This is part two of a series. Don’t forget to check out part one.

Welcome to Week 2 of our first-ever One Room Challenge! If you missed our big announcement, we’re renovating our guest bathroom from head to toe in eight short weeks (alongside other guest participants and 20 featured designers). Each Wednesday we’re sharing our progress (no matter how productive or successful), with the final reveal on May 25th. Mark your calendar!

Last week we shared the before photos of our bathroom along with design mockups for how we plan to transform the space. Being on a tight timeline of just eight weeks, I got straight to demo!

Demolition

First to go was the bead board. Held on with some construction adhesive and nails, it was relatively easy to remove as it was the first wall treatment I ever did in our house after we moved in, and was installed with the vanity in place – meaning it didn’t extend all the way down the walls behind the vanity.

We didn’t have a nail gun back then, so the nails used were hammered in the old-fashioned way and they have relatively huge nail heads on them – one of the many things that’s bothered me about it for years. This was also the project where I learned the hard way the importance of buying paintable caulk! If it’s not paintable, the paint won’t stick and just kind of beads up, leaving a weird-looking finish.

Next out was the old dimpled and dated shower tile. The weird thing about the shower is we had two layers of drywall behind the tile for some reason…

Strange, but it made demoing the tile much easier since I was able to just pop off one row of edge tile to expose the drywall nails and remove it all in full sheets (attached to the top layer of drywall) instead of having to pop off individual tiles which takes forever.

In addition to some blackening in the grooves of the tile mastic when I popped off the tile edges, we also found some mold on the drywall below, so I removed the bottom layer of drywall as well (this time cutting it all the way up to the ceiling so we could replace it all with green water-resistant mold gypsum board), exposing the studs.

You may notice the insulation on the large (exterior) wall is slightly discolored in some spots – it’s completely fine and safe, it just looks a little ugly.

We decided to keep the toilet and vanity in here for now so we have a second (mostly) functioning bathroom for as long as we can. They will get safely removed later as we go to paint the vanity and work on the walls behind them.

In addition to demo, this week I also started adding back to the bathroom and prepping materials for next week.

Building the tub skirt

Leveling the irregular tub front

Next I began building a frame to cover the front of the tub, since I need the front depth of the tub figured out exactly for the placement of the wood columns I’ll be adding next week. Since the front of our tub is uneven, I used shims glued to the shallow parts on the front of the tub to bump out the low spots and even out the front of the tub for the skirt framing.

Framing

Then I made the main wood frame for the front of the tub using 1x2s, turned so the wider side of the boards were going into the room to make the framing thicker. It helped to use a scrap piece of wood on top of the tub as I measured and built to make sure the top of the frame was perfectly level with the top of the tub. I made sure to only nail into the other wood pieces and into the walls on either side and not into the tub or floor.

1/4” plywood finished off the front of the tub skirt, carefully nailed into the internal framing using shorter nails. (We’ll be finishing it out later with some added decorative moulding so it won’t be entirely flat when we finish.)

Prepping ceiling planks

Also this week, I stained the tongue and groove pine boards we’ll be using for the ceiling. I wiped on one coat of Danish Oil in Medium Walnut and once dry, a second coat of Danish Oil in Dark Walnut.

Staining the ceiling planks | The board on the left is raw unfinished wood, the middle board is after one coat of Medium Walnut Danish Oil, and the board on the right is the finished look with one coat of Medium Walnut Danish Oil and a second coat of Dark Walnut Danish Oil.

For our bathroom (59” wide x 99.9” long) we need 20 boards total, because we do not want any visible seams and are able to hide one large seam under a faux beam.

Faux columns + ceiling beam

Building

This week I also built two wood columns and one ceiling beam – using three 1x3s for each of the two columns, and two 1x4s and one 1x3 for the ceiling beam. Using 1x3s for each column will allow us to save a little floor space in this small room but still have a noticeable bump out, with each column looking wider from the inside (at 4” wide) than from the front/door-/shower-sides (2.5” wide). Using 1x4s for the front and back of the ceiling beam will allow us to have a larger-looking (taller) beam (at 3.5” tall) from the front/door-/shower-sides, and the 1x3 used in the middle will match the thickness of the columns (4” wide).

Each U-shaped column and beam were made by wood gluing the pieces and nailing them together on the long edges to form a 90-degree angle (with the middle 1x3 piece sandwiched in between the other two pieces, vs. being nailed on top of them). The thing to note here is the width of the center piece of wood will be the same size of lumber used (hidden) on the inside to attach the beam and columns to the ceiling/walls.

Finishing + staining

With the columns and beam glue dry, I used stainable wood filler to fill all of the seams and nail holes and sanded them to a silky smooth finish.

I stained the outsides of each using two coats of Minwax stain in Jacobean.

Drywall strip

Lastly this past week, I installed a 12” tall strip of green mold- and moisture-resistant drywall to the top of the shower area up to the ceiling so I can begin working on the wood ceiling install while I figure out the custom shower niche details.

That’s everything that’s been done in week one! So far I’m feeling pretty productive and good about where we are. Come back next Wednesday for more progress on our guest bathroom renovation! This week we’re working on the wood feature ceiling and adding new electrical to help brighten up this small dark space, and hopefully installing the faux beam and columns.

In addition to posting updates every Wednesday, we’ll be sharing interim progress on Instagram, so make sure to follow along over there, too!