I really wanted to update my downstairs bathroom. Its a tiny little room that needed to be personalized and decorated nicely but I just could not figure out what I wanted to do. I really struggled with what to do with this room. My mom had mentioned putting chair rail up in her dining room and it hit me that this might be a nice way to update my bathroom without having to completely revamp everything. And it was so easy and quick to do, we finished it over a weekend. Here is the before pic:
Ignore the lines on the wall, Dave put them there because I am a very visual person and I needed him to draw them so I knew 1.) what it would "look" like with the chair rail in that spot and 2.) I needed to know the highest point I could paint up to. Here is the after pic:
Big improvement, right?
So what we did first was paint the room, up to the first line and let it dry. We painted two coats, one Friday night, then one Saturday afternoon. Then Sunday we put up the chair rail by cutting it to length. To do this, you will need to measure your bathroom walls and stop at your local home improvement store and cut the chair rail that you need. I would recommend cutting more than what you measured to be on the safe side.When you get home, cut the chair rail down to the appropriate length, cutting at a 45 degree angle so the edges connect nicely. I would recommend that if you do not own a chop saw, which is a tabletop saw, rent one from your local store for the day. You can cut the chair rail using a handheld saw but your lines won't be as clean and it will be more labor intensive.
Once you have your chair rail cut, nail it to the wall using a compressor and nail gun, using preferably an 18 gauge finish nail that is 2 1/2 inches long. Make sure your nail is a minimum of at least 2 inches. Again if you don't own a nail gun, just rent one for the day. Once your chair rail is up, you will need to caulk the nail holes and the top edge of the chair rail and seams (the part that connects one chair rail to another).
Lastly, we painted the chair rail white (we bought the rail that was not pre-painted because it is cheaper and we had leftover white paint that we could use) and let it dry. I added the rug and toilet cover after it was all dried.
So here is the breakdown of how much it all cost:
Chair Rail- $1.48/linear foot--we needed about 14 feet so it cost us approximately $20.72
Quart Paint (for purple section)- $12.98
White paint (for Chair Rail and touch ups)- we used left over from previous rooms, but if you had to buy it you probably wouldn't need more than a quart as well, unless you had to repaint the upper part of the wall too
Caulk- $2.28
Total- $35.98
If you want to add in the new rug and toilet cover I bought to match everything here they are:
Rug- $9.87
Toilet Cover- $7.97
Total Cost including added decor- $53.82
Not bad for a whole new look, huh? It's been two years, I still love the way my bathroom looks. I think it helps I really like the color I picked, which is Gothic Amethyst by Behr.
If you liked the sink, here it is. I didn't include it with the revamp because we put it in when we first bought our house and it was already in when we did the bathroom makeover.