Want to see a sneak peek inside my own house today? So we bought our home three years ago because of the fantastic location, great bones, and amazing floor plan. Not a reason why we bought it: the interior design. But since we own a remodeling company and I’m a designer, we love looking for those underdogs and turn them into something beautiful. So for all of my friends in the Southwest, the Santa Fe style may rock in the desert, but here in Michigan, it is not quite so popular. When we moved in our kid’s bath looked like this:
Clay tile floors with matching clay tile countertop, outdated fixtures, an aztec wallpaper border, and yes-you are seeing correctly: rust colored sponge paint job. Eek! Not exactly my dream bathroom. This is our kid’s shared bathroom, and when they get a little older, it will become my son’s bathroom (as we move the girls to the hallway bath). The first day we moved in, I tore down the curtain and the wrought iron mirror and shelf. Recently, my wish came true….we were going to make this bath our yearly project. But small catch…we also put in hardwood floors at the same time, so my budget for this bathroom was tiny: $2500 for an entire remodel. No worries, I’ve got this kids.
The best way to save money in a bathroom remodel is to KEEP YOUR FIXTURES IN THE SAME LOCATION. Believe me, it is fun to move things around and it opens up a world of new possibilities, but when you are on a strict budget, it saves a load in plumber’s bills. Since this room is fairly small, the existing layout worked just fine.
To save additional costs, we decided to keep the existing toilet, bathtub, and tile surround. So the main things to tackle in this bath were cosmetic:
New floor
New sink & faucet
New mirror and bath accessories
New paint
New light fixture
So first things first, I drew up the new floor plan. Having a floor plan not only helps you figure out the layout, but how much material to order and the sizes of fixtures.
I had a floor plan. Now for material choices: the fun part of any remodel! For any of you that know my little guy, he is one dapper dude. This six year old loves to rock the fedoras and ties, and will always pick dress pants over jeans. He’s simply adorable. So I need to design a bathroom to match his little personality. I came up with the theme “modern gentleman’s bath”. Here are some inspirational photos I found: think polished chrome console sinks, vintage inspired plumbing, woods and dark colors, and subway tile.
But just remember when you decide to remodel a room in your home, make sure that it still “flows” with the rest of your home’s theme. As much as I am loving the deep navy and blacks of those baths, our home has a light and airy cottage feel. So I had to blend both themes to come up with something that would work for this bath. So this is what I came up with:
The sink was my “must have”, but once I started researching I found out they are super, duper expensive! After digging around for hours, I found this sink, marked down because they were discountinuing it. I knew I wanted to use the vintage style faucet, so I found this chrome beauty from Delta Faucet, it is called the “Cassidy”. (Another tip: in a bathroom or kitchen remodel, polished chrome plumbing fixtures are ALWAYS the least expensive!).
The mirror was a bargain from Wisteria at only $99 (now sadly they don’t carry it anymore), and the cage pendant style light adds an industrial element (and fit into my budget at just over $60!). We had an existing can light already, and this was a replacement style light, so no electrician needed if you have just a few DIY skills.
I created this simple peg board from Home Depot hooks and some leftover baseboard. To finish off the edge, I added a small molding to the top of it. All of our bath accessories are from Lowes, and I spent around $50 total. I found these vintage faucet prints from Bed, Bath, and Beyond YEARS ago and held onto them for my “someday” bathroom. It was $20 (I have the other print of the set in my master bath).
Here’s another shot of the new vanity. In our case, I didn’t want the bulk of a cabinet in such a small bathroom, and we have a linen closet right outside this bath. If you like the paint color, I wish I could give you the name of it. However, instead of buying new, I took a trip down to my basement and mixed some existing colors to come up with this gray-blue tone. Paint cost: FREE!
I am so bummed Wisteria doesn’t offer this mirror anymore, it was a steal at only $99 and it is a solid, rustic, MANLY wood mirror! Perfect for what I needed! And I’m a big fan of getting lighting from the Big Box stores, this one from Home Depot was only $60. It is a special light to is made to adapt to a recessed can opening (which is what we had). So no drywall work or special electrical needed! That is my kind of light!
So it was impossible to get a good shot of the entire shower curtain, but I picked this ruffled white shower curtain that was $19.99 from Home Goods. Right now my little man shares the bathroom with his two sisters, when it is his bathroom alone we will swap it out for something more manly!
Have you ever heard the tip when applying make-up to just pick one area to really play up (for example your eyes), and then keep the rest of your face neutral? That is a good tip when you are remodeling on a budget. When designing, I try to pick one area to really shine and make that the focal point. If you spend a bit more on this one feature, you can save money by making some of your other features more neutral. This could work with any area: if you had a killer mirror, people will notice that and not pay as much attention to your plainer faucet for example.
So in this case, I knew from the beginning I wanted an amazing floor. Usually people use mosaic tile for an accent or a backsplash. But because our floor area was so small, I knew I could use a fancy, expensive tile without breaking my budget. I feel in love with this herringbone mosaic tile in blues, browns, and grays. It is masculine but still fun. I only needed 30 SF of tile, so even though this gorgeous tile was $21/SF, my total cost was $630. (Just double check before installing a glass mosaic tile on your floor that it does meet the standards for being a floor tile, not all do!)
So here is the breakdown from my $2225 bathroom remodel (you could incur additional costs if you hire it all out instead of DIYing it)
Delta Cassidy widespread faucet in polished chrome : $360
Delta Cassidy shower trim in polished chrome : $264
Shower Curtain from HomeGoods: $19.99
Wood Oval Mirror from Wisteria: $99 (no longer available)
Home Depot industrial cage pendant $60.49
Console sink with chrome legs: $712
Herringtone Mosaic Tile $21/SF x 30=$630
Baseboard Trim: $20
Towel Hooks/Board: $20
Lowes Bath Accessories: $50
Paint: FREE (mixed what I already had)
Misc supplies: $200
Plumber: $500
GRAND TOTAL: $2225
Best yet, is I actually love how it turned out! You might have noticed, that we decided to keep the neutral tan tile in the tub surround for now. But someday I would love to swap it out for the white subway tile, just like on my Mood Board. I hope this inspired you for your own budget beauty. Do you need some help with your remodel? Postbox Designs offers a Finishes Only Package where I help you choose all of your fixtures and finishes: just like in this bathroom! It saves oodles from hiring a by-the-hour designer. Just drop me a line if I can help:
Or just need some more inspiration, check out my Pinterest bathroom boards!
Check out my bathroom and loads more great design ideas, these are all FANTASTIC websites that I often frequent to check out some creative geniuses! This is linked up at:
Tater Tots and Jello Link Party
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