DIY Bathroom Wallpapered Feature Wall

*This post was made possible by the generous support of Fancy Walls and features gifted product. All opinions are my own.

I’m often asked how I know a room is actually finished, and the answer is a simple one—a smile. When I walk into a completed room makeover and I feel a smile coming on without forcing it, then I know the room is juuuuust right. And that’s exactly how I feel about today’s hall bathroom makeover reveal. Every time I go into the finished space, I feel a rush of joy. The colors, the patterns, the original 1960s details, paired with new updates—the combination is my idea of the perfect room refresh.

If you’ve been following along for any length of time, then you might know that this room has gone through several different iterations. We started with some pretty rotten old wallpaper. It may have been cute back in its day, but the pattern was a little dated for 2024, and the papery texture of the wallpaper had gotten smelly after decades and decades in a humid bathroom.

It was past time for an update, so we removed the wallpaper, and I painted the walls a bright blue color because it was part of a campaign where I had limited paint color options to choose from. We had practically just moved in during this initial room makeover process, and I wasn’t entirely sure of the design direction I wanted to go in with the house. The blue that I chose ultimately ended up being just a little too cold for the whole house color scheme that had started to emerged, so I knew I needed to pivot my long-term design plan.

After weeks and weeks of dreaming, I had the idea to do a wallpapered feature wall behind the bathroom vanity. I knew that if I just kept the pattern on one wall, it wouldn’t overpower the space, and that it could be a great way to interject our whole house color palette into this high traffic room. As always when dealing with wallpaper, I turned to my friends at Fancy Walls. I’ve used their wallpaper all over our 1960s ranch, and I know that their patterns are the perfect fit for us (although their vast collection really does have options for everyone!).

Before I could wallpaper, though, I needed to tone down the rest of the walls with fresh paint. I ultimately landed on a color called “Pediment” from Sherwin-Williams that was a nice complement to the gray color in the wallpaper I had chosen from Fancy Walls—a pattern called “Sandy Tiles.” It took two coats to paint over the old blue color, and then I let the entire room cure for about a week before attempting to wallpaper. I probably didn’t need to wait quite that long, but it is important to let new paint fully harden before attempting to wallpaper over top of it, that way you don’t inadvertently peel wet paint off the wall when laying/readjusting wallpaper panels during the installation phase.

I’ll be honest and say that I was dreading putting the wallpaper up on the vanity wall for two reasons: getting it to lay flat over the wall behind the toilet, and having to take the vanity light down to install the wallpaper behind that spot. The project was a cinch, though. I wish I hadn’t spent so much time worrying about it, because I didn’t have any problems at all.

The nice thing about Fancy Walls wallpaper is that their wallpaper is pretty thick and easy to work with. I was able to get it to lay almost perfectly flat behind the toilet because of how stiff the paper is. It slipped back behind the toilet without folding in on itself as I feared, and even though there are a few small bubbles where I couldn’t reach to smooth them out, those bubbles are entirely hidden from view behind the toilet. As for the light, I just took things one step at a time—I turned the electricity off, removed the light from the wall, installed the wallpaper in that area (using a secondary light to brighten the space so I could work), and then reinstalled the light over top. Easy as can be.

I absolutely adore the pop of personality that the new wallpaper adds to this room. During that week when the room just had its new gray wall color painted on and no wallpaper, I started to worry that the design wasn’t going to look complete and that it wouldn’t be quite as modern and fun as I had envisioned. But the moment that wallpaper started going up, I knew that the big picture design was going to come together in the end. The room just needed a bold hit of pattern and color to balance out the original wood vanity and other architectural features in the room. Is it weird to say that this bathroom is my favorite room in our house? Well, then go ahead and call me weird, because I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out!