Here are before/after photos of the corner of the wall that was flaky.

zabba, haha, yes, the toilet isn't so much the main focal point with the addition of the table, a piece of furniture that I absolutely love. Eventually I'll find a nice picture for above the table that will add a nice touch to the room, too.

You did a nice job on that ! It looks really good without spending a gazillion dollars. The power of paint and prep.

Thanks, Gargamel!

Wow! You did a great job. So much better.

Holy smokes. That is great!

SO much better! And what an improvement on the floor. Is that tile?

Thanks! The floor is peel and stick tile.

That looks fantastic! I dislike marlite so much, I was willing to take a chance on painting it. It covers pretty much every wall in my 1800s farmhouse. Ugh. So far, I have successfully painted over it in my kitchen, living room and bedroom. You are 100% correct about the light sanding and the use of appropriate primer. Nicely done!

Looks so much better!

This looks amazing! Great job on this!

Fantastic job! Looks so much better :)

Thanks!

rebmac, our house had a lot of marlite as well as panelling. Over the years, we were able to drywall and get rid of it on the first floor. We still have panelling in some of the upstairs bedrooms, which we’ve painted, and now this bathroom, too. Paint really is transformative! We just didn’t see the point of all the mess of drywall, the extra expense, labor, hauling it upstairs, finding the time to mud and sand, ect., especially since it’s a room mostly only my husband and I will use. I have to mention, tho, on another of my houzz posts about this bathroom, my sanity over painting marlite was questioned and I was even told I was unworthy of being a homeowner! And a few other crazy comments. Ha ha!

Nicely done!

Woah! Thats great! It looks so much better now. Also, I like the flooring and the color of the rugs. The contrast really works well. Good job!

Thanks, I appreciate your compliment of the rug color because I bought (and returned) five different colored rug sets before husband and I agreed on these ones! It was the typical Goldilocks scenario, colors were too light, too dark, too green, too gray.... The bathroom finally seemed like it started coming together when I added this shade of blue that I find both cheerful and calming.

Good luck to you Katie. Most important is to clean it very well, first, lightly sand, then wipe down again, and make sure you use an oil based bonding, sealing primer. I did the bottom half of one of my bathrooms, 10 yrs ago now, and it still looks like its just been freshly painted.

Katie, glad my post could be of help. Honestly, Marlite is easy to wipe clean, takes minutes, and the light sanding takes very little time, too. Then another quick wipe to remove any sandy particles and you are ready for the primer. I found the Zinsser oil based primer at Lowes, but think I’ve seen it at Home Depot and possibly even Walmart. It’s been a year now with our newly panted bathroom and Imstill walk in it and hink, how nice this looks! Good luck with your project!

1tuffmoefoe Your bathroom is looking good.

Thank you Soo much! Very helpful! I had called both Home Depot n Lowe’s and neither had any idea was I was talking about! But you saved the day. N ty

Excellent improvement! Well done!

Nice update! Everything looks amazing!

You've inspired ! Looks amazing!

My project coming soon!

It looks great! I’m inspired!

Looks great!

You have inspired me, I was dreading removing all the Marlite,I’m so excited that I won’t have to!

I think an update is in order before anyone assumes this is a lasting finish. How's it all holding up?

Its holding up great in my bathroom. In November, I repainted that bathroom, a different color, and so it has been repainted again. It didnt need repainting, I just did things a bit different in there and repainted. Its been a lot of years now, since I first painted it.

Old post but it's good to know that marlite can be painted. In the photos it really isn't distinguishable from gyp. board.