Complete Bathroom Makeover That Cost Me Literally Nothing!
My basement bathroom has been crying out for help for some time now, to which I’ve been shutting that basement door pretending like I don’t hear. But this week some inspiration washed over me, and I thought, why not try to makeover that space by using only the things found around my house? So that’s exactly what I did - a no cost makeover without leaving my house or buying anything new. Here are some easy steps that you can follow if you’d like to try this challenge out in your own home! And make sure to see how my space turned out in the end (you are not going to believe it). Here is what the space looked like before:
START WITH A PLAN
Whenever I makeover a room, I always start by going in and assessing the things that can’t change in the space, the things that need to get fixed, and the things that I simply like about the space already. Then, you have to consider your skill level and the amount of time and effort you are willing to put in - changing a light might not be in your skill set, but painting it a new colour is doable. Make sure the things you plan on doing are within your scope of possibility, and if they’re not, then consider how you can compromise.
In my bathroom, I had a few challenges. The first was that the light socket was not centred over the vanity like I’d like, it was centred on the wall, plus it was just really not my style. The second was a large hole in the wall that had exposed pipes which needed to be accessible. Some things that needed fixing were the shower curtain that fell down that needed to be put up and swapped out new. And finally, some things that I did like about the space were that the toilet was new so could stay, the vanity wasn’t perfect but could be updated without swapping it out entirely, and the shower was in clean working condition. Once the room had been assessed, I went to work on planning my changes.
GET CRAFTY WITH COLOUR
When only using things found in your home, it can be very hard to get the exact paint colour that you envision. For me, I happened to have some leftover terracotta-colour paint that I had used in my bedroom makeover, but felt it was too dark for a small bathroom. So I painted the walls white from various cans leftover in years past, and mixed some of that white with the terracotta colour to make a new muted clementine tone. I used this as an accent mural moment around my mirror which brought life and warmth into a smaller, dark room. For the vanity itself, I loved the original wood colour but felt it didn’t match the floors so I brought back out the white paint to give it a fresh coat of white. I added some knobs I had leftover from my drawer hack DIY and now my vanity looked good-as-new!
GET THRIFTY WITH DECOR
And by thrifty, I mean thrifty with your own things! I took a walk around my house and pulled some items that either weren’t working in their current space, were leftover from other room makeovers, or that I could see myself wanting to replace in their current space in the future. Once they were all together on a table, I picked which ones would fit in my bathroom well together and put the rest back. This was such a fun way to spice up not only the room you’re working on, but other rooms that you now get to decorate more in the future. I managed to “thrift” an IKEA mirror from my guest bedroom that was just thrown in there long ago, some miscellaneous decor from my living room, and a small shelf that was too small for the wall I originally bought it for.
KEEP WHAT YOU CAN
I’ve remade a few places in my home now, and each time I do, I always end up saving elements of that space for the future (go past me!), even if I don’t necessarily think I’ll need it. I don’t mean to keep junk piled up in some corner, but small things that you could see yourself actually transforming some day are important to keep.
For this makeover, I used the light that I had uninstalled from my upstairs bathroom makeover months before that I had never liked, but kept in case I wanted to DIY it. Now was the time to pull it out and give it a gold glam makeover. I searched everywhere for gold spray paint I was certain I owned, but couldn’t find it anywhere, so I primed it with white spray paint and then dug out the last of the gold acrylic craft paint that I painstakingly spent hours coating on until it had a brushed metal look to it that I ended up loving. This light also helped to fix the problem of the socket being in the wrong place since it’s so long and I was able to move it all the way to the right so that it is almost centred over the vanity.
Next, I took leftover wood from my garage to make floating shelves which I stained with leftover stain. Floating shelves still need brackets though, which I problem-solved by using curtain rod supports leftover from my DIY headboard project where I only used the pole part of the rod. These I spray-painted white to blend in to the wall, since they’re not the cutest and I didn’t want them to stand out. Finally, with the thrifted IKEA mirror, I primed it with white spray paint and then painted it the same shade as the accent mural I did earlier for a more monochromatic moment.
BE HAPPY WITH WHAT YOU’VE GOT
With the shelves up, the light installed, the vanity painted and new shower curtain installed, all I had left to do was add the miscellaneous decor I had collected from around my house. To solve the giant hole in the wall problem, I found a felt letter board that was literally the perfect size to cover it, so I added that to the top shelf. And with the decor in place, take a look at my dreamy new guest bathroom (that cost me absolutely nothing)!
If you try this challenge at home, make sure to tag us on Instagram, and if you want to see me go through the entire process then check out the video below!