Refinishing a {Small Bathroom} on an {Even Smaller Budget}

As you can see in the before and after pics in this post, our hallway bathroom looks different now than it did just a couple of years ago, but it obviously hasn't undergone a full on renovation. With the average bathroom remodel costing an average of $16,000, we needed to work with what we already had in place. Which wasn't much, by the way. This bathroom is a mere 5 x 7 feet, and that includes the floorspace taken up by the bathtub.

We had already installed new tile flooring throughout the majority of the house, so the outdated white tiles were long gone when we began working on refinishing, replacing and covering up the rest of the outdated 1970's atrocity.

We started by removing the old sliding shower doors, mainly because it was nearly impossible to give little tiny children a bath when you can only reach half of the tub. Once those were gone, we bought a bronze hardware set and set out to buy an adorable bohemian shower curtain I had been eyeing at Cost Plus World Market but had no use for before now. The shower curtain became my inspiration for the colors I would be using throughout the bathroom: Bright teal, deep blue and lime green offset by a stark, bright white.

Since I didn't love any of the colors on the curtain enough to cover my walls in them, I chose a color that would compliment them without being too matchy-matchy. (Which is a big problem for me at times, since I love matching everything!)

We chose Behr's Venus Teal for the walls, which is bright without being overwhelming. I honestly think the only reason we got away with painting a small space such a loud color is that we visually broke up the room by painting the trim and door a bright white that matched the shower curtain.

Now that the walls were painted, the old, rusty medicine cabinet was removed, those God awful mirror panels were popped off of the wall and the new hardware was installed, we replaced the funky light fixture with mix and match vanity lighting and pendant shades from Lowes. This was a great deal because both items were on sale when we bought them, so we got our 'custom lighting' for next to nothing - and believe me, something as small as changing out a light fixture can make a huge difference in the look of a room!

After picking out new white towels and a bath mat from Target (on clearance, of course), we headed over to Cost Plus World Market (again!) and found our accessories. They were deep blue and lime green and perfect - and they were on clearance! Swoop!

Now that the fun part was done (shopping), I had my work cut out for me with the cabinets. Oh, the ugly, worn deep cherry wood cabinetry that's in both bathrooms and in the kitchen - I can't tell you how much I hated them. I mean, the style of them is fine, but the color and the grime... Forget about it. So what's a girl to do? Paint 'em!

Luckily, we had a lot of our Rustoleum Cabinet Transformation kit left over from our kitchen restoration project, so I used the same color on the cabinets and they instantly looked amazing! The dark brown, almost black color made the space look so much more modern and clean, I couldn't have been happier.

We decided to forego replacing the fiberglass shower/tub because, hey, it works and we could cover it up with a shower curtain. We also kept the original countertop because although I would have preferred a bright white counter, we weren't about to pay out the you-know-what for something that was the least offensive part of the entire bathroom.

So there you have it - Our cheap, but cute, bathroom makeover!


Quart of Paint - $15
Vanity Light Fixture - $20
Pendant Shades - $22
Shower Curtain - $30
Bathroom Accessories - $11
Towels - $6
Bathmat - $6
Hardware - $40
Cabinet Paint - $10
Total Cost - $160 

That's literally one hundred times cheaper than the average bathroom remodel! Okay, so we don't take showers surrounded by glass tiles imported from Italy while being doused with water pouring from a rainfall shower head, nor do we have much storage space or the ability to fit more than one person in the bathroom at a time, but we are $15,840 better off. Yeah, I'll take the teal bathroom and the savings. How about you?

Faux Tissue Paper Technique {Old World Style Armoire }

Today I'm going to show you how to create a unique finish that can be used on furniture and walls, or even as a piece of art for your home. Using tissue paper to create a faux finish is a relatively easy way to add old world character to your space.

For this project you will need:

• Tissue Paper (The kind presents are wrapped in)
• Paint (Either a single color or multiple colors, depending on the look you want)
• Rollers or a Brush
• Glaze (Optional)

That's it!

Now, this particular cabinet/armoire/hutch (I'm not really sure what it was supposed to be) needed some extra work due to the face that it had no top. It looked finished in the pictures online, but when my husband brought it home I discovered that it wasn't exactly what I was expecting. I suspect that's why the man selling it took my low-ball offer of $10. But I knew my husband could easily build a top for this awesome piece.

One trip to Lowes and an hour later, it was officially an armoire. All we did was cut a piece of wood to size, use wood blocks to support the weight of the top and add some thin, cheap trim to finish the edges.

Now it was time to start prepping for some paint. You know what I mean - Priming the piece!

After the primer had dried, I painted the armoire my absolute favorite brown: Valspar Java Brown. This is a great color to paint furniture when you want to simulate dark wood: It's very neutral. Not too yellow, not too grey, not too red - Just a delicious deep, dark brown.

I took the painting a step further by glazing the brown with Rustoleum glaze in Kona. Kona is about as dark brown as it gets before turning black. These colors work really well together since they're similar enough to one another that your paint job doesn't look muddled (which can happen with glaze).

Now, onto the fun part!

For the faux tissue paper technique, I took multiple pieces of tissue paper and ripped away the straight edges. This is suggested because once you lay the pieces of tissue paper on top of each other, straight edges will look awkward and out of place. The only place you will want straight edges is along the edge and corners of your surface, so I saved the ripped away pieces for those areas.

Next, I took all of my prepped paper and crumple it into a ball. The more you crumple it, the more texture you will have on your piece!

Now it was time to paint and apply the tissue paper. I picked my base color and began painting the area I wanted to apply the paper. (For this project, I chose Valspar Green Water because it was a great complimentary color to the decor in our bedroom.) As I laid my paint down, I took a piece of tissue paper, smoothed it out, and laid it directly onto the wet paint. The paint works as both a base color and glue that holds the tissue paper in place. I gently used my fingers and the tip of a paint brush to smooth out the texture and remove air bubbles. Gentle is key here, because if you're too rough with the paper it will rip. I moved on to the next section and repeated until the entire surface was covered, slightly overlapping each piece of paper until I had uniform coverage.

After the first coat of paint dried, I found it was easier to spot places I had missed. I just placed a small piece of tissue paper on any bare areas and painted them on when I did my second coat.

When both coats of paint had dried, I took it a step further by applying more colors and a coat of glaze. I used three additional colors to give the panels an aged look by dry brushing and blending each color into the next.

Once my paint dried, I added some gold glaze. I went heavier in some areas and lightly brushed it onto others, because I wanted this armoire to have an older, worn look.


So now that you know how to create the faux tissue paper technique, what will you be trying it on?

Small Size, Big Cute Factor {Armoire Makeover}

For my first post, I'm going to show you all one of the more simple pieces I have refinished: This adorable teal and white armoire!

As you can see, this little armoire was in great shape when I found it. Unfortunately, it had that light pine finish that was popular in the 90's. (The more you read my blog, the more you will learn of my disdain for this particular style.)

Anyway, the finish didn't matter since I was planning on painting this piece to give it a light, bright new look. So I talked the seller into selling it to me for a mere $30. An hour later it was in the back of my SUV where it would stay until my husband got home to help me unload it.

I started by removing all of the hardware and giving it a good cleaning with dish soap and vinegar. Next, I moved onto the body of the piece. I removed the back panel since it wasn't very sturdy and it had rusty staples sticking out - and I wasn't in the mood to get a tetanus shot.

The next step was to get out my primer. Now, this is probably the most important step in painting furniture: Primer gives your paint something to stick to. If you don't prime, chances are your paint will begin to chip or peel and all of your hard work will be for nothing!

Personally, I always use Bullseye 123 Primer. This is a Holy Grail product for me: It's water based, it has great coverage, it's affordable... Hell, I just haven't found another primer that works as well as this stuff.

After priming, I went straight to painting. I had some issues with the finish since my husband picked up and quart of Valspar paint with primer, which tends to be thicker and leads to visible brush and roller strokes. Oh well! It still looked nice, even if it wasn't perfect.

I decided to use teal for the accents since this was a piece for my friend Trisha, who is obsessed with teal. I'm not scared of a little color, believe me, but I couldn't justify painting the whole thing such a bold hue. I thought that the drawers, knobs and door panels were the perfect place to pack a small punch of color.

I chose Secluded Garden by Valspar for three reasons: One, it was a muted, grown up shade of teal; Two, they sell them in 8 oz samples at Lowes for $2.99; Three, I had some samples leftover from another project of mine.

After the painting was finished (which took forever), I covered the knobs and the top of the armoire with some Polycrylic to ensure the paint didn't rub off over time.

Protecting the finish is probably the second most important step when it comes to painting furniture. You don't necessarily have to cover every little bit in poly, wax or another sealer but you should definitely seal the areas that will get the most use. For this particular type of furniture, it is definitely the knobs and the top.

After reassembling this adorable miniature armoire (which stands about 4 1/2 feet tall) it was time to load it back into my SUV and deliver it. I'm not gonna lie... By the time I got it to Trisha's house I was ready to wish it good riddance. It was taking up too much space in the middle of my house and I wanted my office space back! I have a tendency to do this with everything I drag home: I get excited, I brainstorm, I start working, I get frustrated, I finish, I feel elated and then I never wanna see it again. At least in the middle of my office. Or my back porch. But I'll totally marvel about how great it looks in your house!

So there you have it - A simple, cheap furniture restoration project that anyone can master.

How cheap, you ask? Well, let's break it down:
Armoire: $30
Primer: $4
White Paint: $5
Teal Paint: $1
Polycrylic: $2
Total Cost: $42

That's $42 for a well made, solid piece of furniture that is completely customized to fit your style. Not bad, huh?

Now, when I tell you the paint only cost $5, I'm not talking about how much it costs to purchase straight from the store - I'm breaking down the costs for the amount of product I used on each piece. If I told you the total costs for purchasing everything at the store in one trip, of course the cost would be much higher! I don't look at total costs because I use all of the paint, primer, glaze, poly and anything else I need on many different projects since I always have leftover supplies. If you're just trying to paint one piece of furniture and not buy tons of material, you can always buy much smaller quantities. I'll discuss that in another blog post...

So, let's have one last look at the armoire, just so we remember why we want to paint one ourselves...