Week three of the One Room Challenge saw another free change in the form of paint.  The ceiling, walls, and trim all got a few coats of paint, and combined with the painted vanity and hardware, the room is starting to come together!!

First a little recap of the first two weeks of this six-week challenge:

In Week 1, I removed the wallpaper and was rewarded with a blank, beige slate.

In Week 2, I painted the vanity and spray painted the hardware, which completely transformed the previously sad, chipped piece.

Now that you’re caught up, let’s dive into Week 3 of the literal floor-to-ceiling update I’m giving the downstairs bathroom for under $75!  Or should we say ceiling-to-floor?!

The ceiling

I started at the top with the ceiling portion of the aforementioned floor-to-ceiling update.  The painter of the original wallpaper used the wrong color white paint to touch up the ceiling after completing his sloppy wall texturing treatment and subsequent horrendous paint job.  The touched up bits (through which some of that yellow-orange paint was still visible) were a little grayer than the rest of the ceiling.  That painter had also missed a few areas, and I found several stray yellow markings when I removed the wallpaper.

The ceiling is only about 25 square feet.  It seemed silly to use up any of my already tiny budget to buy a can of ceiling paint.  Instead, I used three coats of primer that I already had, and it worked just fine.  The entire ceiling is now one color instead of three, and it draws less attention to itself.

Door trim and baseboards

I moved on to the trim and baseboards next, again using primer and paint I already had on the shelf.  I like to paint them before painting the walls because I prefer not to waste time taping off a room and I find it easier to paint a crisp line between trim and wall when I paint the wall second.  I usually have a small amount of touching up to do on the trim after finishing the wall, but overall it’s a quicker method for me.

In this photo, the difference between the original color and the untinted white semigloss paint I use for doors and trim throughout the house is apparent.  In case you need help – the door frame has been painted and the door itself has not!

Until I painted the doors late in the week, they had no knobs for a while.  I sprayed the knobs last week when I sprayed the vanity hardware, so they were ready, but I waited until I painted the doors so I didn’t waste time and effort putting them on just to take them right back off.  While we lived without doorknobs for over a week, a paint can functioned as a lock to prevent two little puppies from pushing the door open, and a wadded up toilet paper wrapper filled the hole left behind by the knob to create privacy:

A Tip for Inexpensive DIY Updated Door Hinges

We have fourteen interior doors.  That means fourteen doorknobs and fourteen sets of hinges – and 28 sides of doors to paint.  Updating all of those doorknobs and hinges could add up if we chose to replace them all.  Instead, a few years ago I read up on spray painting doorknobs and hinges, and for the most part we’ve used this method to update them for the cost of a few cans of spray paint.

The problem with always spray painting the existing knobs and hinges (and doing it right) means you must live without doors for several days during the process.  With the first few doors I painted, I had to take the door completely out of the frame and lean against the wall for a few days while I cleaned, sprayed, and let the hinges and doorknobs sit to cure before returning them and the door to the wall.  This method is a little inconvenient, especially when it comes to bathrooms.  In my most recent burst of hinge and doorknob updating, I developed a new system.

Over the summer, I bought a value pack in the same brushed nickel finish I’ve sprayed onto all our other hinges so far and used the new ones to replace the hinges on six doors.  This gave me six sets of old hinges to clean, spray, and cure while all my doors remained on the wall with the new hinges!  When the old (sprayed) hinges were ready a few days later, we went through the house together and did a quick change on the all remaining doors – except for the powder room and pantry.

This method of replacing some with new hinges meant the doors didn’t have to all come off during the spray painting process.  It also eliminated the need to do just two or three doors at a time, which creates a seemingly endless process of hinge removal, painting, and waiting.  The ease of my new method was definitely worth the cost of a single value pack of hinges!

Another perk of this method was that it eliminated the need to tape off the hinges while painting the doors.  I’ve learned that it’s easiest to paint the door without worrying whether I get paint on the hinges or taping them off.  I then can replace or spray paint the hinges after the paint job is done, which covers any messy paint.

Over the past few years, one room at a time, I’ve painted walls, doors, and spray painted knobs and hinges.  The downstairs bathroom and pantry were the last rooms to receive that treatment!  I used those last two castoff old hinges from this summer’s hinge binge to replace the bathroom and pantry hinges.

Yay for being finished with all the doors and their hardware!

Faint Maple on the Walls

I used a can of paint that was left over from my summer painting extravaganza (I painted two bedrooms and the dining room), so this was another free project!

I patched up and sanded the holes in the walls left behind by the toilet paper holder (which I moved to the side of the vanity), photo frames, the old mirror (I’m making the new one soon!), and small sections of drywall that came off along the seams of the wallpaper when I removed it.

As you can tell, I did a lot of painting in Week 3.  My old lady thumb joints are sore, I have blisters on my fingers, and my knees don’t feel awesome from all the up and down on the ladder.  Several podcasts, mainly Young House Love Has a Podcast made it much more enjoyable!  Also, the room is looking better than ever, and that’s enough to keep me going!

budget breakdown

You may recall from Week 1 that my plan is to use items and materials I already have around the house to complete this project; the goal is to spend less than $75 for additional supplies when needed.  Here’s the status after week 3:

Week 1:  Remove wallpaper – $0
Week 2:  Paint vanity and hardware – $0
Week 3:  Paint ceiling, wall, doors, and trim; replace hinges – $0

So far that brings the project total to…ZERO dollars!

what’s next?

I’m both excited and nervous about tackling the floor next week.  I’ve never stenciled anything, so this could go horribly wrong.  I’m doing my best to stay optimistic, though, and will give it my best shot!

• Remove wallpaper
• Paint trim + door frames, doors, and vanity
• Paint walls
• Replace faucet (replaced in June; not part of the budget but it feels good to check it off the list:-))
• Update light fixture with spray paint and new globes
• Paint floor
• Reframe mirror
• Replace door hinges
• Spray paint doorknobs + cabinet hinges and knobs + towel & toilet paper holders
• Paint ceiling (to make the whole thing one color)
• Organize the pantry (for at least the 4th time)

Take a look at the amazing room transformations that are happening across the internet over at Calling it Home, the hostess of the One Room Challenge!

Until then,

Laura