A Simple Budget Bathroom Makeover for Under $1500

Home Decorating:

After 3 and half years of living in my 1963 bathroom, I've finally been able to kiss goodbye to my lovely pink bath, basin and toilet!

My original plans for the bathroom were for a complete rip out and redo, but as circumstances changed I needed to pare back my plans and look at what I could do on a minimal budget but having the greatest impact.

I myself can’t hardly hammer a nail in the wall, but luckily my darling partner is a genius at all things building and came to my rescue, along with his parents!!

Being built in 1963 my bathroom is clad with asbestos. So to keep the costs to the minimum we decided to keep the existing tiles and paint them with tile paint ($79).

Most significantly, missing from the bathroom was any form of storage. So the pink basin had to go. We replaced it with a simple white vanity from Bunnings ($399) and a large mirror ($40).

For the floor to save some money, and time, we retiled over the top of the existing mosaic tiles. They were lovely, and it was a hard decision, but I wanted to try and achieve a calm feel for the bathroom so we chose a basic  30cm x 30cm porcelain floor  ($2.95 each – total cost $188.10).

We also replaced all the fittings ($137) along with a new shower curtain and rod ($24) and new towel rails ($9).

The toilet was also replaced with a new white one ($97). Finally, all the walls were painted Dulux Lexicon Quarter ($105 – but this was under coat and bathroom paint in 4ltrs as I will be using it in the kitchen as well).

I hung a basic modern print on the wall above the bath (see my post from last week) and the total cost of the renovation came in at under $1500 which includes all the extras I needed including paint brushes, grouting, silicone, drop sheets etc.

I'm so happy with the feel of my new bathroom, I have no idea why it took me so long to do it! I can't wait to tackle the kitchen next!

I hope this inspires you to see what a big difference you can make on a small budget!!

X Caity 

Decorate The Dunny!

Home Decorating:

OK, I know it seems a little strange to be decorating my loo (!), but this looks really nice in my children’s bathroom! As you all know, I’m very keen about low cost makeovers, and it occurred to me the other day that another very low cost way of changing the look of your bathroom is to give your toilet a makeover! There are also so many really ugly toilet seats around (think lace, glitter and swimming dolphins), so I wanted to do something that was a bit more funky and modern.

This project could be especially nice if your toilet is in a room of its own, and the room is otherwise unable to be decorated much. In my case, the toilet in my children’s bathroom is in the smack-bang-centre of the room and therefore is the main focus of the room!

Of course these photos are more about the concept rather than the finished product. There are SO many options with this project! Whatever you wanted to put on there, really! You just need to be able to still sit on it and clean it! I also tried adding more material onto the toilet seat for a different look too. 

If you wanted to try something like this in YOUR bathroom, all you’ll need is some fabric or paper, scissors and some contact.

Firstly, give the toilet a quick clean!! Then trace the area of the toilet that you want to stick something onto. I traced straight onto the back of the contact. Then I cut the shape out.

Cut out the shape of the material or paper that you’d like to use. Just make sure that you’re going to have enough contact around the edge of your shape to keep it stuck firmly on. 

I then gave my material a quick iron. 

It was then a simple matter of sticking the material onto the contact, 

and then sticking it onto the lid of the loo. 

It’s still very easy to clean, and you can just rip it off and chuck it out when you’re sick of it!

It's just for fun! Enjoy your decorating!

Emma

A Low-Cost Makeover for a Children's Bathroom

Home Decorating:

This is what our second bathroom looked like before I painted to update it a bit. As with most of my "renovations"... everything had to stay the same (the slate, sink, vanity, taps etc) and so I had to just work with what was there.

There was certainly an abundance of slate, and it sits halfway up the wall which makes it hard to hang pictures to cover it so that it's a bit more balanced... but I got a selection of my child's paintings (plus one of mine - the black and white one), and stuck them up with blu-tac over the wall and the slate.

Then I added some lettering (also stuck on with blu-tac), a starfish, a mirror that I purchased half-price from Target and painted white, and all the other bits and pieces that need to go into a bathroom for everyday use! On the ground next to the bathtub is the top of an old broken shoe rack from IKEA that I had... it looks great as a wooden bath mat!

And this is how it looks now!

Happy decorating!

Emma