You might notice a pattern if you’ve read posts like this, this, this, and this. Making our house feel like ours is often as much about removing unnecessary elements as it is about adding new furniture or paint. In our previous house we removed matted carpet, dated curtains, wallpaper, small doorways, a few bi-fold doors, and a linen closet door. Working with what we have sometimes means altering or stripping things back so they fit our style instead of demolishing everything and starting from scratch. That mindset is exactly why the granite backsplash around the bedroom sink had to go.
To be clear, we didn’t dislike the sink itself or its location. It lives in a small nook on one wall of our bedroom, and the backsplash made the sink announce itself loudly as “a sink in the middle of the room.” Removing the granite would let the sink blend in more and feel like a piece of furniture rather than an obvious bathroom fixture. This project was the first step toward integrating that nook with the rest of the room.
We weren’t concerned about water damage. Around the edge of the counter we planned to use waterproof paintable caulk and semi-gloss paint in the alcove to protect drywall from splashes. We had used this caulk-plus-semi-gloss approach in our previous bathrooms, and it worked very well. The goal was a durable, wipeable finish without the visual interruption of a granite backsplash.
Here’s how the removal went. First I scored the clear silicone caulk at the top of the backsplash using a box cutter to break the seal:
Next I scored the caulk between the counter and the backsplash the same way to free the edges:
Once the caulk was cut, I used a thin metal spackle knife to get behind the backsplash and pry it away from the wall slowly and carefully. Each of the three backsplash pieces was teetered back and forth until it detached from the wall and could be lifted out. The pieces were heavy, but manageable. I did this while John watched Clara, which felt like a small personal victory.
I started without announcing it to John because I wanted to test whether removal was even possible. I knew he’d like the backsplashless look—we had used it in both bathroom overhauls at our old house—so I just hoped I could clean things up before anyone saw the mid-project mess. I scraped silicone caulk off the granite counter with the same spackle knife I used to remove the backsplash. The knife worked well without scratching the granite.
After removing the bulk of the backsplash and caulk, I scraped off the remaining adhesive to reveal roughed-up drywall. Then I skim-coated the rough areas so the wall would look seamless again. Instead of heavy joint compound, I used a lightweight spackle that sands smooth when fully dry. That approach created an even surface that blended into the surrounding wall—just be sure to let the spackle dry completely before sanding.
Once the wall was smooth, I applied white waterproof paintable caulk around the counter perimeter to seal any hairline gaps between the granite and drywall. This prevents water from collecting or leaking behind the vanity while maintaining a clean edge.
From a distance the nook already looks calmer and more integrated with the bedroom furniture. Ignore the baskets and clutter in the photos—we still have organizing to do—but the simplified look is promising. Compared to the original setup when we moved in, removing the bi-fold doors and the backsplash makes the whole area read less like an off-duty bathroom and more like a functional part of the bedroom.
We’re excited about the next steps: painting the nook with a wipeable semi-gloss paint and implementing a few additional design changes to further disguise the sink as a piece of furniture. As for the three granite slabs, we’re donating them to Habitat for Humanity ReStore so someone else can reuse them. That feels like the perfect way to close the loop—rescuing materials while making our space feel more like home.