A Bathroom Mini-Makeover

I desperately want to update our outdated upstairs bathrooms, but alas, I am not made of money. (and quite frankly, I'm a little tired of large-scale renovations at the moment)

It will take time to save up to update those bathrooms properly, so to tide myself over- I decided to give our bedroom's bathroom a makeover using various paint and sticker items.

The bathroom attached to our room clearly wasn't updated by the previous owner. The vanity is old (and painfully short) , the light fixture looked to be one of the shiny gold/brass styles from the early 90's, and the peel and stick tiles were very brown. (Personally, I don't like the color brown in my home unless it's a natural brown from a wood or a leather material. Seeing it in a plastic tile- not so much.)

Here's a photo of when we bought it:

When we moved in, we had hoped to update the bathrooms quickly. However, some of the other projects proved to be more expensive or time consuming than we had hoped.

To make it more tolerable while we were waiting to update, I took out the vanity cabinet that was in bad shape, removed the flowery bulb covers, and put grey paint over some of the walls. Here's a couple of photos of what it looked like for the last year and a half:

The vanity has been turned into a cat bathroom, and with that in mind, you may notice there is absolutely zero bathroom storage. This was fine when I thought it was going to be a couple months of waiting, since I could just use the other bathroom/ hall closet to store things. BUT since we'll be waiting for at least another year, it was time to add storage in here.

Budget was a big factor in this update. I did not want to invest a lot into it since we'll hopefully be replacing all of it at a later time. I also didn't want to rip anything out at this time for that reason.

Before you think, "why not update it in phases, start with the tile," etc. Given how previous projects have gone in this house, I know that we will need to completely gut this space to do it right, so I'd rather just do a light update now that doesn't require uncovering large issues, and do it right when we can. It would also be more of a personal headache to approach it that way.

With trying to do an update on as small of a budget as possible, I started by looking at what I already had around the house to use:

• We have paint. Quite a bit of paint from previous projects. I decided on the green color that's in our bedroom so the color continues through there, as well as white, which is also in our room. I could also use leftover black paint for the vanity.

• We have spray paint. Instead of replacing the light, my plan is to just spray it black.

• We have a mirror. I bought this mirror awhile back for a different room, but it didn't end up getting used so it's been sitting in storage for awhile. I decided I'd paint the frame of it black since every other frame in our house is black too.

• We have cabinet handles. I have a bunch of cabinet handles that weren't used in the kitchen, but could work well for this space. They are simple silver rectangle ones, nothing fancy, and I'd only need 3 to update the cabinet.

With all of this in mind, I ordered:

• Peel & Stick Tiles. (again, not something I'd normally do, but to avoid ripping up and replacing the floor, this is the best temporary solve)

• Paint Markers. This is more for trying out an idea, and wasn't absolutely necessary.

• Vinyl marble-looking sticky paper. I wanted something that I could put on top of the sink to look like an upgrade without actually updating.

• Caulk. Necessary for around the tiles/vinyl sticky paper.

• An Exacto knife/ utility knife. I know we have these somewhere from previous projects, but they ALWAYS get lost, and cutting these materials would require fresh blades anyway. • Storage cabinet & Shelves. It was time this bathroom got some storage. I went with a safe color option (bamboo) so they could be used somewhere even after the bathroom received its actual update.

Once everything showed up, and I had a free weekend, I set to work: 1. I started by removing the unused silver towel racks and patching the holes. There were also weird spots in the walls that were damaged and needed filled & re-textured.

2. I removed the old cabinet handles, and patched those holes too.

3. Painted the cabinet black. This took a couple coats to get full coverage, but it was impressive how much better the cabinet looked with fresh paint. (Yes, the "right" way to do this would to sand off the paint before, prime it, etc. but again, this is all temporary and not intended to last. Also, this cabinet isn't in great shape so it shouldn't be used beyond its current use)

4. Took down the light fixture & spray painted it black. This was the biggest transformation for me. Who knew some black spray paint could make an eyesore look so much better? Note: I couldn't find glass bulbs that I liked/that were a reasonable price, so I left the bulbs as they are. Another thing that will not be used beyond its current use.

5. Time to paint the walls. I knew I wanted two tone on the walls- white up top and green on the bottom half. The white went on first. Once that was dry, I taped off the green section to line up with where the windowsill was.

An issue with the green paint was its age. The paint had completely separated and was probably past its prime date to use, but I mixed it up a lot and called it "good enough"

6. Added a little something different. Since this is a budget & temporary fix, I wanted to experiment a little.

I like bathrooms that have half wall tile/ wallpaper, but both are expensive, so I wanted to experiment with the paint markers to see if I could get a similar look.

Here's the inspiration for both:

By choosing geometric patterns, it made it a little easier to measure & grid out on the walls, but it definitely proved to be extremely time consuming...

I started with a level, a ruler, and pencils to get the pattern on the wall first:

Then went over that with the paint markers:

Yes, this step was extremely time consuming, tedious, and all of the things. However, I'm glad I pushed myself into trying something new with it.

7. Assembled the cabinet. I needed a little break from painting, and the pattern is easier with natural light, so it was time to do a couple side things. I got this cabinet off of Amazon, and it's a good size, I just wish the shelves were solid rather than slats, but that's something I can update later.

8. Painted the mirror's frame. Nothing too wild here, just taped the mirror and painted over the faux wood to be black.

9. Added black painted trim/ detail to the walls. I painted the windowsill and baseboards to be black, and felt like it just added a nice in-between for where the green met the white.

A tip I learned was when taping things off, smear caulk to seal where the tape is for cleaner lines. It works super well. Another thing I learned during this process- caulk off of Amazon is not nearly as quality as the stuff you can find at Lowe's.

10. Added the peel-n-stick floor tiles. I've never done this before, but it was easier than I expected. There were definitely mistakes made, but it's all a part of the process.

Generally, the old floor should come up first, and repair the damage below, but I just stuck 'em on top for now.

I did try out a tool I saw online that if you press the tool against shapes, it will make a stencil for you. It DID NOT work. I had an easier time guessing the curves and adjusting. The "tool" was clunky, didn't make clean shapes, and ultimately got returned.

11. Hung the cabinet & mirror. ALL BY MYSELF. This worked better than I thought it would work.

12. Sticky marble vinyl went on. Definitely not a task that could be easily done solo. At this point I had help- getting large sheets of sticky stuff to go into place wouldn't have been successful had I not had help.

13. Caulk & clean up. After caulking along the vinyl and the tiles, it was finally done!

Again, here's the before:

And here's the after:

This is a much wilder pattern combination than I would normally go for, but I wanted to play with it since the intention is a temporary upgrade. I hope whatever goes in here for the big renovation is more subdued and timeless, but this version makes me happier than what it was before. Also, having bathroom storage and the ability to do all the things in here for a morning routine has made a significant difference in my every day.