When I said last week that I re-vamped my kid’s bathroom for under $200, you may have guessed that my “weapon” of choice was paint. Because we had just spent a significant amount of money updating some of the finishes in our master bathroom, this was one of those makeovers where I had to sneak twenty dollars here and twenty dollars there to achieve a new look for a lot less.

Sometimes I feel frustrated with certain blogs I follow because it seems like the bloggers have unlimited resources to tear rooms down to the studs and build them back up to beautiful. This post is for those of us who need to ratify the ugly in our homes (now!) but are unable to afford anything that can’t be done with our own two hands. It may be a bit of a band-aid solution, but hey, they make some really cute band-aids now-a-days.

No true before picture again. This is another bathroom in my complex with the same finishes as mine.
No true before picture again. This is another bathroom in my complex with the same finishes as mine, right down to the drab off-white paint. It is slightly larger than any of our bathrooms.

The key to this budget bathroom makeover can be summed up in three elements: paint, fabric, and accessories. But first the gigantic wall mirror had to go. People think these mirrors make small bathrooms look bigger- wrong! Ask my husband, he’s a skeptic turned convert since we eliminated these mirrors from our home. Removing them does tend to leave a bit of a mess since builders like to gob on way more glue than needed. I found this video on you-tube very helpful in regards to fixing up all the torn dry wall (just using poly-fila or drydex is not enough! I tried).

AFTER

After: Bold colour reigns.
After: Bold colour reigns.
After: bold colour reigns.
A small, clear container now corrals all the children’s grooming supplies and keeps their gear from being spread all over the counter. The plant picks up on the orange in the shower curtain. It may die from lack of light but I love the look for the present.

A little paint can go a long way to amp up your bathroom decor, and not just for the walls. I found a paint colour to match the teal in my shower curtain and for the whopping additional cost of a $5 sample pot I transformed an ugly $13 mirror from Lowes into a statement piece. I picked up some two dollar frames from Ikea and painted them to match. I currently have $2 Ikea floral prints in the frames that do the job but I have my eyes on some small water colour paintings from an artist I recently discovered on Etsy.

From the Art Corner Shop on Etsy.
From the Art Corner Shop on Etsy. A bit rich for my non-budget but all in good time.

Monogrammed towels were not something I was going to invest in for my children’s bathroom but for a dose of fun, I added a $3 “L” to the rather boring medicine cabinet which I removed from my master bathroom.

IMG_3501

The custom shower curtain I made took up the majority of the budget as I needed four yards of fabric and I had my heart set on this gorgeous P Kaufman floral for the top three quarters. You can easily spent much less on a stylish shower curtain at places like Target, West Elm, and Homesense.

All in all the budget breakdown looks like this:

$80 Custom Shower Curtain

$60 Paint from General Paint

$18 Mirror from Lowes (includes cost of sample paint pot)

$10 Plant from Walmart

$10 Storage basket from London Drugs

$4 Artwork and Frames from Ikea

For a grand total of $182. The great thing is that you can easily knock some big money off your budget by buying a store bought shower curtain and cheaper paint (I bought the expensive stuff because my kids splatter excessive amounts of water on the walls).

So, do you have a boring bathroom that needs some budget friendly help? I hope this post inspires you to make the most of what you have. Not confident to decorate yourself? Let me help. You can contact me at heather@fabrictherapy.ca. Whether you are local or far away, I’d love to assist you to achieve your best possible bathroom (or any room for that matter). You see, that was the last room left for me to decorate in my own home. It’s time to step out the door.

 

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