How to Redesign Your Bathroom on a Budget

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Redesigning a bathroom is not a walk in the park. You can't just replace or rearrange your bathroom fixtures as conveniently as the way you do with living room or bedroom furniture. For bathroom remodeling, functionality plays as crucial a role as visual aesthetics. You need to choose the right materials that can withstand water and humidity. The layout of the room must create a safe environment and be practical for regular usage. Plus, the costs of bathroom remodeling can be high, not only because bathroom fixtures are usually pricey but also because you may need to hire a group of professionals to complete the project for you. All these things may sound quite disheartening, especially if your budget is small. However, if there's a will, there's a way! To redesign your bathroom on a budget, you should focus on certain aspects of the room that can be easily and economically altered. And rather than hiring handymen to do the job, why not do it yourself? Here's a budget-friendly guide to DIY bathroom remodeling.

Assess Your Lifestyle and Demands - Take a good look at your bathroom and ask yourself what changes you'd like to see. Do your toilet, sink and medicine cabinet seem well-worn and need to be replaced? Does your bathroom look cramped and depressing, or empty and nondescript? Is there anything you don't like about the atmosphere of the room? And besides you, who else will be using the bathroom? Are you planning to have a child or welcome an elderly adult into your home? Is there anything you need to adapt to make it more convenient or safer for them? Write all these things down, then prioritize which renovations really need to be done and which ones can be omitted in case the budget doesn't allow.

Set a Budget - Decide how much money you can or are willing to spend on this bathroom remodeling project, then distribute your budget to each renovation according to your priority list. Keep in mind that unexpected expenses may arise during the project, so it's wise to just work on the necessary renovations first and see if you have any budget left for the minor things after the main remodeling work is done, rather than spending all your allowance on everything at once in the beginning.

Gather Ideas - Take inspiration from home decor magazines or Internet sites. When you come across pictures of bathroom designs that you find appealing, cut them out or print them out, then keep them together in one folder. After collecting a good number of bathroom photos, compare them to one another, get rid of some that you don't really like after all, and try to come up with a clear picture of the bathroom design of your dreams.

Compare Prices - Get at least three price quotes from different places. Visit your local home improvement stores and bathroom showrooms. Look at catalogs in magazines and search for good deals online. Spend as much time as you can to compare prices before you buy and make sure everything is within the constraints of your budget.

If you're a budget-challenged homeowner, installing a brand new bathtub or changing the entire layout of the bathroom would probably be beyond your financial limit. So it's better to concentrate on affordable renovations that can be done by yourself. Here are a few makeover ideas you might want to consider.

This is one of the cheapest and quickest ways to revamp your bathroom. If the current shades of your bathroom walls and door lack charm or aren't welcoming, spruce the room up a bit with a splash of new color. Transform your bathroom into an utterly relaxing realm by using green and neutral tones, soft pastel colors, or shades of blue. To create a livelier mood, go with pink, red, orange, yellow and other bright shades. And don't be afraid to be bold and different, some contrasting color combinations can render a fascinating, dramatic look if done right.

Things to Remember: Only choose water-resistant paints, designed specifically for bathrooms. For better results, dust and clean the walls thoroughly before painting. Also, remember to remove all the accessories, towels and toothbrushes out of the bathroom to avoid paint splatters.

Cost: $50 - $300 for small and medium-size bathrooms

Little things like these should never be overlooked. Chic, well-chosen faucets and shower heads can surprisingly turn an ordinary bathroom into a stylish one. Brass faucets with sheen finishes are very classy-looking and durable, but the plastic-bodied versions can help you save quite a bit of money.

Things to Remember: In addition to the look and costs, also consider their practicality when you buy them. For example, if you have young children or seniors in your home, try to choose faucets that are easy for small or arthritic hands to handle.

Cost: $25 - $200

Maintaining a practical storage system without compromising on style can be difficult sometimes. For an effective bathroom-storage makeover, what you should do first is remove all the unnecessary things from your bathroom, then consider how much storage space you actually need for the stuff you do wish to keep in there. If you have a small bathroom, you may want to utilize some of the wall space by installing shelves and hooks. If your bathroom is spacious, why allow lotion and perfume bottles to litter the sink top? Adding a lovely side table or freestanding shelf unit to one corner can make the room look a lot more organized. And if you hate the bulky appearance of your medicine cabinet, consider taking it down and replacing it with a nice mirror. Your medicines can go into a neatly arranged basket, and be placed on a side table or wall shelf.

Small hardware upgrades can do more wonders than you might imagine. Don't only think about the obvious things, like towel bars, wall mirrors or shower doors. Instead, pay a bit more attention to little details, such as door knobs, cabinet handles and shower door pulls as well. Changing these things not only make the bathroom appear newer but can also add style to it. For example, if you decide to repaint your bathroom door bright orange, it will be wise to also replace the old wooden door knob with a sleek-looking, metal one in order to embrace the modern theme.