Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day! We’ve wrapped up our bathroom paint and trim refresh and wanted to share the finished look. We teased this plan last week and you may have seen a sneak peek of it in our recent house tour video. Here’s how the room looks now:
It’s a pretty dramatic change from where we started. Early on we removed the glass shower doors, and after that we didn’t revisit the room until we tackled the wallpaper. The transformation involved stripping that busy paper, repainting, and adding a simple trim detail to create a cleaner, more intentional space.
This room is a challenge to photograph because of all the doorways and alcoves, especially when trying to capture the ceiling and floor in one frame. Bear with the vertical crops — they’re meant to convey the overall vibe and the new balance between ceiling, walls, and floor.
We chose a blue ceiling to visually tie into the blue hex floor tiles and add interest up high. We like the floor’s color, and introducing a coordinating ceiling hue felt like the right way to create cohesion. A couple of inspiration bathrooms helped shape the idea: one that uses a blue ceiling and another with blue flooring and a simple architectural transition between colors. The plan was to paint a horizontal band near the ceiling, then finish the edge with thin lattice trim.
First, we taped a straight border around the room about 8 inches down from the ceiling. That height avoided interference from door and window trim but remained noticeable enough to feel deliberate. I used a level to draw a pencil guide and applied painters tape along that line. Perfection wasn’t necessary since the eventual trim would conceal small imperfections in the tape line.
Picking the ceiling color took a little experimentation. We tried a few swatches we already had—some grayer blues and a bold pure blue—but in the room’s low light some grayer hues read more gray than blue. A bold blue swatch felt like it might overwhelm the room once applied to the entire ceiling. Ultimately we chose a slightly lighter, purer blue called “Spring Mint” (eggshell finish) that felt like a good match for the floor without being too intense.
After two coats, the ceiling and border looked exactly as we hoped. For a moment we considered leaving the painted edge as-is, since the painted band alone looked nice and is a simpler option if you don’t have time or materials for trim. We decided to add thin lattice strips to define and protect the paint edge and to introduce a subtle architectural element.
We used pre-primed lattice strips—the same thin, lightweight style we used for a previous board-and-batten project. They’re inexpensive at about 77¢ per foot. Sherry measured and cut the pieces on our miter saw while I helped with layout and holding things in place. Taping each piece in place first helped us visualize the final look and kept track of what still needed cutting. Despite the room’s many nooks, measuring and taping the strips took under an hour, though it involved a lot of trips up and down the stairs.
To make reinstallation simple, we labeled the back of each strip so we could match pieces to their original locations. Many walls are similar sizes, so labeling saved us trial-and-error later.
We painted the pre-primed slats and the walls in a bright white (Simply White by Benjamin Moore) and let everything dry before nailing the trim into place. This step is easier with two people: one holds the strip and the level while the other fires the nail gun. We used 1.25″ brad nails and wore ear protection because in a small room the nail gun is painfully loud.
We checked each piece with a level, nailed one end, then the other, and continued around the room so every strip lined up neatly with the previous one. Once the lattice was up, I ran a bead of caulk along the bottom edge where the wall wasn’t perfectly flat to make the trim appear seamless. I also filled the small nail holes with caulk. When the caulk dried, Sherry touched up the trim with one more coat of white paint for a crisp finish.
There are still a few small Phase 1 tweaks we want to do—like updating the light fixture—but already the room feels brighter and more intentional, especially after removing the loud wallpaper that once dominated the space.
The white paint on the walls made a big difference. Here’s a side-by-side sense of the “after wallpaper removal” state and the room after the paint and trim updates:
We also rehung some artwork above the toilet. These are prints we already owned: the top one is a ripped page that previously hung in our guest bathroom, and the bottom is a print given to us by an artist while on tour. When held together they felt slightly similar, but the subtle gradient between the two works as a visual bridge between the lighter ceiling blue and the deeper floor blue.
So far this refresh has been budget-friendly. Here’s the cost breakdown:
- Removing the glass shower doors: $0
- Peeling the wallpaper: $0
- Lattice trim from Home Depot: $25
- A quart of blue ceiling paint (“Spring Mint”): $30
- Shower curtain, white paint for walls & trim, and art: $0 (we already owned them)
- TOTAL: $55*
* If you don’t already have a shower curtain, wall and trim paint, and art, plan to spend roughly $100 to cover those items.
We have a few more inexpensive ideas for future updates, but even as-is the bathroom is a much nicer space than the dark, wallpapered room we started with. How about you—did you tackle any home projects this weekend? Any bathroom paint or trim plans on your to-do list?
P.S. Last week we woke up to surprise snow and Clara really enjoyed the snow day.