I had tin tiles in a bathroom in my old house. They were ugly and rusted, but I painted them anyway. Made a HUGE difference and lasted several years! I think we used epoxy paint, but it was a long time ago. I'm sure a paint dealer would sell you the right stuff. It was not hard at all...just like ordinary painting, looked flawless and there were no brushmarks at all...had a high gloss, mirror finish! Easy to keep clean, too. As for wallpaper, I love the stuff. I have it everywhere! I have vinyl type in my kitchen, where I do a LOT of cooking, and it washes easily and well. I have it in my main bathroom, too, and despite all the steam four of us could put it through every day for the past 9 years, it still looks terrific. And those walls were (still are) awful underneath the paper. I think paintable wallpaper is a good suggestion, but why not just use wallpaper and eliminate one process? You will always see the seams on wallpaper, paintable or not, but done correctly, printed wallpaper seams are almost invisible - IMO, they are far less visible on printed than they are on paintable wallpaper. If you didn't notice the bad walls under the old paper, you probably won't be able to see the bad walls under new paper, either. I also think 5 years is not long enough for such an expensive investment as good wallpaper. But, then, I'm not much for change in my house. And whatever paper you use, be sure you size it first!

oh gosh yes you can spend a fortune on a good paper like thibault, and thats not even talking about the installer. i'm not saying its not money well spent, but you dont want to be redoing it any time soon, if ever... i used to buy mid range papers and hang them myself. those were the days... now i have thibault in my dining room and 1. i hope i never get tired of it 2. i'm glad my husband never saw THAT bill. divide and conquer: how about just papering the wall with the two small windows? it's going to be difficult to 'decorate' that wall with art, having the paper might be just the thing.

It depends a lot how the paper was put on and what kind of adhesion was used how hard you will work to get it off. When you wet it and warm it you want to get it to the point where the paper lifts right off. The issue after that will be the remaining glue. This is where it can get really hard to completely get the glue off to the point where you can paint it without disturbing the lead paint. Also, one thing you may discover is that you do not have a fine finish that will look good painted on the plaster underneath, and that there is in fact no paint at all of any kind in some rooms. They will need a new skim coat anyway. It then becomes: do you have enough glue off to adhere a skim coat? Whatever you do, just be careful. People get all bent out of shape about asbestos and mold but neither of those are really much of a danger in an acute exposure situation, but "lead stupid" is forever . It dissolves in water, it can get dispersed in the air, etc. and if you get it all over the place it can get VERY expensive and hard to clean it out of the house afterward.

Thanks for going back and forth on this with me. I definitely want a pendant. (Just one since I don’t think there’s enough room for two.) I think the pendant will help being the ceiling down. if I install a pendant, then would o get rid of the light above the sink? Probably right? In which case maybe I would install a cluster. I also have considered a lighted mirror. Here are a few inspiration photos. I agree that tile might work behind mirror … it needs texture of some sort. I think some of your ideas about wood on the ceiling are too much for me to tackle. Trying to streamline.