check another room off our list!

Kids Bathroom Sneak Peek

We have been up to a fun project in our kids bathroom.  I can't wait till it is all finished and I can show you the finished product.  But for now I am going to give you a little sneak peek!

So lets remember where we started. 

This is the bathroom before we bought the house:

I loved the size of the bathroom when we bought it--but I HATED the shower doors.  My husband, however, liked them.  So they stayed for about a month.  And I hated every second of them.  I hated cleaning the bathroom with them in, I hated bathing the kids with them in.  I just plain HATED THEM!!!  But my hubby thought they were great.  Right up until I asked HIM to bath the boys one Sunday morning before church.  Apparently he learned that bathing two boys with annoying shower doors was not all it was cracked up to be!  And I am happy to report that those shower doors were dismantled and taken down the very next day!  YIPPEE!!

So here we are with the shower doors removed and the painting started.  (And darn my camera isn't showing the colors very true.  Just know it is a green shade of AWESOME!)

But we have MUCH more to show you.  Hopefully in the next couple of days! 

Fingers crossed!

And the Obnoxious Kitchen Cabinets come DOWN!!

So our kitchen was built with these amazing set of cabinets right in the middle of our breakfast bar area.

Awesome right?  Wrong!

(oh--this picture was taken right before we started tearing up the floors so the oven had already started to be pulled out.)

I know this was a really popular thing to do back in the day--but really?!  While they were installing these babies--didn't someone think "WOW these are really going to block the view of the whole rest of the room, and get in the way of people trying to talk to each other as they sit at the bar, and people will probably bonk their heads on the corners of these GIGANTIC cabinets all the time!  Maybe the room would be better without them?"

Well, whether someone thought that or not--our kitchen was still sporting these fab cabs.

The view was especially bad from the other side.  It was just a big ol' wall of wood:

We had always planned to take them down but we had planned on building our enormous pantry first and then we would take these suckers out.  Well, we haven't even started on our pantry project--but I just couldn't handle looking at the cabinets for ONE MORE DAY.

One morning, without any notice to my husband, I called some friends over to help us rip them out!  We normally would have tackled a job like this by ourselves, but these puppies were heavy!  So in came our wonderful friends to help.

And here they are supporting everything while my hubby unscrewed the cabinets--and I... um, well someone had to take pictures to document the momentous occasion!

And Viola!  They were out and the place looked a thousand times better and BIGGER!!!

The ceiling and wall needs some repair and patching (and since we are installing a Jennaire down draft oven--we won't need an over head hood anymore).  

And currently we are shopping for some small pendant lights to hang over the bar for some extra lighting and flare.

But for now--the view is MUCH better. 

And the good news is that I was able to find places for all the things in the cabinet even without my new pantry (which by the way will be installed in the corner on the right where the kitchen desk used to be and where the garbage currently is now.)  So when I finally do get my pantry I will have SPACE GALORE!!

It makes me giddy just thinking about it!