Before and After: A $300, One-Afternoon Redo Peps up This Boring 1982 Bathroom
The fun of buying a fixer-upper is all in the redesign process, but deciding which rooms to start with first can be the tricky part. That was the case when blogger Stephanie Villa Davis’s (@stephvilladavis) parents bought their weekend home to escape the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles.
“This house was built in 1982 and it was obvious this bathroom (as well as most of the house) had not been touched since then,” Stephanie says. The dingy cabinets and outdated hardware were an eyesore, while the mirrors were too small for the space and lacked style.
Although the guest bath was low on the renovation priority list, Stephanie knew it needed a facelift — and fast. So she convinced her parents to let her give it a redo in one afternoon.
Stephanie started with a mossy green paint color (Clark+Kensington’s Spruce Peak) for the cabinet doors and drawers. She credits a recently discovered secret weapon to keeping the cost down and time commitment to a minimum: BB Frösch Paint Transformer, a powder that turns any paint into matte chalky paint when mixed and eliminates the sanding process of a paint redo. “It’s a game-changer and a must-use!” Stephanie says. “If I would have had to sand and prep the cabinets it would have added hours to this project.”
“What were we going to do with a blue toilet?!” the homeowner says of the before.
Next was the hardware, which she simply swapped out with modern matte black knobs. Once the cabinets were done, Stephanie replaced the outdated, too-small mirrors with more modern round ones. The finishing touches included a rug repurposed from another room in the house, new hand towels, and other accessories. “I figured if we could make a big enough statement with the paint color and other details, the outdated fixtures and countertops would fade into the background,” she says. “The color of the cabinets is definitely the showstopper for me.”
Stephanie’s total cost for the project was just $300 — not bad for the small-scale but big-impact redo. As for her timeline? She was able to finish in a single afternoon, as promised. And now, her parents have a stylish and sophisticated bathroom, all without having to pick up a hammer.
Inspired? Submit your own project here.