Weekend DIY Project: Fixing Up a Tiny Bathroom on a Tiny Budget

I have a tiny bathroom.  It measures 5' wide (I can easily touch both side walls at the same time) and 7' from the door to the back wall (with the back 30" of that being occupied by the bathtub/shower).  Like I said, it's a small bathroom.

When we moved into this house 4 years ago, I thought it would be so bad having a small bathroom, as long as I could figure out a way to work in enough storage space.  So, in addition to the built-in cabinet under the sink, I brought in another small cabinet and shelf, stacked them, and positioned them in the only available floor space which happened to be directly across from the toilet.  This worked and gave me the storage space I needed, but it left everything feeling even smaller because it shrunk the open space in front of the toilet down to about 24".  And it was in that tiny cramped spot that I had to kneel to bathe Kaleb try to dry myself off after showers without stubbing my toe on the cabinet or toilet.  But lacking any better ideas or the funds to find something better, I worked with what I had.  And I'd lived with it that way for the past 4 years.

A few weeks ago, I had mentioned to my good friend Jack that I had almost broken my toe while getting Kaleb out of the bath in that tiny little space.  Little did I know that, a couple of days ago, a Visa gift card would show up in my mailbox, a gift from Jack with a note telling me to use it to fix my bathroom.  So that's exactly what I did!  I took that $200 gift card and put about $150 of it toward supplies for a bathroom fix-up.  I even had enough left over to fill up the gas tank in my car!

Check out how far the money went!

 The first thing on my fix-up list was the hideous glass cover on this 60s-era light fixture.  I don't have the electrical know-how to safely change the fixture, and a new fixture wasn't in the budget.  But since the fixture still worked properly, I decided all it really needed was a makeover.  I cleaned the glass cover thoroughly and spray painted the outside with a dark ivory color.  Once the paint was dry, I used a hut glue gun to cover the outside with a double layer of sisal grass sheets.  Once reinstalled, the light was beautiful and the entire atmosphere of the room was changed.

Next, I used the same paint to cover the outside of the cabinet and shelf that had been in the bathroom.  I knocked the back off the cabinet and mounted it up high on the wall with L brackets, making sure to anchor several of them directly into the wall studs for security.  I used this cabinet to hold extra soap, hand towels, feminine supplies, and any medicine that was in packaging too tall to fit into the medicine cabinet over the sink.

Under the cabinet, I rehung the bar of towel hooks we had already had elsewhere in the bathroom.  I set the shelf back on the floor under where the towels would hang.  Yes, the shelf still occupied the same floor space that the cabinet previously occupied but with a few small differences: 1-the shelf is only 12" high, leaving lots of open space above it; 2-the shelf sits on legs rather than having a solid base; 3-the bathroom garbage can fits neatly on top of the shelf rather than having to sit on the floor, which also means that the bathroom door is now able to open fully.

Since I already owned 2 shower bars, I decided to use them to open up the shower area.  I had noticed that my dark, opaque shower curtain was closing off the bathroom and making it look even smaller.  I took it down.  I replaced it with a clear shower curtain liner to keep from visually closing in the space.  On the outside of the shower, I hung two sheer, ivory 84" curtain panels—they are regular window curtains, but will work fine in the bathroom since there's a shower curtain liner to prevent them from getting wet.  The panels are attached with a flower pin at the top to keep them together while allowing them to be easily taken apart for washing as needed.

The overall effect was a visually larger space in the bathroom.

I hand-twisted curtain tis-backs from a $1 roll of natural cotton string.

It's hard to fit attractive storage onto a small counter space, but there is still a need for things like toothbrushes, toothpaste, and hand soap.  I'm not a fan of keeping these items in the medicine cabinet, and had been using a narrow orange basket for these items.  It was no where near attractive, though.  I bought two small decorative bowls, put two glass candle votives inside, and filled the space between with tiny river rocks (sold in bags at most craft stores).

 That made two perfect dishes, one for me and one for Kaleb, for toothbrushes and toothpaste.

A tall thin vase in matching colors, filled with dried baby's breath and decorative twigs and the same river rock, makes a lovely decoration for the back of the toilet.  I set the vase on top of a small round mirror with a circle of sisal grass sheet (leftover from the light fixture) between the vase and the mirror.

Knowing that small details can make a big impact, I took the old porcelain knobs off the cabinet under the sink and the plastic knobs off the cabinet I had wall mounted.  Then I installed new brushed metal knobs, all identical to one another, on both cabinets.  The hinges on the under-sink cabinet had become rusted over the years, so I replaced them with new hinges in the same metal tone as the other metal elements I had brought in with the towel ring and cabinet knobs.  Afterwards, I used a tiny craft paint brush and some ivory latex-based paint (leftover from painting back when we moved into this house) I added some small detailing to the cabinet doors and the door of the medicine cabinet.

Other small, budget-friendly fix-ups included a new brushed metal towel ring for the hand towel by the sink to replace the old yellowed one, some new ivory hand towels ($0.38 each!), a new clean switch plate around the light switch/outlet combo, a rubber-backed rug in front of the toilet, a small mirror hung over the sink (and under the mirrored medicine cabinet) at exactly the right height for Kaleb, a new plastic garbage can, and a new fully-functioning vent cover for the a/c vent in the ceiling.  The small old metal garbage can, which had decorative holes punched all the way around, has been repurposed as a bin for Kaleb's bath toys, and the holes allow for ventilation to help the toys dry out and prevent mold/mildew.

The overall effect is one that makes me very happy!  I think I made the most of my budget.  I may not be on my way to a magazine cover, but just walking past the bathroom makes me smile now.  The whole project took about 10 hours.  And when Kaleb woke up this morning, he said is was "so pretty!  Good job, Mommy!"