Remodeling Your Bathroom on A Budget

Need a freshly remodeled bathroom? On a budget? There’s hope! In fact, there are a lot of very cost-effective bathroom remodeling tips and techniques that can definitely create a new aura in your bath, without completely destroying your limited budget. Now, first off, we should pre-qualify budget. This article will tell you how to remodel your bathroom economically; not for free. You’re going to need some financing to work with, but not so much.

Economic Bathroom Remodeling Tips & Tricks

The Power of Paint!

Painting is one of the most cost-effective remodeling techniques because it covers so much surface area. When you give your bath a fresh coat of paint, the entire area is transformed. Even if you can’t upgrade vanities, countertops, facets and the like, you can surely make your bathroom enlivened and more attractive, just by painting. There’s not a lot you can do better than to coat your walls and ceiling with vibrant new paint. It cleans everything up and seals away a lot of old smells too.

You can go to dollar store, or some other liquidation outlet, and pick up decent quality paint for $20/gallon or less. Even if you buy from Lowes or Home Depot, you’ll be able to get a gallon of paint, mixed to the color you choose, for about $30. Use a semi-gloss so you can wipe it down without wiping it off. Now, one gallon of paint will more than coat an average bathroom. In fact, you’ll probably get 2 thick coats out of one gallon. And if you come up a little short, you can always purchase more paint to finish, by the quart.

Vinyl Composite Flooring (VCT)

A new floor sets things off very nicely in a bathroom – check out ABL for help with this. If your budget is too tight to get that Italian ceramic right now, then maybe that will come later. For now, consider going over your existing floor with some vinyl composite tile, aka VCT. It comes in glue-down and self-stick varieties. The self-stick costs less and requires less skill to apply. An average bathroom is about 12 x 8 feet, so about 100 square feet.

If you are seriously rolling on the budget train, then you can get discounted VCT. Some of the 12 x 12-inch tiles available at Lowes cost as little as 55 cents per. That means a 100 square foot bathroom would cost about $60 to floor. That is budget remodeling folks!

Other Great Options

There are more cost-effective bathroom remodeling tricks too, like caulking for instance. With a line here and a dab there, you can cover up a lot of damage and unattractiveness. Latex painter’s caulking cost less than $2 per tube. I would avoid using silicone products unless you have experience in tooling caulking. It can be very messy and unforgiving.

Check craigslist often for items people are getting rid of for cheap, or even free. Just this past week, a friend of mine took a 30-mile trip to pick up a really nice hot tub that a wealthy guy was upgrading. All he had to do was take a truck and pick it up! Free, and worth a lot.

Additionally, you can shop yard sales, thrift shops and department stores’ closeout sales for lighting fixtures, facets, shower heads and new cabinets. If you stick to a budgeted mindset, and keep your eyes open for bargains, then you’ll be able to get that fresh look in your old bathroom for a lot less money than you might have originally thought. Make it fun!