In the spirit of making the house presentable without busting our budget, the kids’ bathroom is the first room to get a coin-friendly makeover. The bathroom was not touched by the previous homeowners in 25 years so it was an outdated ’90s nightmare. I hated going in there to occasionally clean it so, I made the kids’ clean it so I wouldn’t have to claim its existence. Here are the befores:
Lowdown: Builder grade cabinet, yellowing sink and countertop, outdated hardware, cracked toilet (but it didn’t leak), beige stained walls, beige tub, beige tile, black grout, outdated fixtures, huge old mirror, dark shower curtain (I took it down so it’s not visible in pic), the list of atrocities goes on and on…
And here are the afters:
Better, right?
Another one
HELLO!
The vanity
It turned out so much nicer than I thought it would on a budget. Initially, I wanted to gut the entire thing, but because I wanted to have some money for other rooms, here’s what I did instead:
Painted the walls Palladian Blue by BM $25
Painted the vanity Stratton Blue by BM $15
Painted the ceiling white by Behr Leftover so FREE
Changed the hardware on the vanity $12
Scrubbed the crap out of the grout FREE
Sealed the grout using grout sealer $5
Put up artwork (Target and Home Goods) $50
Shower curtain $50
Towel Hooks (Target) $23
New bath mat (Target) $20
Hamper (Bed, Bath, and Beyond) $24
New soap dispenser $10
New outlet and light switch $20
Grand Total $254
Now for the deats: I wanted a beach theme for the bathroom but not the “hit you over the head” kind of theme; I wanted subtlety. I also wanted the bathroom to be coral and blue/green with hints of tan but I wasn’t sure which colors would be the leads and which would play supporting roles. Then I saw these ombre, coral curtain panels at Target and I had my color scheme: walls-blue/green; shower curtain- coral; accessories- tan. So beachy, right?
The window curtains went from this:
to this:
with a little sewing. I just bought two curtain panels and sewed them together the same width as the old shower curtain then I shortened the curtain again using the old shower curtain as a template and presto!: a new ombre shower curtain. Because it’s not made from typical shower curtain material, I Scotchgarded the crap out of it so that it’s more washable. I’m also hoping that the steam from the kids’ shower will pull out the wrinkles in the curtain, because I wasn’t about to iron it!
I painted the walls Palladian Blue because that to me is a perfect blue/green bathroom color and because my sister recommended it and she’s got a great eye for wall color. Thanks Nancy :). I also painted the vanity a couple shades darker than the walls because initially I painted it white but it clashed with the countertop which is staying (for now). The vanity is Stratton Blue and it looks great against the wall color. I also put on new handles that I got at Lowe’s. It really classed up the vanity. The ceiling also went from beige to bright white. It’s amazing how much more open and bigger a space looks with a fresh coat of bright white on the ceiling.
Now the not-so-fun part: I spent three hours scrubbing the dingy grout with bleach gel from Clorox and by the time I was done, I ruined a pair of pants, and couldn’t smell anything but bleach for hours… but, the grout went from this:
to this:
It was a huge difference! After all that scrubbing, I didn’t want the grout to turn grimy again in a few weeks, so I applied grout sealer. Hopefully, the grout will stay white…
Back to the fun part: Artwork and accessories. I got the coral prints from Home Goods and was so happy that they were coral and tan, my accent colors (that was just luck as is most finds at Home Goods!). The towel hooks under the artwork is from Target. There was a traditional towel bar initially hanging, but it could only fit two towels. The new towel hook can fit 5 towels which is so much better since three kids are sharing this bathroom. 
On the other side of the bathroom, I hung some shell artwork from Target which also had tan in it (the burlap mat) so it tied in perfectly.
A tan bathroom mat from Target rounded out the accessories. BTW, the mat was so soft and plush that my son took a nap on it in the bathroom. Should have snapped a pic of that one… darn.
Overall, I’m so happy with how the bathroom turned out especially for the money I spent. I think it’s definitely presentable now and phase 2 will be a while off yet but here are the to-be done additions:
- New vanity (I LOVE how this one turned out, but there’s still not enough storage for three kids, so it eventually has to go…)
- New floor (Even with the shiny, white grout, the floor is still outdated so I’d love to install marble tiles eventually)
- New tub (white please!)
- New tile in shower (marble subway tile would be perfect)
- New toilet (even though ours is cracked, it doesn’t leak so it’s staying for now)
- Scaled down mirror
- Shelves over the toilet for more storage
That list is easily another $1K which is why it’s a list and not reality! On to making the next room presentable!!!
