INSIDE: find A diy bathroom makeover for under $900! A once dark and dingy bathroom becomes bright and beautiful on a budget.

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Y’all— this bathroom. It was the bane of my existence for so long.

Pink tile.

Gigantic mirror.

Carpet!?

Long and narrow vanity.

Fluorescent lights.

No. Thank. You.

After silently suffering (read: telling Mike on weekly basis that I wanted to change some things) I did a little math and realized: doing what I wanted wouldn’t cost nearly as much as I thought it would. It’s a small bathroom, after all, and we could do the work ourselves.

Finally, on a weekend when my dad was visiting, we tackled it. And I am SO GLAD that we did!

Here’s what we did:

1.) Took down the mirror (and vanity)

This mirror was— gigantic. I love myself, but I didn’t want to see myself at every angle all the time, and it had to go. We were a little afraid of what we’d find when we took it down, but luckily it wasn’t too bad— just some plaster that needed repairing.

At this time, we also removed the vanity. It was long and narrow, meaning that very little fit in the outer shelves, and the color was dingy.

When we removed it, we found that the tile behind it was PINK and that it had— wait for it— CARPET underneath. Who, pray tell, puts carpet in a bathroom?! It had to go.

Once those were out, we repaired the plaster with Plaster of Paris (suuuper easy to use and dries very quickly— it’s my go-to for plaster repair!), sanded it down, and applied a skim coat to smooth things out even more. Voila!

COST: $8

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2.) Expoxied the tile

The visible tile was an off-white, while the tile that we uncovered resembled that of dingy Pepto-Bismol. No thank you! I think a lot of people panic when they see a crazy color tile in a house, but the reality is— it doesn’t have to be an expensive or difficult fix. There’s no need to rip out all of the tile and start fresh.

Epoxy spray is a great solution for this. One caveat, though: you MUST wear a respirator mask (impossible to find right now, I know), open windows if possible, and I’d recommend getting everyone out of the house. It does a great job but it’s POTENT!

COST: $24 (we used two cans)

3.) Replaced the toilet

To be honest, nothing was wrong with the existing toilet, but because it was original to the house (built in the 60s), we figured an update couldn’t hurt, especially given that we’d be replacing the floor. We chose this American Standard.

COST: $128

4.) Laid a new floor

This is maybe one of my favorite parts of this renovation, because the cost was so low and the reward was so high. Rather than painstakingly break up the existing tile, we decided to lay a new floor over it.

We chose a 12x12 marble tile for a clean, high-end look.

Pro tip: though it’s tedious, I would highly recommend “laying out” your tile before installing. The marble we chose had a lot of veining, and I wanted to make sure that it flowed well. I laid it all out ahead of time on the floor in another room, and switched them all around until I found a pattern that I liked. I then labeled them with masking tape so that we knew which piece went where. I don’t regret it !

COST: $160.

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4.) Installed a new vanity

It’s no secret that I love IKEA for its functionality and value, so it only made sense that we install an IKEA HEMNES vanity here. Its clean design, soft-close drawers, and great price made this a winner in our book. 4 years later, it looks just as good as the day we installed it! Worth noting: IKEA plumbing can be a little wonky. If you aren’t already familiar, read up on it a bit before installing to save yourself some confusion.

COST: $388

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5.) Hung a new mirror

Now that our gigantic mirror was at the curb, we needed something new. IKEA to the rescue, again! I love how simple yet sophisticated this walnut mirror is.

COST: $129.

6.) Installed new lights

As you may remember from our kitchen renovation, I’m not a fan of fluorescent lights (I mean really, who is!?) We used our go-to recessed LED lights (the same that we used for the kitchen and the bonus room) to brighten up the space and give it a more polished look.

COST: $30 (we used two packs/4 total)