Guest Bathroom Makeover: Budget Friendly Bathroom Decorating Ideas

When we moved into our 1970's fixxer-upper, I was faced with a boring, outdated, old bathroom. Also faced with a small budget, I knew I had to come up with ideas to update our bathroom that wouldn't cost a lot of money. Well, with a little brainstorming and a lot of paint, I think I came up with some pretty neat ideas to take our bathroom from drab to fab!

I decided that if I was going to save money, I would need to work with what was already there. Here is what I ultimately was able to achieve with this room.

And I totally put a bird on it.

So that you can see how far this bathroom has come, here is what it looked like when we first moved into the house.

Tons of outdated wood, drab walls, and zero character.

Here's the side-by-side.

So, let's talk about what I did.
First, I painted the entire room with a soft grey-green. 
Then, to take the room up a notch, I decided to make an accent wall with stripes. It totally makes the entire room.
For paint colors and a tutorial for painting stripes, please visit this post here.

The next thing I did was paint all of the trim (info here) and vanity cabinetry white. It totally updated the space and saved me tons of money by not having to replace it.

I  also replaced the old hardware on the vanity with modern brushed silver pulls.

We were able to leave the flooring AS-IS since the tile was in good shape, but I'm going to come back to this room later and paint the grout like I did in the kitchen and master bath (seen here).

For all who have asked, that awesome rug was from Marshall's.

We also stopped any prying eyes by hanging faux-wood blinds, and also replaced the towel rod with a sleek modern version.

The towel ring was also replaced.

One of my favorite updates was removing the builder grade mirror, and replacing it with an ornate silver mirror that I found at Marshall's.

Oh, and see that faucet below? It looks pretty good, right? Well look at the above picture. It used to be GOLD.

The faucet had the whole gross two-tone thing going on, so I came up with a clever & cheap way to solve that problem.

I will divulge my secrets. Just for you.

I didn't want to spend $130 to replace our faucet, so instead I removed the handles and drain stopper and spray painted them. I tried used the best silver spray paint I've come across. It has a beautiful sheen to it and is super durable. Rather then take the whole thing off, I used a silver metallic paint pen and brushed it around the gold parts on the bottom and at the tip of the spout. You can order the silver pen here. The whole upgrade cost me so much less than it would have if I had replaced the faucet. 

Another fave part of the bathroom is the bird art gallery wall I created. For free.

I googled 'free printable bird silhouettes' and simply printed and framed them in frames I already had.

Print. Frame. Hang. ART.

Then, I just accessorized. I found a pretty mirrored soap container at HomeGoods.

And some snazzy curtain hooks, too.

One last detail: Here is the little mirror I repurposed. I needed something to fill the space, and had an old gold mirror I wasn't using. I spray painted it white & lightly sanded all of the raised parts for a shabby chic look. It's actually exactly like the mirror I used in the office that was converted into a chalkboard. 

And that's it! An updated, stylish guest bathroom for pennies on the dollar! 

Make sure you pin this so you'll have this info when you need it!

Pssssst.  Want more?

Check out our house tour here!

or check out my fave DIY ideas here.

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