A Dark, Dreary Bathroom Gets a Cheery Makeover That Feels 3x as Bright
Using wallpaper on the ceiling is a stylish move in any room — bedrooms, kitchens, you name it. Kelly Nevin Egan employed the decor choice in her kids’ bathroom, where she also gave the vanity a revamp, retiled the space, upgraded the shower, painted, and replaced lighting.
Kelly’s bathroom makeover was part of the Fall 2024 One Room Challenge, and it started with a demo process. “Getting the old vanity and giant wall mirror out was step one,” she says.
The new vanity makes the bathroom more functional.
One of the biggest game-changers in the space is the new vanity; Kelly’s priority was having two sinks for her kiddos. “Sharing a sink is hard; toothpaste would go flying, sibling arguments would abound, and that is not how I wanted to start and end my days,” Kelly says. She added the Wayfair piece moved it in and out of the space as she and a professional, Josimar Wernick, figured out tiling and lighting.
Kelly says swapping the vanity “created a domino effect” of projects. After removing the vanity, they needed a wall tile solution and a flooring solution. “That ultimately led to the decision to redesign the whole space,” she says. “And I am so glad we did!”
Out with the old pink tile, in with the mosaic design.
“Choosing how to lay out the mosaic tile on the floor and up the vanity wall was key,” Kelly says. Because they were switching from a wall-to-wall vanity to a freestanding one, Kelly and Josimar had to add tile to the edges that looked like the existing tile around the toilet area and lower half of the bathroom. They painted it all with a white epoxy kit to make it look cohesive.
Josimar also helped with the electrical work and plumbing work.
The bathroom has new brushed gold hardware.
“The lighting we had there originally wasn’t great,” Kelly says. “It was too bright, it cast unflattering shadows, and had zero character, so I went with a simple three-light bubble sconce. It illuminates the space beautifully and adds a lot of personality and fun to the space.”
The hardware in the shower was also replaced with brushed bronze. While the mirrors aren’t matchy-matchy, the black wavy edges complement the rest of the design.
The shower has a DIY cornice solution.
The shower has another upgrade that Kelly’s particularly proud of. “I decided it was best not to wallpaper over the shower area, so instead I painted the ceiling over the shower the same color blue as the walls (Benjamin Moore’s Heaven on Earth) and needed a divider to separate the wallpaper area from the shower area. Kelly didn’t like the look of the standard shower curtain rod, so building a cornice and extending the shower curtain to the floor was the best bet.
She used two long rectangular art canvases (shortening one of the frames to get it to fit), modified one, attached them together and wrapped them in batting and fabric with an electrical stapler, and then attached them to the ceiling with L brackets. The divider “makes a really high-end look, and it was under $150,” Kelly says.
The wallpaper adds whimsy on the ceiling.
The aforementioned wallpaper is from Etsy, and Kelly describes it as DREAMY — all caps. The DIY process wasn’t so dreamy, but it was worth it. “It was so challenging and turned out great, but I have no desire to fly solo wallpapering a ceiling again,” she says. “I used a lot of painter’s tape to assist me, a really good playlist to keep me motivated, and a step ladder.”
Kelly says the project was more cost-effective than wallpapering the whole room and still creates a “wow” moment. “The space just feels like us now — like magic, like an ode to my children’s youth that will also age up with them for years to come,” she says. “I am beyond thrilled with how it all came together.”
Inspired? Submit your own project here.
Correction: A previous version of this post mistakenly said Kelly worked with multiple tradespeople on her bathroom renovation. Kelly worked with one pro, Josimar Werneck, of Werneck Floor Master, LLC, on the plumbing, electrical, and tile work.