If you’re looking for some budget-friendly bathroom upgrade tips, you’re in the right place. I decided to give my blue bathroom a makeover and document the process along with the products and cost of the entire thing. Redoing a bathroom is a pretty easy way to update your home, and you don’t need to put a lot of money or time into it if you stick with cheap bathroom upgrades that you can DIY on your own schedule.
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Why I decided to do this!
We moved into this house about 25 years ago, and the only thing I’ve done is add paint and some basic stuff like shelves, and that was also about 25 years ago. This is the bathroom off of the main bedroom, and I go in there twice a day, when I get up and when I go to bed. I don’t spend much time in there otherwise, so it isn’t my main priority! It’s just old enough that things have naturally gotten to the point where they need to be replaced.
I’ve had lights and the toilet replaced over the years, but everything else in there is builder grade, which is fine for me since I’m not super picky about that kind of thing. If it works, it’s fine.
The main fixtures in this bathroom are in good shape, so there’s no need to replace the tub or anything major like that. It’s been about 25 years (I know!) since I painted this room, and I’ve had to touch the paint up once because the humidity in the air had made the paint kind of chip off in spots.
That’s happening again, so it’s time to repaint, and I figured that I would take the opportunity to do some other upgrades to other things that just need replacing because they’re older.
Rusty fixtures
There are things that need to be replaced and can be replaced easily…
The metal things in the bathroom have gotten “decroded” (as my kids used to say) over time because of the humidity from the shower. The vent cover is one thing that can be easily replaced, so that was on the list.
Door hinges also get rusty, and I’ve been looking at those for a few years thinking “I should replace those.” The time has come, so they go on the list.
The towel ring near the sinks also has some rust on it, so it goes, too. I think that I installed this when we moved in, if I remember correctly. The switch plate covers also have screws that have some rust on them, so I might get some new screws for those.
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Fixtures that are just old.
This is another easy thing to replace that will make the room look better.
The original cabinet is in good shape, but the handles on the doors are old and one has lost a screw along the way. I never use that cabinet anyway, so it’s been like that for quite a while and I didn’t care! But that’s an east fix once I decide what to do with the cabinet paint.
The doorknob has the brass rubbed off of it and could do with being replaced.
The shower curtain rod is decrepit, and I can get a new showerhead easily. These are all simple fixes that don’t involve any special construction or dealing with plumbers, so I’m safe so far.
I also got a new shower curtain liner, and will probably get another shower curtain after I paint the room.
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Things that need to be painted.
Paint is the easiest way to refresh a room, and at first I thought I wanted to paint over the blue, but I changed my mind. When I first painted this room I did it in what I thought were random shades of blue using thinned-out paint brushed on in layers for a colorwash effect.
The reason I say I thought it was random colors was that after I finished it, I decided to hang up a painting that I had done in a college art class, and it had the exact same colors in it. So I guess I like those colors, and I’m consistent. I genuinely didn’t look at the painting before doing the room, so after discussing the new paint color with a couple of people and admitting that I still like the blue, I thought that I’d just leave it.
Then we were watching a show that was filmed in a manor house in England, and the color on the walls in one of the rooms was sooooo pretty, I decided to do it like that. It’s basically a more pastel version of the same teal-y blue color, and it looked like it was done with another colorwash technique.
We’re going to use the existing color as the base color, and do another layer of thinned-out blue on top of it to lighten it up and to give it a fresh coat of paint.
I mean seriously, I love this blue, so I’m going to stick with it with a little alteration. I would just leave it alone, but you can see in this photo that there are places where the paint is flaking off, and you can also see the places where I touched the same kind of flaking up a few years ago.
This is another look at the paint coming off the wall because of the humidity. I’m going to sand those spots down, then the new paint will cover all of that up with a consistent look.
Another thing that needs to be painted is the door. Whenever I go to clean this because it looks like it’s dirty, I realize that it’s paint that’s rubbed off. So the doors themselves need to be painted.
Replace entirely or try to fix?
One thing that I might have to replace is the closet door, unless I can think of a way to make the holes in it look better!
The inside of the closet door has holes that the previous owners put into it, so I need to find a way to cover those up. I might remove the Command hooks that are there now and add some more on top of the holes, and that might be all I need to do. The door is really skinny and weird, and I do want to keep this to a minimum amount spent, so buying a new door isn’t really in the budget.
I’m going to replace the hinges on this door, too, since they’re also corroded. Plus, there’s a new doorknob coming so that the two doors match.
The paint etc.
I’m going to be painting the walls, but I also want to paint the cabinet. I might replace the drawer fronts with something flat, but I’ll have to look into that.
The flooring is staying, it’s solid and yes, it’s old, but it’s a neutral pattern that’s not offensive, so new bathmats will be all I need to do for that once the time comes.
I might add a frame to the mirror if I feel like it, but by the time I’m done painting I don’t know if I’ll have the motivation.
I’m going to remove the shelving and towel racks that are in there now since the shelves are old, and I don’t use the towel rack at all.
I’ll also get new curtains and a curtain rod, but I want to finish painting before I start getting the fabric items. I’ll need some kind of shelving for over the toilet, so I’ll be looking for that down the road. probably after the painting happens.
Step 1, redo the caulk in the tub.
This was the first thing I did because why not…Cleaning the caulk and replacing it where there was mildew is a fast upgrade.
I started with this Active mold stain remover (the company sent it to me to try out) and cleaned the stains on the tile above the tub. This stuff works really well, just make sure to shake it up really well before using it. It’s supposed to be a gel, but if you don’t shake it up the liquid in it will come out first and it won’t stay where you want it.
The color on these photos is weird (it’s the same spot in the tub surround) but you can see how putting the mildew remover on the grout cleaned it up. After it was clean I re-caulked the base of the tiles, so that’s new.
Then I did the base of the tub where it meets the flooring. The problem here is that over time, the vinyl has curled up and doesn’t lie flat on the floor in front of the tub, so the caulk that I redid years ago was really thick. I removed as much of the old stuff as I could (after cleaning all of the mildew stains) and then filled it in again after making sure that the subfloor was solid, but it took a few layers and it was still a large width of it. I used white, but I might go over it again with a “biscuit” color after it’s solid and dried completely.
Step 1 finished…
After doing the basic caulking I ordered a bunch of things that I can replace easily (doorknobs etc.,) and I’m waiting for those to be delivered today. I’ll update this as I add changes to the bathroom, so save the link or pin this article and I’ll add links to the articles that I add to update changes as I get them done.
Click here for the list of everything I ordered and used for this makeover: Bathroom makeover on a budget (Amazon affiliate link)
Click here to see part 2 of this bathroom makeover.