Our budget bathroom remodel is nearly complete. All we still have to do is paint the trim white, which should be a breeze compared with all of the texturing and painting we’ve done so far. I’m hoping to get it done tomorrow. For now, I thought I’d show some of the before and after pictures. We decided not to change any of the big (expensive) parts of the bathroom. The tub, sink, and toilet are all just basic white. The counter is laminate, but it’s a pretty neutral tan/light yellow color – no avocado green or funky print. The mirror takes up nearly all of the wall over the sink, and makes the room feel much larger than it actually is. All of those things stayed the way they are, so I didn’t take pictures of them. We changed the walls, towel rail, and outlet covers.
First, here’s a picture of the wallpaper that was in the bathroom when we bought the house. We didn’t paint over the part that was behind the mirror, so when I removed the mirror last week to texture around it, I got to revisit our floral jungle wallpaper:
I am not at all sure why anyone would pick this print, especially for a small room like a bathroom. And they put it over nice white walls. Different strokes, I suppose.
When we bought the house, we wanted to be rid of the gigantic flowers and vines, but we were broke and apparently not in the mood to take the time to actually remove the wallpaper. So we bought a gallon of mauve paint from Home Depot’s "oops" rack, and slapped the paint over the wallpaper. Here’s what we’ve had for the last six years:
The first picture shows the gold towel rails and light switch cover, and the mauve-painted wallpaper. The second picture shows just how bad the painted wallpaper looked. All around the room, you could see where the edges of the paper were, and where the seams were on the walls. Not our best DIY project by any stretch of the imagination.
So I spent the last two weeks fixing things up. I peeled off all of the wallpaper in any place where you could see a seam or an edge. Then I textured all over the walls, and now they’re a soothing light tan color. The color combined with the texture is very reminiscent of an adobe style wall, and the bathroom is a nice peaceful place now, rather than being and eyesore:
You can no longer see any traces of wallpaper. The texture covers everything, and give the room the feel of solid plaster. I’m especially pleased with my $3 wooden towel rail that I scored at the Habitat for Humanity thrift store near our house.
It took roughly 15 – 20 hours of work, and about $40 to turn our bathroom from an ugly room to a very nice one. We’re thrilled with the end result. I had planned to paint our bedroom next, but I think I need a break from painting for a bit, so we might tackle another project first (or take a week off!) Either way, I’m inspired. I don’t think that the pictures do justice to just how bad the mauve color was or how good the new color is, but you should be able to click on them to see detail. Trust me – it’s a whole lot better now!
Smart Girl says
I’ve been busy moving and studying for a Master’s degree so I’ve not been following your blog for awhile. First, I must say, I LOVE the new layout….. so friendly and fun! Next, as always, it is great checking back in and seeing how you guys are doing – which appears to be fantastic… keep up all the good work and sharing all the great suggestions and ideas.
Mrs Money says
Looks great, Frugal Babe! Very inspiring. :)
FrugalChick says
It looks great! Changing from wallpaper to paint is always such a breath of fresh air in a tiny space.
SonyaAnn says
You’re killing me! Now my DH and I are looking at our craptastic downstairs bathroom and trying to formulate a plan. Ugghhh! But it is better to start projects like this while the weather is still nasty. Great post, I just hope we can get off as cheap!
Kelly says
Looks great! I just told my husband last night that I would like to paint our bathroom. It is the only room in our house that didn’t need a coat of paint when we moved in, except the ceiling. It is a darker tan color, which perfectly matched our towels, etc, but the ceiling was painted that color too. It made it look like a cave. Now I want to paint it a lighter color to hopefully make it look a little bigger. I like the color it is, but for such a small room, it is too dark. And maybe we will replace a couple things as well, like the gold light switch cover. I am very inspired now!
Manda says
The bathroom pics look fantastic. I have never seen wood fixtures like that. Then again, I haven’t really looked that much.. They look great regardless! I am looking to move into an apartment next fall, so I have loved getting ideas from you and many other fellow bloggers.
By the way, whatever happened with your gift card giveaway? No rush or anything, I’m just curious ;)
sheri says
WHAT an improvement! That looks great! Your towel rail is quite fancy looking, looks like really nice wood too. What a deal for $3.
How did you do that neat texturing? It really DOES look like an adobe wall, I clicked on the pic to bigger it and it looks very cool!
Enjoy your break from peeling wallpaper!
Kristy says
I too had the same lovely wallpaper. My incentive to change it was that I went to a viewing of a family member at a local funeral home and they had the SAME WALLPAPER all throughout the place. It must have been extremely popular in the 80s.
I wish I had thought to use texture over the wallpaper instead of spending my entire Fourth of July weekend in there last year scoring, spraying, and stripping. Kudos to you!
We too have hit our local Habitat for Humanity store for good frugal remodeling deals. We ended up getting kitchen cabinets priced out at Menard’s for over $15,000 for just $2,300. SCORE!
Congrats on the remodel – looks great and the spendthrift in me is jealous :)