Decorating your bathroom regularly is important if you don’t want it to get run down but it can be pretty expensive. By the time you’ve tiled the walls, replaced all of the fixtures and paid a plumber to put it all in, you can easily spend upwards of $10,000 just to renovate your bathroom. That’s a huge amount of money and most of us don’t just have it lying around. You could just make do with the bathroom as it is or you could use these tips to decorate your bathroom without putting money down the drain.
Create A Budget
Just like any other home renovation project, you need to have a strict budget before you decide to renovate your bathroom. If you aren’t limiting yourself, costs will quickly spiral out of control. Work out roughly what you want and start adding up the costs. Compare it with this guide from House Method to get an idea of whether you’re spending too much or not. When you’re drawing up your budget, you need to remember that there are often complications with home improvement projects and those complications will add to the price. If you’re working right up to your budget without any wiggle room, those complications can put you in financial trouble. That’s why it’s important to account for them beforehand and add an extra buffer on top of your budget.
Do The Tiling Yourself
Most people will tell you to call in a professional to tile if you decide to renovate your bathroom because they think that it’s a difficult job. After all, it’s going to look terrible if you don’t get them all straight and get the spacing right but it’s actually a lot easier than it looks. As long as you take your time use tile spacers you should be fine. You can save a lot of money on the tiles themselves if you’re clever about it. Often, there are budget versions of the expensive tiles that look pretty much the same. It’s a small sacrifice to make and it’ll save you a huge amount of money to renovate your bathroom.
Swap Out Handles
Replacing all of the cabinets in the bathroom is expensive and usually not necessary. Instead of buying a whole new set of cabinets, you can just change the knobs and handles on there. It’ll give them a new lease of life and it only costs a fraction of the price. You can do the same thing with the toilet flush handles, shower curtain rails and towel racks.
Repaint Cabinets
Just changing the handles will give the cabinets a new look, you can go one further and just repaint them as well. Wooden furniture is easy to restore, just sand it down and give it a new coat of paint. With the new handles on there as well, it’ll look like a brand new unit without the hefty price tag. Paint the walls as well and you’ll give the impression that you’ve had a whole new bathroom put in.
Stick To White
If your bathroom has seen better days and the toilet, sink, and bath desperately need to be replaced, it’s best to stick to white. You can get some more interesting designs if you play around with the color but when you’re on a budget, you can’t afford to do that. Colored fixtures are so much more expensive so if you absolutely have to buy them, stick to the classic white.
Use Fabrics
Modern minimalist interiors are a fading trend and a lot of people are moving back toward something a bit more traditional. If you want to do the same, fabrics and rugs go a long way. You can soften the hard edges a little by changing your blinds to some nice patterned fabric ones. Putting a bigger bathmat on the floor changes the aesthetic of the room more than you would think as well.
Make Use Of Lighting
Lighting is often the cheapest way to change the feel of a room and the bathroom is no exception. Changing the light fixture in a room isn’t that expensive and it acts as a bit of a focal point so it has a big effect. Switching from cool lighting to warm is another great trick; it immediately gives the room a more relaxing vibe. Add some dimmer switches and you’ve got a great bathroom that is barely recognizable from the old one.
When you’re decorating a bathroom the expensive bits are all the fixtures. If you can avoid spending money on new cabinets or replacing the sink and toilet by just giving them a bit of a facelift, you can massively cut the amount you spend.
