Thursday, May 28, 2009

New Bathroom On The Cheap

Today I thought I'd share with you one of my most favorite rooms in my house, so far. But first, let me give you a little back history. When MW and I were looking for a house to buy upon returning to Indiana after nine years in Florida - well, let's just say it was not a quick nor easy process. I'll save the details for another day. Anyhoo, we learned our lesson financially (the hard way) early on in our marriage and decided that we didn't want to be strapped to a huge house payment this time around. We decided to buy a home where the payment left us plenty of breathing room each month and we could fix it up with cash as we went along. So, we settled on a cute little repo. It had great bones, but had suffered severe neglect. The carpet was trashed and the furnace quit working immediately, along with the whole onslaught of things that you deal with when you buy a repo. Thus began our journey of making this little house a home on a shoestring budget.


This is what our bathroom looked like when we bought it. Notice the nasty carpet, broken mirror on the medicine cabinet, mildew on the top of the wall, and that brick. A friend said that going into my bathroom felt like walking into an alley. The brick was broken and not applied in a decent manner. And it was beyond filthy. I spent 7 hours with a toothbrush just trying to get the crud off of it. My hand looked like a claw for days.

The first thing we did was strip off that awful wallpaper and border, Kilz everything and paint it out white. Even the brick got a fresh coat of white paint. It was all of the same paint that we used to paint the rest of the house upon moving in - so I don't really count that as an added cost.

The foul carpet was ripped up and replaced with vinyl peel and stick tiles from Lowes. The tile runs less than a dollar per square foot. I don't remember how much it cost us, but I don't think it was very much because our bathroom is so tiny. You can close the door from the toilet, which is at the opposite end of the room - if that helps you get an idea of what we're talking about here. :0)

My favorite part - and the reason I'm linking to the Frugal Decorating Ideas Party at The Shabby Nest today - is what I used to wallpaper the top of the wall above the bricks. Here's the equation I used to decide what to wallpaper with: music lover + wanting to have something unique + being cheap frugal = wallpaper from a hymnal. I had 3 old hymnals in my book stash, so I tore some of the pages out of one of them, bought a container of wallpaper paste for $5 (I still have a ton of it left) and went to town. When I was finished with it, I gave it a coat of the same polyurethane that we sealed our painted floors with to protect the paper from the bathroom humidity. It worked like a charm.


This picture was taken before it was sealed with polyurethane. You can see here where a little edge of paper is raised. Once it was sealed, it layed right down.



The final major thing that the bathroom needed was a shower curtain and shade for the window. I posted about making these out of burlap yesterday. I was able to buy enough fabric (6 1/2 yds.) to make both of these items for $15 using my 40% off coupon from JoAnn Fabric.


The last thing I need to do is paint out the rest of the wood surfaces white and it will be complete. Since I still have the paint for that, it won't cost me anything except labor.

All in all, for less than $100 I was able to transform this little bathroom from back alley to beautiful (with the help of MW laying the floors and ripping out detestable carpet). And most of the budget went into flooring. It's now one of my most favorite rooms ever.

Want to see it one last time?

This was before. This is now (almost complete).

I hope you enjoyed the tour of my little bathroom. Check out The Shabby Nest for more frugal decorating ideas.

Have a great weekend!

30 comments:

  1. WOW, WOW, WOW... AND AGAIN I SAY WOW!!!

    I LOVE WHAT YOU DID.

    HUGS FROM MAINE

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  2. What a beautiful transformation--and you did it so frugally! I love how the sheet music looks on the walls, and painting the brick white brought in light and makes the room look bigger. It's lovely!

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  3. Looks amazing. You are very talented and amazing at thinking outside of the box. I love when the unexpected happens and it is truly the best part. Love the walls, love the burlap..great job

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  4. I echo Lisa...WOW!!! I simply can't believe the difference....and I ADORE the burlap shower curtain and shade....such a great idea!

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  5. Wow! What a incredible makeover. It is so bright- I love your idea of using the music sheets. Very pretty.

    Pat

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  6. Hi Pam, Now that is one beautiful transformation!!! Your bathroom has become a bright, white, and airy new space! Love your burlap shower curtain and shade...very creative! ~hugs, Rhonda :)

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  7. Awesome transformation. You did a beautiful job.

    Vail in MS

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  8. WOW! What a transformation! We are currently redoing our bathroom as well and let me tell ya, it's a lot of work! LOL

    But yours looks great!

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  9. I got to your place from someone else's back door- I can't remember who:)

    I love this makeover!!- you did a fantastic job!!!:) What a change:)

    Enjoy your new bathroom!

    Linda C

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  10. Oh my goodness, that is an amazing transformation! Love everything. The wallpaper is such a genius idea, and I adore the burlap curtains. Nicely done!!!!

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  11. That is a great transformation! Fantastic job! Enjoy it...

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  12. Oh so much better! It did look like an alley! Now it looks wonderful!

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  13. I;m a reader in the bathroom. (that's probably TMI) I would love to do something like this with one of my bathrooms!

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  14. I have that SAME bathroom layout!! How do you economize space in there?

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  15. Just love before & afters and yours is superb... Ps, that chair cushion pattern you mentioned on my blog is nonexistent... Came straight from my mind and could certainly use improvement! I just studied the cushions in Ballard Designs.

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  16. Wow, what a great transformation! The brick look just like white tile in the photo, but I am sure in real life they show the texture. Which would still be a great look. Your shade and shower curtain look great also.
    Thanks for sharing!

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  17. Fabulous! It looks twice as big with the lighter colors. Yay you for being frugal and creative!

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  18. What a transformation - you did a fantastic job!!

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  19. I love the idea of using music! Painting the brick made it a totally different space. Thank you for sharing.

    Charla

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  20. Holy cow! That's about the most fabulous transformation I have ever seen. Love EVERYTHING you did, and what a darling window treatment! Magazine-worthy tranform.! Linda

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  21. What a stunning transformation! And you know me, I'm so impressed with your frugalness! I LOVE that wallpaper idea.

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  22. An alley-HAHA! All you needed was some spray painted gang signs, right? I LOVE the after. Nice clean and fresh. Perfect Perfect Perfect.

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  23. What a difference you made in that bathroom! Looks gorgeous! Great idea with the hymnal pages for wallpaper, so unique! Love the burlap shade and curtain too! Thanks for sharing! Way to go!

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  24. Wonderful! The painted brick looks like expensive subway tile! It's just great! We are looking to buy a REO ourselves and know going in we will have a lot of work. So, these kinds of posts are super inspiring!

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  25. Amazing! I love the white with the burlap! So clean, airy and in tune! Ha!

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  26. WOW! You did a fantastic job! I am absolutely amazed at the transformation! I'm sure you added so much value to your home!

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  27. I LOVE before and afters and this was a great one! Well done! Thank you for sharing such great ideas!

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  28. Lovely work!!!! I see you and I share the same shabby Chic tastes:) Thanks for stopping by my blog and your BIG welcome:) I am now a follower of your blog, you are definitely an inspiration!!!!

    Joella
    oneartsychick.blogspot.com

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  29. I love this idea! My husband and I are music lovers, too. Actually we're more on the geeky side. And we may borrow this idea for our guest bathroom if we ever redo it. Anyway, your bathroom is BEAUTIFUL. :) Thanks for sharing.

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  30. WOW!!!! what a FABULOUS makeover....gives new meaning to singing in the shower, too! you did a great job, Pam! Love the burlap shower curtain, too!
    ;-D

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