What do you do when you have a builder-grade bathroom that you want to redesign without a huge budget? Bring out the paint, of course!
April Waltrip of Williamsburg, Virginia, had a generic-looking powder room that she wanted to make feel more personal so she painted the vanity and her vinyl floors, and now it feels like a totally new room.
“The vanity was painted in one Saturday afternoon,” she told TODAY Home. For the cabinets, she used a high-quality navy paint that only cost her about $20. “It was a great way to make a huge impact on the room with a small budget and a little sweat equity,” she said.
She also replaced the hardware, light fixtures and old mirror with more modern pieces for a more updated look.
Her next big task was painting the vinyl floor. Waltrip used a stencil for the fun black-and-white pattern. One of her biggest tips is to use a floor primer before painting. “This was highly recommended to me for making sure the floors stay durable and don’t chip, bubble or peel,” she explained on her blog. “It is around $27 a can, but definitely worth the price.”
The floor was the biggest challenge of the powder room update, she said. “Painting our bathroom vinyl floors was a learning curve, a huge one!”
A trick she learned along the way is to get the excess paint off of the roller by rolling it on cardboard first — this will help you get really clean lines. And let the paint dry for up to a minute before laying the stencil back down to prevent paint smears.
While the vanity and floor were her biggest projects in the bathroom, Waltrip added a few more touches to give the space that personal feel.
To dress up the toilet, she hung artwork and a shelf with greenery above it.
And she gave the open shelving in there a pop of color with peel-and-stick wallpaper.
The total cost for the entire room's update was $479, including all the paint and decor.
“I finished this bathroom makeover in November 2018, and it has held up great to potty-training kids, toothpaste and splashing bathwater daily over the past year,” she said. “The cabinet still looks freshly painted and the paint on the floors hasn't worn off or smudged from water or foot traffic.”
See more pictures of her powder room makeover, plus get tips and tricks to do it yourself at her blog, Stampin Fool.