Tile, vanity, hardware, plumbing fixtures. It all adds up and it all adds up fast! These nine bathroom remodel ideas on a budget will help you save some serious dough! The best part? No compromising on style!
Bathrooms and kitchens. The two rooms that will make or break your house when it comes selling time and that also tend to cost the most when it comes to renovations.
If you’ve got the budget for an out-of-this-world bathroom renovation, then go for it! There isn’t a doubt in my mind, you’ll enjoy that bathroom for years and years to come.
If, however, your bathroom remodel budget is closer to non-existent than anything else, no worries! I’ve got nine different ideas for you here that can help you save some serious dough on your bathroom remodel, without compromising style.
Local Chattanooga folks – I’ll be teaching a workshop about remodeling your bathroom on a budget in November – more details here!
Bathroom Remodel on a Budget
Have your bathtub/shower painted instead of replacing it.
When we redid the guest bathroom, we were on both a tight budget and a tight timeframe, however the shower needed some cosmetic help for sure. The door needed to go and that beige color was awful. We didn’t want to rip out the entire unit because it wasn’t in bad condition and this was the guest bathroom – we don’t have guests every weekend. And of course, because $$$. After some research, I discovered you could have your bathtub unit professionally painted. I called around and got some estimates and it only ended up being around $500 to have our unit painted. The finish is very similar to what they use in the factory. Our guy even removed the doors, filled those holes and you can’t even tell where the shower door was! He even custom matched the white to the white on the toilet so that the two whites didn’t stand out against one another! Huge savings on not ripping out the old unit and we didn’t have to deal with the mess from ripping it out!
Ask for remnants or “scratch n’ dent” countertops.
The vanity in the guest bathroom needed a paint job, but other than that and the hideous countertop, it was still a pretty solid vanity. The countertop was awful though. We visited a local countertop store and asked to see remnant pieces of countertop options left over from bigger jobs so we wouldn’t be paying as much. We found one that worked, but as it turned out there was a scratch on the countertop. But, it didn’t affect the stability of the counter and it was in the corner. Since I had planned to put a tray on the countertop anyway in that spot, it didn’t bother me a bit. We were able to get an extra $100 knocked off the cost of the counter because of the scratch. On top of all that, the scratch isn’t really even noticeable when the tray isn’t there, you really have to hunt for it. Top the new countertop off with a shiny new sink faucet and it will only look like you spent a million bucks. 🙂
Instead of tile on the walls, go with a custom painted wall treatment.
When I started planning the guest bathroom makeover, I found an image of a bathroom online that had this beautiful tile on the wall in horizontal narrow rows. Again though, this was the guest bathroom – not the master or any other bathroom that gets a lot of traffic, so I wasn’t going to spend hundreds of dollars on tile for the wall. I mimicked the tile look with paint though and I love how it turned out! And can you believe all I used to create the washed-out blue stripes was a roll of Frogtape and just a sample pot of paint?! See how I did this wall HERE!
If you prefer to make a bigger statement in the room, go with a bolder pattern and color…
This is an accent wall I did in one of the bathrooms at our previous house. I wanted a bold pop of color in here and a pattern that mimicked cane like you would see on the back of a chair. All it took was a little time to tape off the pattern and then a couple coats of paint. See how I did this cane inspired wall HERE!
Put snap together flooring over your old tile flooring.
Apparently, the guest bathroom is like the poster child for quick fixes on a budget. This space had to be turned around fast and ripping up the tile and putting down new wasn’t an option. Instead, we installed this snap together laminate flooring directly over the old tile. I love how it looks like wood flooring, but it’s not! There are loads of gorgeous vinyl flooring options out there these days! You can see how this space looked before HERE!
Stalk discount stores for mirrors.
I’m not a big fan of the matchy-matchy mirrors that come with vanities from big box stores these days. I’m also not a fan of the plain Jane frameless mirrors that many bathrooms sport. I’d rather have something with a little more character that adds to the space instead of just being there to take up space. So, I always check out places like Home Goods, TJ Maxx, Marshall’s and Ross for mirrors that would be great above vanities. The mirror you see above was only $30 at Home Goods!
Damaged walls? Cover with luan or beadboard.
When we started working on the farmhouse, it was obvious something was going to have to be done about about the walls in the bathroom. The whole bathroom actually had to be nearly gutted. The tile on the walls were actually plastic tiles and lots of them were falling off. Again, no budget for retiling walls here! We pulled all the tile off, but the walls were still damaged underneath where the tile had been glued. For a fast and budget friendly fix, we covered the walls where the tile had been with luan panels and topped it with a chair rail. If you would prefer more detail, you could do this with beadboard panels instead.
Go for timeless finishes that tend to cost less.
Trendier finishes on faucets and hardware are usually going to cost more. If you want to save some money and keep your bathroom from dating too easily, go for finishes that will stand the test of time – like chrome. Chrome will always be in style and it tends to be cheaper.
That being said, if you absolutely love whatever the latest finish trend may be, then go for it. I have Champagne Bronze in my master bathroom and I still adore the finish just as much as I did when we first put it in there.
Paint the existing vanity and replace the hardware.
I’m sure you’ve heard this one a few times – paint your vanity instead of replacing it. As long as your vanity is in pretty good shape, go for it! If it’s falling apart though or has water damage for some reason, I’d seriously look at replacing it. The vanity in our guest bathroom was solid and had good classic lines, so I just gave it a couple coats of oil-based paint and new hardware – it made a world of difference!
Add in wall-to-wall shelving for extra storage and decor space.
If you’re tight on storage space in your bathroom, build you some shelves! The photo you see above is about the 3rd time I’ve built shelves like these – they are so easy! Find out how to HERE!
Any budget bathroom remodeling ideas you can share with us?
Want more budget DIY and decorating ideas?
20 High Style – Low Budget Knock Off Decor Projects – who knew knock-offs could be so pretty?!
14 Real Life Bedroom Ideas – beautiful bedrooms that are actually attainable!
20+ Living Room Ideas – loads of decorating ideas for every style!
Want to come back to these bathroom ideas later? Just pin the image below!
Join the Freak Show On…
