Of all the projects in the house, this is the one I was dreading the most. The portion of the master bath that has the shower, toilet and closet was in desperate need of attention but I knew it was beyond my skill set so I put it off. After Spring Break I had to face the fact that my project days were wrapping up along with the school year and either I needed to jump on this, or leave it until fall. I really didn't want to leave it until fall.
Before this project, the shower room was the same hideous beige I've found all over the house. Even with 2 lights and a skylight, this room was almost always dark. Even the inside of the closet was beige- they must have gunned it when they selected that color.
Inside the closet, a chunk of the wall had come off so I removed all the shelving to do a proper repair job.
The worst part was the ceiling. The tape was coming off and it was badly peeling. While I have no problem wielding a sander, I'm definitely not an expert on taping and mudding. The first big challenge was getting the cap to come off the light. It had rusted into place and once I finally took it apart, I discovered the glass wasn't actually frosted, it was just covered in layers of buildup.
Here's a close up of some of the damage:
After many YouTube videos and consultations with family and friends who are mud and tape experts, I decided to just go for it. It was pretty much as miserable as I was anticipating. Going up and down on a ladder in that small space was no fun and really smoothing out the ceiling took ages.
While the taping wasn't so bad, I had a devil of a time trying to get the mud packed on so it could be sanded back to a clean 90* angle. I was never fully satisfied that it looked perfect, but the project was dragging on and on and I finally had to let go of my perfectionism to wrap it up.
It's really nice to have the shower room match the rest of the master bath. I'm not sure which adds more brilliance to the room- the lighter paint or the freshly cleaned glass light cover, but it's a vast improvement. The You Are Beautiful sign is a replica of one located on Lake Shore Dr and we pass it every time we go to the MOSI. It always makes me smile and I wanted to carry that positive vibe here.
The ceiling looks SO much better! I thought my eye would go directly to those imperfect corners but they really aren't noticeable. Even in the most well-constructed homes not everything comes together at perfect angles, after all.
Like the pantry, I installed a motion detector LED inside to give it more light and added some storage baskets to keep everything tidy.
Usually I get excited about projects because I have a vision for the finished product and that keeps me going. For some reason, this one was just drudgery but I'm glad it's all done and I can put the tools away!
