My husband and I purchased our first home in December of 2004. We spent two months stripping wallpaper, replacing base boards & quarter round, and painting every single room in the house. Add to that a few repair issues, and there was precious little left in the budget for the bathroom, which for some reason we put off until the end. Not to worry I said to myself, I’ll just do what I can do.
The first thing to consider when you’re trying to decorate on a budget is “How picky can I afford to be?” For me, it was “NOT PICKY AT ALL”. With this in my head, I drove to the Home Depot, to check out the paint department. Now did you know, that if somebody returns a can of paint, or if a color once it’s mixed just doesn’t look right, that Home Depot will sell it at a ridiculously low price? At our location, it’s generally anywhere from $3 – $5 per gallon, depending on the brand and grade of the paint. The unwanted cans of paint are usually on some obscure rack at the end of the mixing area. If you don’t see it, ask one of the associates in the paint department where their returns/unwanted paints are. They’re usually very glad to point these out, so that they can be rid of them. On this particular night, I hit pay dirt. There on the rack was a gallon of just the kind of color I had in mind. A beautiful pale blue/green color which reminded me of the color of the mint flavored Crest mom used to buy years ago, before such things as gel toothpaste existed. And the price? A mere $5. Bingo!
Next, I stopped at K-Mart to cruise the clearance area for things like shower curtains and accessories. I found a lovely shower curtain in an iridescent green color for $7. It had apparently been part of K-Mart’s holiday line, and was leftover, and marked down very low. The original price had been $29.99, and I had no qualms about paying $7 for this lovely fabric shower curtain. I wanted stainless steel hooks, but didn’t like the price of them at K-mart, so all I got there was the shower curtain. So far, my total is $12. But I’ve got quite a few purchases yet to go.
Lowe’s is where I found my shower hooks, and I have to admit they were a splurge, but when my husband showed me these stainless steel hooks with green glass knobs, I had to have them. Even at $9.99. The bathroom rugs I found at Wal-Mart. We found the standard 3 piece set, which includes rectangle bath mat, contour rug and toilet seat cover, for $9.88. At Wal-Mart we also purchased the clear shower liner ($.97), a stainless steel toothbrush holder ($3.88), and a nice cushiony toilet seat ($12.97). So far I’m right over $50, including sales tax.
Now that I’ve got all the basics covered, I need some décor. After all, I don’t want a Plain Jane bathroom, right? I hit the Salvation Army and found a nice wicker shelf, a white tart burner and a pale green basket that would work well on the vanity to hold all of our hair products. I spent $8 at the Salvation Army. Now, one can of white spray paint for the wicker shelf, which cost me $.99 and it looked good as new. I visited a local dollar store, and purchased 3 bunches of greenery, 1 liquid soap dispenser and a stainless steel hand towel holder! (This is probably my favorite find of all!) So that brings my total to around $65.
Since we didn’t like the floor in our bathroom, and marble tile was out of the question, we decided on a temporary fix. Peel & stick tiles. My husband & I found our tiles at Big Lots, which is a type of “closeouts” store. We purchased 2 boxes of tiles, in a pale gray marble looking pattern. The boxes each contained 20 tiles, so there was quite a few leftover, which we saved for patch jobs, if needed. Each box was $9.99.
The last purchase I made for our bathroom was back at K-mart. During my first stop, I had spotted some deep green fluffy towels that I wanted to buy, but I decided to wait until we had secured everything else needed for our bathroom. After all, my husband & I had an entire set of lavender and gray towels, and if we didn’t hang out a decorative towel right away, who really cared, right?
Well, I went back to see if the green fluffy towels had been marked down anymore, since they were a part of that same Christmas line that the shower curtain came from. No such luck, but since the previous mark down price was $3.50, I still felt justified in purchasing two towels, and also two hand towels ($1.50 ea.)
Now, let’s add everything up, yes, less than $100. I was pleased, and the bathroom looked very nice after all was said and done. It still looks nice to this day, even with my cheap-o peel and stick tile, (which has not peeled up, and we haven’t had to use any of the spare tiles yet.)
So in summary, when trying to redecorate on a budget, consider these things:
Do not be too choosy
If painting, visit the “reject paint” section of your home improvement store
Always check for clearance items
Don’t reject anything because it isn’t the color you want, spray paint is like a miracle in a can
Visit your local thrift stores and dollar stores, you never know what you may find
Redecorating can be a pain if you let it, but I treat it like a scavenger hunt. Gather everything you need for your project and then begin. It’s frustrating to get to the middle of a project and then discover something else that you need. Most of all, remember to have fun!
