How to Remodel Your Master Bathroom on a Budget

It’s time for our master bathroom renovation reveal! This is the most exciting rehab we have done in the house, so far. I want to share it because I’m proud of it, but more importantly so you can see that it is possible to renovate your bathroom with very little money. So let’s get started.

This post contains affiliate links to help you find the decor. If you make a purchase I may receive a small fee. I only recommend products I use and truly love.

Our master bathroom was seriously disgusting when we bought the house. Not only was it stuck in 1986 but it had carpet in one part and tile in the rest. We didn’t realize we would be blogging so we didn’t take really good “before” pictures, but here’s a quick peek at just how horrible it was during the demo process.

I claim no responsibility for this hot mess of a bathroom! I think it was there since the original owners built the house in 1986!

We were told renovating the bathroom would cost $15,000- $20,000. HA! I needed to makeover this entire master bathroom for less than the cost of some custom vanities I’ve seen. It was a challenge but I love finding cost-effective ways to renovate. In order to rehab the bathroom I needed to find everything for under $5,500. That included:

-Custom 90 inch vanity
-Custom 90 inch vanity top
-New bathtub
-New floor
-New toilet
-Two faucets
-Two mirrors
-New Lighting
-New towel rods
-Paint
-Drawer Pulls

Seems Impossible, right? Let me share how I did it, and how you can too!

I knew that the vanity was going to be the bulk of my budget. There was just no way around it. I searched everywhere and got estimates that were as high as $7,000 just for the cabinets and top. It took me weeks to find a solution. In the meantime I knew I had to save elsewhere.

My favorite find was this Tarkett vinyl flooring. Materials cost $306! With all of the money we saved on our project we were able to pay to have the tile left in the back part of bathroom removed and have this floor installed (it is easy enough that Husband is going to install it in our other bathroom himself). We chose this floor because of our budget and time limits, and planned on replacing it with tile when we can. But, we love this floor and we aren’t changing it. I write about why we love it here.

The next step was finding a solution for our bathtub. I really don’t like ripping things out that are perfectly functional but this bathtub was hideous. Throwing a perfectly good tub away seemed ridiculous, and I wanted to avoid demo if at all possible. I looked into bathfitters but I don’t like the look of them and they are pricey. Then I found bathtub reglazing.

Reglazing is a process where enamel spray is applied to your tub. (It is not paint, so please don’t paint your bathtub!)This substance hardens and feels just like your original tub. The contractor removed all of the faucets and hardware then re-grouted the tiles, sprayed the enamel and re-caulked. We wanted a white tub but there are 30 color choices available.

It takes approximately four hours for the whole process and around 48 hours to cure. Then you basically have a brand new bathtub! If you would rather remove and update your tile, you can just get your bathtub done. Where I live the cost of the tub is $450 and the total cost for the tub and tile was $900! More importantly, nothing from the tub went into a landfill! After the tub cured, my husband installed all new hardware which made everything look brand new.

Note: The spray that is used in this process is toxic until it is dry. I would highly recommend that you hire a professional and leave the home for 24 hours with pets and kids. Once the tub is dry the fumes are gone! Here’s a post about bathtub reglazing you should read before having it done.

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The change was dramatic, we are so happy with the results. There are over 30 colors available to choose from for bathtub reglazing.

As I mentioned the biggest purchases for the bathroom were the vanity cabinets and custom vanity top. We really couldn’t keep the one that was there. It was in horrible shape and the useless make-up area had to go. We priced out many different vanities at big box and custom bath stores, and they were just too much. I ended up finding these white shaker style vanity cabinets at a place called Bargain Outlet (link below). These came flat-packed, but we paid the store $25 per cabinet to assemble them. Definitely worth the money! Here are some cabinets from Amazon that look like mine.

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Husband installed all of the cabinets himself, which saved us almost $800 in installation costs. He had to adjust some pipes because the new vanity is higher than our old ones.

Although these cabinets were less expensive than the ones we found elsewhere, they are definitely a high quality product. They are full wood boxes and have soft close drawers.

Before we solidified our cabinet order we made sure that we could get a counter made for it. After searching for weeks we went to Lowe’s and had a great experience custom ordering one there. Learn more about ordering a Lowe’s custom vanity top on a budget here.

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When we were almost done we realized we had room in our budget for shiplap! Without it, I don’t think this master bathroom would be as amazing it is. It’s the perfect touch! Husband did a beautiful job putting it up and I think Joanna Gaines would approve!!!

Now that we had the major purchases out of the way we chose the accessories. We got these tilting mirrors from Home Depot. They had a surprise benefit for us. Since Husband is very tall and I’m…not, the tilting mirrors work well for us. He can move his mirror up and I can adjust mine down.

I filled apothecary jars from Michael’s with essentials for the farmhouse look. Pro-tip: Husband loves these jars because they serve as a divider to keep all my stuff away from his side.

The lights are from Lowe’s and were incredibly low priced at less than $60 each.

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Husband removed the old toilet paper holder and towel rod and had to patch the walls. Notice I said towel rod. Yes, One. I think contractors should lose their license if they build a house with just one towel holder and then put it over the toilet! Now we have hand towel holders by the sink and bath towel holders by the tub. We are fancy like that!

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Now simply because I can’t end this blog with a pic of a towel rod, let’s gaze at the beauty that is my new master bathroom.

Paint Color is Sherwin Williams Light French Gray – SW #0055

So, did I make the budget? YES! If we had been able to use a stock vanity I think we could have done this for $3500 or less.

Recap!
-Custom 90 inch vanity $925
-Assembly $75
-90 inch Lowe’s Custom vanity top $1357
-New bathtub $900
-New floor $306
-Flooring Removal and Installation $520
-New toilet $150
-Two faucets $189
-Two mirrors $250
-New Lighting $130
-New towel rods $120
– Shower Retrofit Kit $60
-Shower Head $100
-Shiplap $200
-Paint $40-
-Drawer Pulls $20
-Monogram Towels 4 for $30