Before and After: This Luxe Bathroom Redo Has a Genius Fix for Popcorn Ceilings

It’s tough to make at-home spa night happen when you’re uninspired to spend much time in your bathroom. After all, kicking back in the tub and staring up at a mildew-ridden ceiling or grappling with magenta colored walls isn’t exactly relaxing. That’s where Katherine Thewlis of Hausmatter Interiors found herself. After getting sick of her bathroom’s yellow vinyl floors, popcorn ceilings, and poorly done grout lines, she made a move.

“It was depressing before. I noticed we never cleaned up after ourselves and things were constantly scattered everywhere,” Katherine says. “I don’t think this was an issue of organization but just not feeling inspired by the space.”

Not only were the fixtures dated, they also made the room look particularly dark and dim—not ideal for a small bathroom. Katherine decided to DIY a modern redo with her husband, a process that lasted about two months.

Rather than the tedious experience of scraping off a popcorn ceiling, she and her husband simply covered it up with warm-toned wood beadboard paneling. To replace the pastel buttercup walls, they applied a snake-patterned wallpaper from Hygge & West. It’s a standout feature that makes Katherine’s bathroom feel totally unique.

Katherine and her husband did the wallpapering and floor tiling themselves, about which Katherine has a word of warning: “I wish we would have just hired someone. We ended up spending more in time and money repairing our mistakes and I’m not even sure we learned a lesson for next time,” Katherine says.

The vanity was an easier project. Rather than replacing it altogether, Katherine opted to paint it a charcoal gray, which makes the old piece look way more modern.

Special touches make the bathroom feel ultra refined, like a gold faucet on the vanity, a slim glass shelf, and a gold-and-black mirror to replace the old rickety medicine cabinet. Another smart swap? The mod gold vanity light from Etsy.

The result gives “spa-like cabin” vibes, Katherine says—a huge improvement from the dreary yellowed space that it once was. “Updating the room has made us so much more aware of tidying up because we enjoy the room now,” Katherine says.

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