We recently re-finished our main half-bath which I alluded to in a previous post. And today I want to share with you the finished product.
We bought an existing home which was in need of SOME SERIOUS LOVE! But we were up for the challenge. It took a whole summer to remove the wallpaper working almost every night. The previous owners loved their wallpaper and we had several layers to remove. And…they put the wallpaper directly on the drywall in some rooms…what a nightmare! But that is another long post.
The cupboards are still in pretty decent shape, although a bit outdated. My husband LOVES wood working and worked in a cabinet shop when he was younger. When I casually mentioned that I wanted to paint the cupboards black (inspired by my blogfriend Beckie over at Infarrantly Creative…who is amazing!!), he freaked out. Painting good wood was a serious crime in his eyes.
But I kept at it and eventually got him to see the error of his thinking (hehe). We figured that it was just a small cabinet and if we totally messed up then I could get a second job to be able to buy a whole new one.
We took the counter top off of the cupboard and removed the plain mirror from the wall. Oh…suprise…more wallpaper! LOL! We also removed the cabinet doors and drawers.
We sanded the entire surface area that we would be painting. I know some people say that is unnecessary, but we wanted to clean them up extra nice as they had some grease and build-up from years of use.
I primed all the surface area and let it dry completely. Patience!
Then I painted the cabinets black. I had to do 2 coats, and the hardest part was allowing it to dry properly and being very careful about drips! In between the different paint coats, I painted the bathroom a nice tan color. The first color we got was a bit dark for the small bathroom space, so I added some white paint to lighten it up a bit and am really happy with the final color. (So, I can’t give you a paint name). When the black paint was dry on the cabinet, we painted on a layer of water-based poly-urethane varnish to protect the paint from chipping. It really finished it off nicely.
Then we added a framed-in mirror and a much brighter and updated light fixture. I just love how it turned out. Unfortunately, the rest of the family feels the same way and it has become the most congested bathroom.
Thanks to my hubby for relenting and letting me paint the cabinet (who, by the way, loves how the cabinets turned out) and for the use his muscles. And thanks to Beckie for giving me the confidence to go through with it.
JOIN OUR NEWSLETTER
Would you like more Recipes, DIY, Printables and Organization Ideas?
Subscribing to the newsletter will enable us to periodically send you creative content exclusively for Idea Room subscribers.
*View our Privacy Policy here.
The cabinet looks amazing! I love the frame around the mirror too! So you mind me asking if the mirror frame was a kit or hand cut molding? I have a couple mirrors I would love to frame – just trying to find the best way. Thanks! Looks fabulous – Great job!
Fabulous transformation! It also seems to have been accomplished without having to spend much money. I love it! Thanks for sharing with us Amy.
I love redoing bathrooms! It turned out fabulous! Great job you guys!
Your bathroom its excellent!!!!!!!
I really like it.
nice photgraphs of the ongoing process. cant wait till my wife decides on the pot she wants in our new bathroom and we can get going :) good blog :)
I love the new look, great job! =)
The new bathroom looks fantastic!
Wow! What an improvement! Love the new countertop too.
it looks great!!
Beautiful! I'm curious about the mirror frame, too. We got new granite countertops in our bathroom over a month ago and still no mirrors on the wall.
Fabulous! Love it! I NEED to frame a mirror so bad!!!!
Definitely worth all the hard work!
What a difference. It looks fabulous.
Awesome! I am in the middle of painting several really nice wood pieces that I think just needs a makeover. My hubby was skeptical for a while, now he says, "you are in charge of the inside of the house). We had to do a complete bathroom re-do last summer b/c our cheap cabinets were falling apart.
I love the mirror frame. Did you piece it together or buy an existing frame?
oops, I forgot to close my quote….and I'm not the only one asking about the mirror frame, popular question
Wow…I love the black cabinet and framing the mirror took the room over the top!
I laughed because my husband is also a lover of woodworking and he also thinks it's a crime to paint wood!
Great post! Love your new bathroom!
Beautiful – can you convince my husband about the paint too? He also thinks painting wood is a crime. We've looked at several houses recently that need more kitchen remodeling than was in our budget and he is not a convert to the "paint will save us money" mantra.
Congrats!
This is awesome! I'm working on getting my sister to consent to painting her cabinets haha I will have to show her how beautifully yours turned out! Great job.
-Bekah
Beautiful work! I love the black cabinets and the mirror to go with it. All in all it is a polished, clean look and of course you would want to use this bathroom!!!
The bathroom look GREAT. I'm next!
The cabinet looks great. The whole room is very sophisticated.
It turned out beautiful. I love the black.
AMAZING!
Great work. I LOVE the black cabinets! I'm glad the husband gave in!
Great job! It looks really, really good! I have an upstairs bathroom that needs some major work (it has monkey wallpaper) – I may have to do the same thing!
Can you post a picture of the cabinets, now that they're all spiffy and black? Would love to see how they turned out!
Just beautiful…looks a lot like my main bathroom, same mirror too. Re-do's are great! Come say hi :D
It is beautiful!!! How did you get the mirror to stay up there? I am doing the same thing for my bathroom.
Fabulous. I love what you've done.
Looks great!
I would love some tips on how to remove wallpaper! We are also buying a older house that has A LOT of wallpaper. Is there anything that worked especially well?
I think the fear of painting good wood is a guy thing. Hm. . .I Love the cabinets.
It looks amazing! You guys did an awesome job! I love the look of the black and that's what we're doing for our bathroom re-do also : )
that looks great and you didn't have to break the bank. little things make a big difference!
I absolutely LOVE your re-do! We are buying a home that also needs lots of love. Just one example…the master bath vanity currently has a HORRIBLE black and white crackle paint job on it. We're looking forward to changing it up–and I hope it looks as wonderful as yours does when we're done!
I love your cabinet, it turned out so well. I've been thinking about painting my bathroom cabinet.
Do you think I should take it out to paint it? I suppose I could just take the door off and then paint the cabinet in the bathroom. Let me know what you think?
You're inspiring me!
I LOVES IT…great job and kudos to hubby for letting you give paint a try. What a huge difference. Updated and classic. Perfect Amy!
the bathroom is beautiful. i love it!!
This turned out so great! I love it!!
Check out my new
GIVEAWAY!!!
~Morgan
Meet Virginia!
Meet Virginia!
Meet Virginia!
Looks fabulous! You are inspiring me to fix up my bathrooms!
I wanted to say that I am preparing to paint some bookshelves in my home, and my husband say "Why, they're wood" these men…I hope my project is as successful as yours.
Looks fabulous! Great job!! And I too know that nightmare of trying to tear wallpaper off of a bare wall and no primer or anything! AWFUL, AWFUL, AWFUL!
Love the look! I am hoping to redo our masterbath but need to save the money. I am definitely doing your suggested framing project but I’d love to update the countertops. Where did you get the granite countertops to fit into that budget? I have a double vanity that needs to be replaced so I know it’ll be more than you paid, but I’d like to see where I can get the best deal. Are your countertops granite or a composite (like Corian).
Love what you did! The last house we lived in I painted the powder ROOM black. Everyone LOVED it! I must admit it did look fab. :) At our present home we also painted out second bath vanity black. I think there should be at least a touch of black in every room.
Gosh, that came out sooo nice. Just beautiful.
I must be doing something wrong. None of my paint jobs come out as nice looking as the ones I see online. Can you please give details on how and what you paint with…what kind of paint, brushes..etc. I almost always see brush marks. I’m this close to purchasing a spray paint contraptions but don’t want the bother of cleaning them afterwards.
Thanks a bunch!!
Can you tell me how to get the original mirror off the wall???
I want to do this to my guest bathroom too and I’m SO nervous to do it myself but I know it would be so much cheaper then trying to hire someone to do it for me eek! I may try and do my laundry room first and then go for the bath room!
Hey there! Love your bathroom update! I’m working on an article for SheKnows.com featuring bathroom updates from bloggers and I’d love to include yours! I’ll need your permission to use your photos, and of course I’ll link it back to your blog. Unfortunately, I have a super quick turnaround on this and I’ll need to hear from you to today to make it work. If you would like to be featured, please email me ASAP at [email protected]. Thanks!
I love the new look. I want to know how you got the mirror off the wall without breaking it? If in fact you got it off the wall in one piece.:)
Beautiful work. Was your black paint a semi gloss, high gloss, eggshell or a satin finish paint? I’ve been thinking of doing this to my own master bath for 2 years now and your results were just the inspiration I needed. Thanks for that final push.