Under $200: a Small Bathroom Makeover in just ONE Weekend

See our small bathroom makeover – completed in just one weekend, with fresh paint, vinyl tile, and copper shower curtain rod – all on a tiny budget.

My Weekend Small Bathroom Makeover

I recently decided to tackle our main level “master” bathroom. This bathroom is the most-used one in our home, and it was long overdue for a facelift.

Here’s a quick “before” shot. Looking back, I honestly don’t know how I lived with the old bathroom for over a year. It was so dark and depressing.

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Watch the video below to see how this room came together:

Here’s a Checklist of the tasks/projects I completed in this tiny bathroom makeover:

1. Prep for Painting

Clean every surface of the trim, baseboards, and floor. Then clean them again. I remove old caulking around the floor trim and toilet. Removed quarter round along the tub and door threshold. Removed shower curtain rod and toilet paper holder.

2. Prime and Paint trim – both floor and window

This is a high-traffic bathroom, and I have young kids who still take baths, so it was extremely important that I got the trim paint right. Apply two coats of primer and three coats of paint, letting paint completely dry and then lightly sand between coats.

3. Paint walls

Since I have a pretty steady hand for painting edges, I rarely tape off walls. After two coats of paint, and the room had a whole new feel!

4. Prep and paint cabinet and mirror

Since I used good quality Sherwin Williams paint (with primer included) I didn’t prime the vanity. I did however clean it very well and wipe it down with liquid sandpaper. I can get away with skipping the primer because the wood has a bit of grain texture to it. Had I been painting laminate, I would have primed first.

As you can see from the video above, the first coat of navy paint went on with almost a green tint to it. Give yourself 3-4 coats for full coverage when working with such a dark color. I bought just a quart of paint, and I had plenty of paint left over for future projects.

5. Add new vinyl floor tiles

These are the exact floor tiles that I used. They were SO easy to install. You just cut them with a utility knife. It can be a bit tricky to get the pattern to line up, so be sure to order extra. My pattern didn’t line up perfectly between all of the tiles, but at this price point I’m not complaining. I got a whole new bathroom floor for about $30!

6. Re-caulk all floor trim, around toilet, and along vanity.  Add new quarter round along tub and new threshold in the doorway

Boring finishing details. In such a small space, it only took me about 30 minutes. I had to replace the quarter round because the old stuff was wood, and it was in BAD shape. Use vinyl trim in bathrooms, people!

7. Assemble new shower curtain rod and toilet paper holder out of copper pipe

After painting the walls and re-doing the floor so inexpensively, I derided to splurge a tiny bit on my new shower curtain rod. I really wanted something “custom.” Read my blog post here to see how easily this bad boy came together.

8. Towel Hooks for the Kids

Since this is the only bathroom in the house with a tub, the kids use this as their main bathroom. So, I decided to get crafty with my Cricut and some temporary adhesive vinyl to make custom door decals for their towel hooks:

Budget Breakdown:

• $35 – primer & paint (the wall and trim color is carryover from other rooms, so I only used part of a gallon, which I had already)
• $17 – vanity paint
• $39 – vinyl floor tile
• $73 – copper shower curtain rod and toilet paper holder
• $16 – caulk, new quarter round and door trim
• $18 – shower curtain
• the mirror I had already (I just painted it navy) as well as the wall shelves and accessories

TOTAL: $198. Yep, I managed to flip this little bathroom for UNDER $200!!

Paint Colors Used in my Bathroom

**I used Sherwin Williams Emerald line of paint in all high-traffic areas of our home. It’s a bit expensive, but if you wait until SW has a 30-40% off sale, it’s comparable to the price of regular paint at a big box retailer.

• trim – SW 7005 Pure White
• walls – SW 7015 Repose Gray
• cabinet & mirror – SW 6244 Naval

Don’t forget to PIN this bathroom makeover for later:

UPDATE: I decided to sneak in a little extra storage space by adding shelves above the bathroom door. It was such an easy DIY project!

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