How to Renovate a Bathroom on a Budget

Happy Monday! Today we are officially starting on our big road trip from Utah to Florida (we are moving to Miami over the winter- more details here)! We are taking 7 days and going at a leisurely pace both for the benefit of my dogs and son. We have lots of fun stops planned out and I will be sharing the highlights on my Instagram stories if you want to follow along.

A few weeks ago, my local news channel invited me onto their show to talk about my bathroom renovation! That stuff still makes me nervous, but its fun too (I just pretend I’m talking to my best friend). You can watch the interview here.

They specifically asked me for a few ideas on how I kept the cost down. After I wrote them all down, I wanted to share them here too!

At Home with Ashley tips for how to renovate a bathroom on a budget:

Choose inexpensive materials

Subway tile is SO affordable- putting it on every wall in the bathroom cost around $400. The wallpaper I used was $350 to use on the top half of the walls. So by using it on half the wall and using a cheaper material on the other half, I saved money.

Do your own labor

Bless my husband’s heart- he laid all of the tile. It may have taken awhile, but it saved us a ton of money on labor. This was his second tile project and with the help of Youtube, anyone can learn how to tile!

Use everyday items as accessories

I spray painted the q-tip holder to coordinate with the room. I placed the tissue in a pretty box. A candle, matches, and bubble bath were all used as pretty details. By using functional items as accessories, I kept the decor budget down.

Find ways you can make items yourself

For the tray over the bathtub, I cut a piece of wood (if you don’t have a saw, your local hardware store will do this) into three pieces. I screwed the smaller pieces on the back and stained the whole thing! It was so simple to make and I love having it! I am convinced that every bath lover needs one! (full tutorial here)

Reuse what you can

My tub was a SCARY mess, but I spent hours scrubbing it until it sparkled. If my vanity hadn’t been so beat up (darn puppies who chewed on the doors), I would have repainted it. Re-grouting is a cheap fix too if you don’t mind the tiles. There’s lots of affordable ways to re-purpose which’ll save you money.

Oh, one more thing! I just found out that Apartment Therapy featured the before and afters of my bathroom on their site here. The comments were a little hard to read (not everyone loves my choice in wallpaper- haha), but it was really cool to see my bathroom on such a big site!

Renovating a bathroom can sure be expensive, but I hope these tips are helpful for you!

p.s. If you want to see the full bathroom reveal (my most popular post of 2017), click here!