Removing the Vanity Backsplash

Happy Thursday, friends! A few days ago, I mentioned that Mitch and I were taking some time off this week… not going anywhere, really, but just spending some time relaxing at home and taking some day trips here and there. I’ll have a full post of our adventuring for you next week, but for now I wanted to show you the beginning stages of the downstairs bathroom we tackled the last few days. You may recall what the bathroom currently looks like?

Last week, I showed you the plans for the big makeover…

Well, consider this little update “Part One” of the big overhaul. For a long time now, I’ve been wanting to remove the vanity backsplash that surrounds the counter top. The sink/counter layout is quirky as is (so many angles!!), but the surrounding backsplash took up a 1/2 inch of space around the whole thing. With it gone, the counter would have just a bit more breathing room.

I’ve seen other people do this and it seemed so easy- slice the glue with a box cutter and pry off the pieces. NOT SO. At least with ours. This was one of those projects that you start, thinking it’s going to take you 20 minutes and very little sweat, then you find out it’s more involved than you thought but it’s too late to turn back because you’ve already begun, and it ends up taking a week to finish and a lot of creative problem solving. Oh yeah, and MORE than a little sweat. One of those projects. I definitely had a moment of “is this really worth it?!”, but in the end, I think the answer is a definite YES. And it’s finished now, so there is much rejoicing in all the land. 🙂 Here’s how it all went down…

First, I tried to do the “slice and pry” method I’d seen other people do.

This technique works just fine if your pieces are not also SCREWED IN from below!

It ended up taking a lot more muscle to pry the pieces off (we were trying to wrench them off the screws holding them in place) and the walls took a beating because we needed the leverage to get the boards off. We’re not super concerned though, because walls can be patched and actually, the plans we have for the walls will cover all of those dents anyway. Sidenote: The wallpaper of yore strikes again!!

After prying the backsplash off (hooray!), we were left with a counter full of screws (think screechy violins in a horror movie) to contend with.

The problem here is that the screws were screwed in from the bottom and there was a framework then installed on top of them, blocking access to the screw head. Simply put, there was no way to unscrew them from below. There is probably a professional technique out there for removing screws in this scenario and if you know it, please chime in in those comments! My version was to use a drill with a slightly larger drill bit and create a hole where the screw was.

I just kept drilling around until the hole was big enough for the screw head to be pulled through.

From there, I just repeated until I had a handful of conquered screws and a counter-ful of holes. I’m calling them Victory Scars. 🙂

After that, I scraped off all of the glue that was holding the pieces in places…

Filled each hole back up with the sawdust that came out from drilling and some wood putty…

Sanded them down and wiped everything clean!

And now the counter is backsplashless, smooth, and ready for its big transformation! Just try to ignore those holes in the wall. 🙂 As for the next step… We’re partnering with Giani Granite and going with the White Diamond look… here’s the best news: You’ll get a chance to win a kit of your own too (in the color of your choice)!!! So stay tuned for those contest details!