How the Half Bath Lost its Marbles

The first time I used the half bathroom in our new home, I brought a scraper. Not for me, for the wall. I’d been itching to scrape the walls from the moment I first saw the bathroom, so I figured, this was the perfect opportunity. The previous owners had hot-glued marbles to the walls, and to say I have texture issues is putting it mildly. I really hate bumps. They make me itchy.

The polka dots are the marbles. The oak cabinet is okay, but it was very shallow and not attractive on the wall. I originally painted it white, but in the second pass-through of this bathroom, I removed it in favor of open shelving. Keep reading for pics!

I could have turned the light fixture upside down, painted it and possibly replace the glass, but I really didn’t like it enough to salvage it. However, once the red paint, light fixture, and marbles were gone, I absolutely love this mirror! It looks like jewelry in the reveal.

So… I sat on the potty and took my first swipe with the scraper. A cascade of marbles hit the floor. It felt wonderful. I took a second swipe. The marbles sounded like a rain stick as they poured onto the tile and scattered. But obviously, I should have cued Matt into what I was doing.

“Are you okay in there?” he yelled through the door.

“Very, very happy,” I responded. “I’m scraping the marbles.”

“Don’t you want to put down a dropcloth?”

Honestly, I didn’t think of that. “Nope,” I responded and went on happily scraping. Too late now.

The bathroom was one of our smallest renovations in the new house, but all told, it might have been one of the most satisfying. I had to do quite a bit of patching to the drywall where the hot glue held a little too fast. But painting over the red felt amazing. I used to love red walls, but during one of my pregnancies, I fell out of love with red and have never loved it since. At least, not on walls.

The cabinet above the potty was shallow and not my favorite, so I removed it and added open shelving above the toilet. The hardware for the shelving was surprisingly expensive. I found the braces at Hobby Lobby on one of those delicious half-off sales that they are always having, but it still adds up. The shelves are simple 2×12 pine boards that we cut and stained.

I then painted the oak sink cabinet using dark gray chalk paint. Instead of using wax over the chalk paint, I added a clear coat of polyurethane. I chose polyurethane because of the location in the bathroom. We do a lot of projects in our house, and we use the half bath as our clean-up area. The cabinet finish needed to be durable, and let’s face it, wax is a little fragile. It looks lovely and is great for furniture, but in a bathroom, not so much.

But I love the way this little room turned out. Oh, and we also replaced the lighting. There just didn’t seem to be a way to salvage the old light fixtures. Honestly, I didn’t like them enough to try. However, we did sell the old lights at a garage sale, and I was so happy they went to a good home.

And that, sweet friends, is how the half bath lost its marbles — suddenly, unexpectedly, and all over the floor. But if I had to, I’d do it all over again, exactly the same way.

Much love,
Tracy