Bathtub Refresh

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On my mission to rid this bathroom of all things yellowy beige, I was faced with this bathtub. The side of it was shiny and marbled looking and wasn’t at all what I was going for.

I didn’t want to paint it because I was worried it would scratch off easily on this slick surface, especially being in a place where it can easily be kicked or scuffed up. So I went with the next best option, covering it up. I cut a piece of thin underlayment down to size. Since I already added the baseboards I just cut around the baseboards on the underlayment.

Make sure you are wearing safety glasses when working with any saw.

It was a pretty close fit! Nothing caulk wouldn’t hide. Speaking of caulk, ALWAYS make sure you are using paintable caulk if it’s going anywhere you are planning to paint or may paint one day. I have a friend who used clear silicon caulk on her baseboards because she didn’t know there was a difference and when she went to paint her walls and baseboards, the paint just beaded up on the caulk and it looked terrible. She wanted to cry when she realized she had no choice but to redo all of the caulk!

I then sanded the plywood underlayment to make it extra smooth and stained it the same color as my floating shelves and wood slats in the water closet. Golden Oak by Minwax topped with Dark Walnut by Minwax.

I installed it with Gorilla Glue Construction Adhesive. (I love that stuff! It works so well!) I also glued on a trim piece to the top to cover the raw edge and to prevent water from getting behind it and then caulked everything into place.

I was never sold on the color but I lived with it for a few years. Then one day I decided to paint all the baseboards Accessible Beige by SW and ended up painting this plywood while I was at it.

It was a little plain though, so I picked up some small pine moulding to add interest. I cut the moulding down to size and used Gorilla Glue Construction Adhesive to attach it. I used painters tape to hold it in place while the glue dried.

Once the glue was dry I caulked all the seams and painted the trim Accessible Beige as well.

And look at the before, during and after! What do you think? Is it better, or was this a waste of time?

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Next up, a full master bath reveal + a few smaller details I haven’t mentioned yet.