The Bathroom Mini Reno (on a budget)

When we first moved into this house we were ecstatic to be going from one TINY bathroom that we all had to share, to three legitimate bathrooms, two full, one half. So we have this fairy tale story of the happy family finding their dream home loaded with bathrooms ... is that the way it ever works? no.  The one bathroom upstairs is spacious and has an incredible claw foot tub, original to the house. The problem? There was no shower installed in the tub, not such a big deal, but the drain looked like it too was from 1885 (not pretty) and the tub waste had no cover just a dark, gaping hole ... who wouldn't want to take a bath with a huge scary hole staring at them? Me, that's who! 

We knew that making the upstairs bathroom functional was the first thing we needed to do to this house. You all know bathroom renos can be SPENDY, I watch HGTV like it's my religion and it's pretty nuts what kind of money some homeowners pour into their bathrooms. We knew for sure we wanted to fix the bathroom up and we knew for sure we wanted to do it for under $1000. I think we actually came pretty close.  

Before and After:

The before picture is from the real estate listing, before we moved in. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't dislike the blue and white thing they had going on, it just felt a little tired. We decided on a mustard color for the bead board and buttermilk cream for the walls. We wanted the bathroom to look a little bit more rustic, but still clean and fitting to the house. Brett did the wall painting, and I spent about three days trying to paint the existing sink console, which actually ended up turning out better than I expected it to. 

It's still not my favorite part of the bathroom, but we achieved our goal which was basically to just make it a lot less noticeable :) We also changed out the knobs which is always something that will give any piece a totally new look. 

Storage was the next thing we had to tackle. There was an old, unused cabinet in our basement, it was really gross, but I knew it would work perfectly for extra storage in the bathroom if I could get it clean and painted. 

I cleaned it up really well, painted it brown, and used some pulls I had picked up a few months earlier out of the clearance basket at Anthropologie. Hanging the cabinet was the most challenging part of this whole up-cycle, but we found one stud that we centered it on and screwed it into from top to bottom. There are other support screws on the sides, tops, and bottoms. If this thing falls, it's bringing the house down with it. 

yes, im proud of the pulls :) 

Oh man, I WISH I would have taken a before picture of the mirror and light fixture. The mirror must have been a $5.00 Dollar General find, and the light was one of those exposed bulbs fixtures, you know, from the 80's. It was also gold, but someone along the way had painted it white, haha, still makes me laugh .... if ya got gold, own it!

We found replacements for both the light and mirror at our trusty Lowes store and haven't looked back. It did take Brett and I one grueling night and then the next morning to get the light fixture changed out. We ended up having to change out the electrical box in the wall in order to get the fixture in place, but it's done and looks way way better. The mirror is also a medicine cabinet, which has been awesome ... we totally beefed up this bathroom's storage which I highly recommend to all you DIY'ers out there. 

So then the shower, we're pretty serious about DIY around here, but when it comes to plumbing we leave it to the experts. New drain,waste cover,faucet, shower attachment, and shower ring ... I can't tell you how worth it this was. 

So in total we spent about:

$50.00 in paint

$50.00 on a light fixture

$100.00 for the mirror

$50.00 for shower curtains/rings

$25.00 for a new rug

$20.00 on knobs

and

$850.00 for new shower parts and labor

grand total: $1,145.00 

Not bad for a new bathroom! 

Here's a few more pics

I moved this hook to the wall from the back of the door, I think it's charming. 

So tell me about your bathroom renos! Big, small, expensive, inexpensive, dream reno? I want to hear! 

I'm linking this post up to Thrifty Decor Chick's April before and After party! Check out her blog she's fabulous! 

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