One Room Challenge, Week 4 – “Bye Bye” Textured Walls

Hi friends! It’s Week 4 of the One Room Challenge and the changes in the powder room is looking good so far.

Last week, I spent most of the week cutting and priming most of the smooth hardboards using a Wagner paint sprayer. This week started on Saturday with covering up the knockdown textured walls in the powder room, for a smooth wall surface.

I’m using hardboards as it has a smooth surface. This process is faster and budget friendly than skim coating the walls with drywall compound to achieve a skip trowel texture. You can see how it turned out in our master bedroom.

Installing Hardboards To Cover Textured Walls

To install the hardboards, I divided the walls into two sections, lower and upper. The lower section is about 43 inches high and the upper is about 75 inches high. It’s important to determine how you want to place trim boards horizontally and vertically before cutting the hardboard. The goal is to hide the seams as much as possible with the trim boards.

The hardboards I used are only available in 4ft x 8ft sheets. I’m able to use fewer hardboard sheets for the lower section of the walls compared to the upper section.

Textured Walls – Lower Section

To cover up the textured wall, I started off with the lower section on the vanity wall as I had to cut the hardboard to accommodate the countertop slab and the plumbing pipes on the walls. Then I installed the rest of the hardboards referencing to the first installed hardboard on the vanity wall.

To install the hardboards, I nailed it at a 30-degree angle to the wall, using a Ryobi 18v brad nail gun to secure it to prevent damage to the walls. Another option is to use liquid nails to secure the hardboards to the wall.

As I worked my way to the wall where the toilet is located, I disconnected the waterline to the toilet, removed the baseboard and installed the hardboard on the wall. I also cut the board to accommodate the water pipes.

I’m not too concerned about having precise cuts with the hardboard because the trim boards and/or baseboards will cover it up. Now as I work my way back to the vanity wall, I slightly removed the door trim to place the hardboard behind the trim so it’s leveled with the trim boards.

Textured Walls – Upper Section

I’ve installed the hardboards on the lower section walls and I’m finishing up the upper section. The hardboards I used to cover the textured wall on the upper section are larger, about 6.5 ft high.

With the primed hardboards covering the textured walls, the transformation is becoming so real. YAY… I’m excited!

I’ll finish up installing the smooth hardboards on the upper section of the walls this week and I’m looking forward to installing the trim boards onto the hardboards. I’ll also need to remove the light fixture in the powder room this week so I have to find another source of light to continue working.

Come back next week, I plan to install the trim boards and also start on the crown moulding. I’ve been freaking out about installing crown moulding. Please send any tips my way.. This will be my first time attempting it… thank you!

One Room Challenge To-Do List

• Disconnect plumbing
• Remove vanity
• Remove baseboards and mirror
• Locate studs
• Finalize placement of trim boards
• Cut and prime smooth hardboards
• Install smooth hardboards on the wall
• Cut, install and caulk trim boards
• Install and caulk decorative moulding
• Cover the floors and paint the ceiling
• Install and caulk crown moulding and baseboards
• Paint trim boards, cap moulding, baseboards and crown moulding
• Install mirror, toilet paper holder and towel bar
• Install vanity and faucet
• Style the room
• Photograph the room

Don’t forget to stop over at the One Room Challenge blog and see the progress of the featured designers and other guest participants spaces.

I appreciate you sticking around. Chat with you next week!

xo, Gbeke