Tiny Bathroom Makeover: On a Budget

Oh, what simple things can do to a space! This bathroom update was such an easy project that made an enormous difference.

The greatest part is it's affordable & can be done in as little as a single day. And this is how!

The first approach to giving this tiny bathroom new life was utilizing what was already there. Being a smaller space, a lot of elements were originally on the darker side, so, lightning it up to open the space as much as possible was goal one. Painting the walls in an off-white gray & refinishing the cabinetry in rustic white, and removing the popcorn ceiling (completely optional but I really wanted to do this myself) really made it feel bigger. The tan tiles however didn’t mesh, and the color tones started to feel dated. After far too many ideas, I finally decided to mix light & medium wood tones & adding dark accents that would balance out the floors and really upgrade it as a whole!

I started with the mirror, stripping it from the previous white I gave it, sanding, sanding, oh and MORE sanding to it down to the wood's natural medium tone. Boy, what a transformation that did alone! Next was so simple. Taking about half of the steel accents (light fixture, cabinet handles, and a few others) and making them matte black to add contrast and clean up the look.

Then came the true fun DIY, building the shelves. There are SO many different ways to do shelving! I went for the frame & shell method as the section of the wall I was installing the shelves already had studs.

Step 1: The Framing

Make sure you have studs wherever you are putting your shelves and mark them. This is very important!

I took 2x3’s, cut them for my desired length, and cut the inner supports systems to my desired shelf depth, screwing in the short support pieces perpendicular to the main horizontal piece (one on each end and in the center), to create the frame.

Note: Make sure when lining up the supports that they do not get in the way of the studs. Ours were exactly in the center of where I wanted the shelves to be which worked out perfectly and put the center support beams off-center.

Step 2: Cutting & Staining

Now that I had the frame done, it was time to cut the outer pieces. All I needed was a top, bottom, and front piece to enclose the frames. I cut my front piece first and lined it up to calculate in the top and bottom pieces to ensure they reached the end of the shell. From there, I could cut all of the pieces and test the fit.

Once that all looked good, it was the addicting stain time.

Step 3: Assemble

After the stain is fully dried, it’s assembling time! The first step was nailing the top & bottom pieces into the frame. Holding the frame in my previously marked areas and making sure to use a level to ensure the shelves would be straight, I then predrilled through the frame and into the wall to mark two dry wall anchors & the middle stud. Hammered the anchors, drilled the frame into the anchors & stud using my predrilled marks, and popped in my front piece ( I cut these front pieces so they were a snug tight fit to save myself from needing to nail them into place ). Bam, custom floating shelves were up!

Last was a few final touches.

Did I use this as an excuse to create even more custom decor pieces? Absolutely!

To tie everything together, I created a super simple wood frame around one of the painted pieces I had on the wall (an original seapine painting, see more on the paint & decor page). Literally was four straight cuts, attaching the ends with strong glue (really any type of strong craft or construction adhesive will work), and came out so great. Replaced a fresh shower rod & curtain, framed an old ink skull original drawing from my college days, threw together a typography wall decor piece, filled the shelves with supplies, decor, and just like that, an updated & more spacious bathroom.

See the entire transformation, start to finish, on my Instagram bath highlight.