Guest Blogger: Casey of Loft & Cottage

Today, I'm happy to welcome Casey from Loft & Cottage.  Many thanks to her for sharing her own bathroom renovation and her cost-saving tips.

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I am so thrilled and honored to be here guest blogging for the very talented Emily. She's so talented and creative—I hope I can live up to her high standards with this view into my bath redo—in style but on the cheap.

Bath renovations are notoriously expensive. Most of us don't have the budgets for complete overhauls and luxury fixtures and finishes, and that was certainly the case when I moved into my place. But we all want and deserve beautiful spaces in which to revive, relax, and get pretty. So how to get a high-end look on a teeny tiny budget? The goal was to work with the existing layout and elements and replace as little as we could get away with.

{the bath before :: ugh!}

So, to sum up the sorry state of this room that I started with: unflattering green paint, a flimsy pedestal with zero storage, no mirror, cheap faucet, and dark wood beadboard.

Step one was to think of a solution for the beadboard. I pulled off the overly heavy and traditional top molding and had a carpenter friend of a friend affordably create something more simple and modern to replace it. After a few semi-gloss coats of Benjamin Moore's White Dove on the beadboard and Martha Stewart's Araucana Blue on the walls, the room was on its way to an incredibly lighter, brighter, fresher look.

{after :: ahhh}

 

The next step was to start replacing all the old fixtures. Out went the old pedestal sink, and in came a new vanity that was a steal at $179 from Home Depot. It's more practical, not to mention better-looking, than the original pedestal. It's got a countertop to spread all your pretty things out on and a storage drawer; yet it still feels light because it's up on legs. There's room for a big basket for towels (old house=no linen closet) to stow underneath. The granite top with integral sink came from Lowe's and was equally budget-friendly at about $230. Installation was free thanks to super-helpful and awesomely handy Dad.

The faucet was a compromise; I resisted the urge to special order a $300 Kohler faucet and instead opted for the nicest off-the-shelf $99 Delta I could find. I can tell you I love it and don't regret the savings!

Perhaps the biggest splurge was the lighting. If you're going to spend in one place, lighting is the place in your budget to do it. Good lighting can give a room a richer, higher-end look; I think it's the lighting that really gives this budget room the look of a much more expensive space. The light is the Campaign triple sconce from Restoration Hardware. But even at a splurge it was still only about $250 with shades.

Overall, this is one fabulous space, achieved with minimum disruption and labor and very little expense. And it's a great example of a how to redo a bathroom without spending thousands.

My renovation tips:

1. Work with what you have—the floors and tub were fine. The layout worked.

2. The big box stores offer good values; don't be afraid of them.

3. Do the work on your own when you can but leave the plumbing (replacing a toilet) to the pros.

4. Splurge a bit on one element (especially lighting) to lend a higher-end look.

In the final tally, complete with vanity, sink, counter, toilet, medicine cabinet, lighting, beadboard and trim, labor and accessories like the basket and shower curtain, my bathroom came in under $1200—what I think is a real value for a space that looks and feels completely new.