Easy Bathroom Window Refresh

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Before I continued the shiplap down to the bath area, I needed to figure out what I was going to do with the bathroom window. I knew I wanted to frame it out since it was currently just drywall. I started by removing the window sill. I scored the caulk with a razor and used a mini crow bar and a hammer to pry the sill off.

This is what it looks like under the sill if you’ve ever wondered.

After that I removed the blinds. I had to remove the top decorative cover that hides the hardware and bend these little slots back and then they just slide out of the brackets. Removing the brackets was pretty straight forward.

I was trying to get rid of all the yellow/beige tones in the room so I decided to spray paint the window frame. I first cleaned it really well, taped everything off and put up a printer paper “shield” around the window so the paint wouldn’t get on the walls and tub, put trash bags over the window and then primed it with a grey primer. Normally I’d sand anything that I’m planning on spray painting like this, but this window is behind the tub and will almost never be touched asides from cleaning/dusting. Once the primer was dry I used a Satin Black spray paint that was meant for metals and glass.

Turns out the paper “shield” did protect the walls directly around the window, but the spray paint got all over the tub and floors. Luckily Magic Erasers truly are magic! The Magic Erasers and some elbow grease took the paint right off. If I did this again, I’d make sure I used a drop cloth throughout the room, at least 6ft out from where I’m spraying!

I then made a new sill for the window that was a tad wider than the old one. I was using 1x3s to frame out the window and I wanted the sill to stick out further than the frames so I made it 9in wider than the window. The 1×3 below the sill was 5in wider that the window to account for the window width + 2 1x3s (a 1×3 isn’t actually 3in wide, it’s 2.5in wide). I cut the 1x3s at a 45° on the top corners for this window. The windows I’ve done since then I just cut normal and butted them up together instead of using a 45° angle at the joints. It’s easier this way and once it’s wood filled, caulked and painted you really can’t tell. I nailed these on with a 18 gauge finish nailer.

Once those were up I caulked everything. You always want to make sure you use paintable caulk anywhere you plan on painting, trust me! The paint does not stick to caulk that is not meant for paint and would look terrible!

Because I have textured walls and I wanted everything smooth around the window. I decided to use joint compound to smooth out the insides of the window. It took about 3 coats of joint compound and sanding in between each coat. I allowed each coat to dry for about 24 hours since I put it on kind of thick, the thicker you put it on the longer it takes to dry and the more likely it is to crack, so thin coats are best. There are also other methods of doing this, you can add 1/8 thick brown board to the wall instead of joint compound, you just have to make sure the window frame comes in a bit to cover the edges of the brown board.

I should have been wearing a mask for this. Learn from my mistakes and wear one! A regular mask will do, but a respirator is even better!

Once it was all sanded smooth I painted everything with the same Alabaster by SW.

I had initially planned on putting the blinds back up, but I was LOVING all the light that was pouring into our bathroom without them on. The only problem was that you could see right in, so I got online to do some research and found this static cling window film for privacy. You just take the backing off, sprits it with water and apply it to the window and smooth it out kind of like you would wallpaper. The great thing about this film is it just uses water and static to go on the window so you don’t have to worry about any sticky residue, plus you can remove it and put it back on as many times as you’d like.

The only problem I had with this film is it didn’t come in a size big enough for this window so I had to piece it together, but you can only see the seams at night, not during the day. If I did this again, I’d look for a film that came in the size of my window. But I still think it turned out great and provides lots of privacy!

Is this a DIY project you feel you could handle?