Our coastal powder room makeover is done! Read this post to get all the scoop on how we took it from boring drab to coastal fab!

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This project has been done for several months now but I finally snapped a few pictures of our blue and white coastal powder room makeover! This project was on my list FOR-EV-ER (who else read that in their Squints from The Sandlot voice? Just me, lol?). We finally got it done during the early part of quarantine this spring!

Coastal Powder Room – Before

We lived with our old, peeling, ugly wallpaper for almost 11 years before tackling the room. So that gave me A LOT of time to scheme up some coastal powder room ideas! I considered a ton of different things before finally settling on the wallpaper and molding option we chose. I am the worst at taking before pictures (I ALWAYS forget!) so enjoy this terrible, blurry picture from when the previous owners lived here. 😉

Coastal Powder Room – During

I should start by telling you that our powder room is tiny. Teeny tiny. So tiny, it’s next to impossible to fit a tripod in there to get any really great pictures. There is no room in there for anything but the necessities so I had to find a way to maximize the style factor without increasing the clutter.

The first thing we did was strip the wallpaper. I used this small steamer and spent a week while my kids were on school Zooms taking it off, bit by bit. Then I washed the walls because there was a lot of glue residue leftover. I’m not sure if this is necessary but I did it anyways. The next step was to apply this Zinsser Gardz Problem Surface Sealer. Oh my gosh, this tutorial from Driven By Decor was so helpful! I would highly, highly recommend using this if you are painting after removing wallpaper. It made our walls smooth and problem free.

I had always wanted to do some sort of wall treatment in the powder room. Remember, I was working with limited space so adding craftsman-style molding helped up the style without sacrificing square footage. We hung it about 2/3 of the way down and just used trim board primed finger-joint in different sizes to create the look I wanted. We purchased this miter saw and this nail gun to get the job done. I filled the holes in and painted both the molding and the bottom portion of the wall with this white paint.

Sorry for the toilet seat up photo below but that is #reallife with an 8-year old boy! Now you can see how everything looked when it was up and painted!

Looking for coastal paint colors? I’ve got all of my tried and true favorites right here!

Coastal Powder Room. – Wallpaper

Next was my favorite part – the wallpaper! The minute I saw it in Kelley Nan’s home, I knew it was the one! I just knew it would make our coastal powder room makeover amazing! I had been searching for wallpaper for a while but this one was love at first sight. Now, I had never hung wallpaper before but figured it was a small enough room that I could give it a try. Since doing this project, I found out that they sell it in a peel and stick option as well! It’s a great alternative if wallpapering isn’t for you!

So back to my first-time wallpapering experience. I did it! Is it perfect? Nope! Did I say a few curse words when I got to the corners? Yep! But I did my best and overall, I’m really happy with it.

Funny story, somehow we measured wrong and when I got to the second to last strip, I realized those pieces (we had pre-cut them) were going to be about an inch too short on the bottom. So that’s why we added the small piece of molding that you see along the top of the chair rail in the next photo. I didn’t have enough wallpaper left on the roll to cut more pieces and I didn’t want to open another one. $10 in pine molding solved that problem!

Coastal Powder Room – After

Here is our blue and white coastal powder room! I am so, so happy with how it turned out. The first few days, I kept walking by and staring at it. Ha! I guess that’s what happens when you put in the hard work and effort of doing all of the work yourself!
 

Coastal Powder Room – Sources

Rattan pot | Plant | Wastebasket | Light fixture | Recessed toilet paper holder (similar)

Future Plans

So at the same time we did all of this, we actually also purchased a new vanity and faucet. I loved the coastal look of the one we chose from Wayfair!

As I said before, we did all of this project while Michigan was shut down under quarantine this past spring so we weren’t able to have a plumber come in to install it. It’s still sitting in our garage, waiting patiently. We have a few other plumbing related projects to get done so I’m planning on getting what I need for those and then having someone come to do everything all at once. I am excited to actually have some storage in our powder room once the new vanity is installed! I’ll be sure to post some updated pictures when that happens!

So, what did you think about our coastal powder room makeover? I hope you loved it as much as I do!