Bathroom Redo: Create Faux Wainscoting

I’m so excited to share with you the bathroom redo that consumed three weeks of my time this March. I’ve been wanting to give some character to our main floor bathroom for a long time. It had all builder grade materials (especially that big mirror clipped on the wall) and was boring.

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This is the other side of the sink and the shower/tub wall.

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I had big plans for this bathroom. But I’m not going to give them all away, I took pictures during the process so you’ll have to follow me along as this bathroom transforms.


First, I taped off everything for the painting process. I measured approximately one third of the way up the wall (36″) to create faux wainscoting. Typically a third of the wall is the rule, most commonly wainscoting is between 32-40″ up the wall. I measured 36″ because I wanted mine to match up with the height of the sink counter.
I taped off corners and some of the cabinetry with my favorite, frog tape. It’s better than the blue painter’s tape, and not just because it’s green.

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Great tip: Put a plastic bag around your toilet to avoid getting paint on it.
Because I’m unfailingly frugal, I taped everything for the bottom, and then reused that same tape when it was time to tape off the top section of the wall.
The next step was to paint! I sanded my baseboards (those were going too) and then primed them. After the first coat of white paint, the room looks like this:
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Yikes! Work in progress!
After two coats it looked like this:
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Notice I removed all the hardware, switch plates, towel racks, even the vent on the floor by the toilet. Bare bones is what you need for a nice paint job.

Another tip:
use an artist brush not a normal paint brush for hard to reach places (like that 2″ wall between our cabinet and door frame).
The faux wainscoting isn’t done, I’m planning to install a trim chair rail of sorts at the top. But that’s coming up!
That’s all I’m going to show you for this post. Stay tuned for the next post as I reveal the color I painted on the upper walls and give more great painting tips! Here’s a little hint…
IMG_20140227_152437If you’re interested in seeing more of my house, click on the home tour. Otherwise, if you want more painting tips, check out this awesome post on how to paint furniture.
Stay tuned for the next installment of my bathroom redo when I add the most transforming aspect to the room: paint color.

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2 Replies to “Bathroom Redo: Create Faux Wainscoting”

  1. How did you paint behind the toilet?
    Love you bathroom redo!!
    It’s so exciting when a project comes
    together as you visioned.
    Awesome!

    1. Sandra, I used a mini roller to paint behind the toilet. One good trick is to put a plastic grocery bag over the toilet so you don’t have to be so careful not to get paint on it. Thanks for commenting and complimenting!

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