Improving Your Bathroom's Appearance

How to Improve your Bathroom’s Look on a Shoestring Budget

By Mark J. Donovan

Simply improving your bathroom’s appearance may be a much more cost effective solution than tackling a complete bathroom remodel. Though bathroom remodeling projects have an excellent return on investment, they are expensive. Also, if you plan to sell your home shortly after remodeling your bathroom, the chances of obtaining a 100% ROI are slim. On the other hand, by making just a small investment and changing up a few key elements in your bathroom you can transform an older bathroom into a charming space and easily achieve a 100% ROI even if you plan to sell your home immediately.

A few basic tasks that you can do to improve your bathroom’s appearance are apply a fresh coat of paint to the bathroom walls, update the shower curtain and window treatments, and replace the old bathroom throw rugs.

Other than the paint, you can take your new shower curtain, window treatments, and bathroom throw-rugs with you after selling your home.

The average bathroom vanity takes a beating. The constant opening and closing of the doors and drawers inevitably leads to scratch marks, dings in the finish, and door/drawer hardware that fails. If you have the funds, consider replacing the bathroom vanity and countertop altogether.

If you’re not up to the expense and effort of replacing these items, then repair or replace any damaged or discolored hardware (e.g. hinges, knobs, handles, and drawer slides) and paint the vanity. Light colors work best on bathroom vanities. Just make sure before painting your bathroom vanity that you properly sand and prepare the vanity surfaces for painting.

Also, remove all knobs, hinges, and handles prior to painting the bathroom vanity. When complete, your bathroom vanity will look like new and you’ll have gone a long way in improving your bathroom’s appearance.

You may also want to consider installing a bathroom wall cabinet to your bathroom if it lacks a closet. A bathroom wall cabinet is great for storing towels, wash clothes and toiletries. It’s also an excellent place for placing some knick-knacks.

If the bathroom faucet looks shabby and leaks, replace it with a new one. You don’t need a plumber to replace a bathroom faucet sink, as long as you have a few basic tools and the interest in doing the work yourself. Within a couple of hours you can replace your own bathroom sink faucet and transform the bathroom countertop into a thing of beauty.

Just remember to turn off the hot and cold supply valves before disconnecting the supply lines and have a bucket nearby when disconnecting the drain.

If your bathroom has a medicine chest in it, and the bathroom is more than 10 years old replace it. Bathroom medicine chests are easy to install and are not very expensive. Just find one that matches the same footprint as the original one and the job will be a breeze.

Similarly, if you have a bathroom mirror that is looking shabby and is flaking, replace it as well. You can buy off-the-shelf mirrors or you can have one custom cut for your specific dimensional requirements.

Finally, add some bling to the bathroom walls and surfaces. A few well placed themed knick-knacks and wall coverings can go a long way to improving the appearance of your bathroom.

By making these few small improvements to your bathroom, and ensuring that it is kept spotlessly clean, you can better enjoy your bathroom, as well as improve the odds of selling your home.

For help on your bathroom remodeling project, see my Bathroom Remodeling Bid Sheet. The Bathroom Remodeling Bid Sheet provides a request for quote checklist section that you can provide to prospective bathroom remodeling contractors. It also includes a comprehensive bathroom remodeling cost breakdown table, in Microsoft Excel format, that allows the contractor to include his projected remodeling costs for every phase of the project.

Related Information

Additional Bathroom Remodeling Design Resources

Get Free Bathroom Remodeling Price Quotes with No Obligation!

Fill out our 3-5 minute quick and easy form, and receive a free price quote on bathroom remodeling from one of our prescreened and licensed bathroom remodeling contractors. This process is free and there is no obligation to continue once you receive your bathroom renovation price estimate.