Update Your Bath on a Budget

Think you have to spend tens of thousands of dollars to update your bathroom? Think again! With even a small budget, you can transform the look of your bathroom!

Add a Tile Backsplash

An easy way to add some color in your bathroom is to tile the sink’s backsplash. You don’t have to tile the whole wall; just tile between the sink and the medicine cabinet or mirror. That amount of tile will not be too expensive (in fact, I got this tile at a garage sale for $1 for the whole box!), and it adds a pop of color to your bath.

To make this project even easier, use a tile mat instead of adhesive to set the tile on the wall. You can find this at your home store/hardware store, and it makes installation a breeze. If you use a tile mat product, then make sure you use the grout that is made for the tile mat. This is an easy update that you can complete in an afternoon.

Paint

One of the easiest ways to change a room is to add paint. For the cost of a gallon of paint – for most, regular-sized bathrooms – you can change the look of the bath.

This is a picture of my children’s bathroom – first, with the dark periwinkle paint, and then with a lighter color. Such a difference – the room looked so much bigger! It took less than a gallon of paint to transform this room.

Paint the Vanity

Even if you don’t want to paint the whole room, changing the paint on a vanity is a budget-friendly update.

Here’s a builder-grade vanity before:

And here’s the after:

Pretty impressive change! You can use latex paint or chalky-finish paint to paint a wood vanity.

For even less money, update your vanity with new knobs.

Fixtures

If you want to make a big change in your bathroom on a budget, look to stores like Ikea, which have stylish fixtures for much less than other stores. For example, we added these bathroom light fixtures to our master bath. They were only $20 a piece – quite a bargain, considering similar fixtures we found were $139 and $150!

What would you do to update your bath?