SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, April 1, 2016 (Gephardt Daily) — If there’s one room in the home most people would like to update and upgrade, it’s the bathroom, according to a recent study by Houzz.com.
The bad news for home owners on a tight budget is that a bathroom update can cost anywhere from $10,500 for a small master bathroom to almost $19,000 for a larger one.
Home improvement experts say there’s no need to despair or take out a loan. There are inexpensive ways to spruce up your bathrooms for a fraction of those remodeling costs.
Clean Up Your Sink Area With Trendy Accessories
Mason jars dressed up as rustic soap dispensers are currently the most popular bathroom decorating idea on StumbleUpon. The do-it-yourself 10-minute project involves nailing a hole into the lid of the jar, then sliding the tube of a soap dispenser through it, according to Ellie Laycock of Creating the Vintage Look. It’s guaranteed to dress up even a bargain-bin hand soap.
Cover Up the ‘Cheap’ Cabinets
The generic, unpainted-oak cabinets installed in many homes in the ’80s were a common way to keep costs down. But the prefabricated look can make your bathroom appear cheap and outdated. Interior designer Holly Mathis suggests a couple of coats of dark gray paint — like Benjamin Moore’s Revere Pewter or Chelsea Gray — is a reasonably cost-effective way to cover up that faux-wood look.
A Faster Fix for Ugly Floors
If you lack the budget but want the look of tile floors, you might follow the advice of an average home owner writing in Home in the Country. He recommends two coats of dark paint—and three of polyurethane, to seal and perfectly camouflage ’60s-ish laminate floors. In order to keep the paint from scratching, the home owner topped off the new floor with some woven mat tiles from World Market. In fact, neutral-toned mats cover enough of the floor surface to make it feasible to skip the paint job altogether if time and money are tight.
A Small Way to Make a Big Impact
The most requested and suggested bathroom upgrade on designer Holly Mathis’s blog is the recommendation to trade in a shabby shower curtain for one in a hot-off-the-runway print. Mathis says it can give the whole bathroom space an edgier, new look. The less standard the bathroom curtain, the better. Mathis is also seeing an increased demand for white, ruffled shower curtains and monogrammed designs from Etsy. After the curtain is updated, the next step is to swap out the bath mat. Natural rugs, particularly the Dash & Albert striped-cotton version, are popular for their simple, clean-lined style. Of course, Mathis says that doesn’t mean you have to toss your fluffy like a pillow version that’s easy on the feet. Her advice: simply hang it on the bathtub and hide it behind the shower curtain while guests are over.To read more about these and other inexpensive bathroom update ideas, you can turn to Oprah’s new home improvement site by clicking here.
