Budget Bathroom Makeover: One Year Later

Hard to believe, but it’s been a year now since I posted about my Budget Bathroom Makeover. If you’ve been reading for a while, you probably remember…I mean, how could you forget this hot mess:

Wow. A year later and still kinda burns my eyes to look at it.

If you missed that post, might wanna go check it out before you continue reading…or after, whatevs. I go into all the nitty gritty details of how I transformed that space to this  one, all to the tune of 72 big ones:

That’s right. I still have a yellow toilet. And sink. And shower. Don’t be jealous. I’m sure if you hopped in a time machine and traveled back to 1966, you too, could have your very own yellow and brown tiled bathroom.

But, like I stated in last year’s post, we didn’t exactly have the budget to rip every blessed piece of tile out of there (if only…), so I worked with what I had, and since grey and yellow are so hot right now, I thought if any color could save the yellow, it would be grey.

I’ve gotten a lot of emails over the year about this makeover. Did the painted floor chip? How’d the curtain hold up? Etc, etc. Well, I’m here to tell you how it’s going, 365 days later…

The Painted Floor:
Shockingly, it’s held up amazingly well. If you haven’t read the other post, I painted, yes, with plain ol’ semi-gloss white paint that I had in my stash, over the yellow and brown tile. Just washed it well, and gave it a few coats. And it’s doing great. A couple nicks, but other than that, is working out fine. Course, this probably has a lot to do with the fact that I have 3 scattered rugs in that teeny tiny room, so there’s not a whole lot of tile floor showing! But it’s held up, as you can see from this close-up:

Now, if you want to try this, but don’t want/have a lot of rugs in your bathroom, a friend of mine said she used exterior paint (made for the elements, so would withstand a lot more wear and tear), and it’s been working great. So might wanna try that route, sounds like it would hold up even better!

The Bedsheet Painted Curtain:
My rockin’ $5 twin sheet from Walmart hasn’t changed one bit. Now, I used the exact paint color I used on the wall, so it’s a little stiff. Doesn’t bother us one smidge, but if it would bug you, maybe look into a fabric/washable paint that is softer? The tension curtain rod hasn’t slipped in the slightest, and all the opening and closing of it when we get in and out of the shower doesn’t phase it at all. Has worked like a charm, I tell ya! Cannot even express how much I LOVE getting out of the shower and sliding that curtain over that ugly stall. Can’t do it quick enough! lol.

The $6 Sample Paint:
I used the sample paint from Sherwin Williams to paint the entire room, and one of my readers asked how it’s holding up. Just to make sure, I did ask the experts at SW if it’s cool to use those samples for actual rooms, and he said absolutely – it’s just satin paint, same as a gallon, totally fine to use anywhere. And it’s working out fine, even in a hot, steamy bathroom.

The Velcro Sink Skirt:
This turned out to be a big FAIL! Several months after I posted, I walked in to see half the sink skirt falling off. Turns out, the water from the sink (I’ve been told that I’m not the *neatest* face-washer at night – hey, we all have our faults, right?! 😉 was too much, and the combo of that and the rusty old underneath were not a good match. So I did what any DIY-er would do…find some duct tape and call it a day! What, that’s not  what the big-timers do?! Ok ok, I’m not proud of it, but you know what? That stuff stays PUT! (Just don’t go looking underneath my sink next time you come over – it ain’t pretty). You’d never know it, as you can see from this pic I just took today:

Still hides the plunger, the trash, and the rusty pipes, so it’s cool with me:)

One of these days, we’ll get the sledgehammers out and demo this bad boy, but for now, our little $72 bathroom is working out just fine.

Thanks for all your kind words and love over the past year about this project, and if there are any other questions you have that I didn’t answer, leave a comment and I’ll get back to you!