Remove A Dated Vanity Backsplash, step by step

Glad Friday, you all! We are painting the foyer today (pics on Monday – woop woop!) but I realized that I forgot to share two bathroom related happenings. And one’s a giant oops moment, so this should be lively.

First of all, it is fitting that this thing is called a vanity because I did a little surgery and took out its enjoy handle. It is hard to see in some of the more recent photos of the bathroom, but this one shows it loud and proud:

That slab of counter against the right wall simply felt imbalanced to us, and it is in fact a fairly plain Hands-on project to remove it. So if you have a side-splash thing that you are not in love with (most modern sinks these days do not have them at all and the walls are simply fine) here is how we gave ours the boot.

First we fired up the ol’ liposuction machine manual screwdriver and shoved it under the side slab, trying not to dig into the top of the sink (remember you simply want to loosen and remove the side slab, not ding up the sink underneath it). You can use a rubber mallet or even a hammer to tap the screwdriver under the panel along the top seam, bottom seam, or even the side seam like this:

Eventually it got loose sufficient for us to yank it right off, although we were left with four puncture marks in our wall – along the top seam – where the screwdriver dug into the drywall.

Here is where I said to myself: Self, do not panic. Breathe in. Breathe out. You can do this.

I grabbed a sanding block, simply to get off any chunks of glue or drywall that were not flush with the wall. Then I got my spackle and a 2″ putty knife (I like Dap Crackshot Spackling paste, not only because the name is entertaining but because it does the job). Using the spackle knife I simply smoothed spackle over the whole area that I hoped to smooth out, building it up simply a smidge beyond the wall in all areas so that when I sanded it down it would be smooth and flush again.

After it dried (I typically wait about 5 hours simply to be sure), I got my sanding block again. I prefer a block since it has straight edges which can assist you keep your wall straight instead of ending up with something wavy and pitted. This will be dusty, and you might panic because frequently when you sand something smooth there are a few little low spots or dings that come through and you are all “man, I simply want to paint this and be done with it” – but RESIST my friend. Put the paint brush down.

Wipe down all of the sanding dust and then go back with your spackle for a second pass at those dings and low points. Trust me, this ten minute second step is the difference between a smooth wall and an annoys-you-everytime-you-look-at-it wall. Here are the spots I spackled again, simply to get them pleasant and flush.

After it was all dry, once again I used my sanding block to sand them smooth. Then it was time to caulk a pleasant clean line between the vanity and the wall with white paintable silicon caulk (paintable is key, and for brands I like Dap). That’ll keep any water from rolling down the side of the vanity, so it is a pleasant “housekeeping” step – plus it simply looks pleasant and wrapped up. As for application, I simply squeezed a line of caulk down the wall into that crack and then used my finger to smooth it out a few times until it was clean and unassuming.

Then (and only then!) did I allow myself to grab my paint brush and touch up the wall so it was pleasant and seamless. This was one of those lessons I have had to learn over time. You will never, ever be in the mood to do that second pass of spackle (“gee, there is nothing I feel like doing more than spackling and sanding this wall that I already spackled and sanded”) but it makes all the difference in how smooth it looks in the end. At least for a bugged-by-dings girl like me.

Speaking of smooth, we spilled half a quart of the Baby Fern paint that we used on the vanity (and then painted over) right onto the concrete floor in the garage. Whoops.

There was panicking. It was a hot gelatinous mess. While we struggled to remain calm we both came to the same conclusion: let us not touch the paint at all. Let us not try to clean it up or thin it out or add water or anything. Let us simply let it sit there, and hopefully once it dries it’ll be a thick sufficient glob that we can peel off like a giant latex sticker.

So we waited about a week for it to fully dry, and then we yanked on it…

Would not you know it peeled right up in nearly one piece (there were a few spots we peeled off a second later that were left behind). There initially was a big brown wet-looking mark under it, which you can see in the picture above, but we hoped that once the mass of latex was up off of the concrete it would simply dry itself out and go back to being normal looking.

Well lookie here. Besides a few slightly tinted spots, it is not noticeable at all. In fact we have since moved all the stuff that was framing “the scene of the crime” and we cannot even truly pick out the spill spot anymore.

I still kind of cannot believe our leave-it-and-peel-it-later approach in fact worked. And I am endlessly grateful that it was so straightforward (even attempting to wipe that up when it happened might have taken a while and resulted in a giant mess). So when in doubt, simply do nothing and wait a while and hopefully whatever problem you have will peel off like a sticker. Well, I guess that advice does not work for everything, but for a giant goober of paint in the garage, it was a fairly darn good outcome.

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Psst- We are trying out a new little bonus feature on Friday posts by ending with four lively projects, chats, or questions going on over on the Forums. You know, simply in case you do not want to go back to work simply yet…

by ElizabethAnn		by KatyRICEdesigns		by KellyLawler1		by ArtisanDesarts