Before and After: This Bright DIY Bathroom Transformation Cost Just $204

When Andrea Latham started her home Instagram account @anchoring.upstate, she formed a strong community with others who wanted to tackle a neglected project and support each other to do the same. And so, she issued a $250 Challenge: a 6-week project that involved each of them transforming one room in their home on a $250 budget.

Andrea originally wanted to redo her dining room but knew that would be near impossible with $250, so then her bathroom came to mind. “We had guests that were supposed to be coming from out of town shortly after that 6-week timeframe so I thought oh, they’re going to be using this bathroom as well, maybe I’ll just pick this,” Andrea told Apartment Therapy.

First, Andrea created a checklist of items she already owned that she could use for the makeover, which is a key money-saving move. She had things like towels and soap dispensers as well as some cans of paint and spray paint to give her cabinets and walls a refresh. After shopping her house, Andrea had much fewer things to buy than what she originally thought.

With plenty of paint on her hands, Andrea decided to give new color to the space by painting her cabinets dark blue and the walls white, which were very different from the previous hues. She also decided to dye a shower curtain, which she had never done before, but fearlessly got crafty with it.

“I went on Pinterest and just searched ‘dip dye curtains’ or ‘ombre shower curtain’ and came across a few tutorials that showed different methods on how to do it,” Andrea said. “I ultimately used a tutorial from Joanne’s Fabrics because theirs was going to give me more control over the color that I wanted. I was just kind of searching until I found something that resonated with me.”

However, a major challenge along the way sharing the 6-week renovation span with her two young boys, who used the bathroom. “Painting the walls and cabinets was a big thing because they couldn’t touch the cabinets, and so I had to work around it,” Andrea said. “Like, they’ve  gone to sleep so I can work on it, or if I work on it in the morning, that gives it this many hours to dry before they can use the bathroom again.”

But Andrea made it work, and actually ended up $46 under budget (when does that happen?!). See her item checklist on what she spent her money on:

• Paint: $0*
• Rug: $25⁣⁣
• Wallpaper: $15 + $0*⁣⁣
• Shelf: $0*⁣⁣
• Plants: $4 + $0* + $0*⁣⁣
• Whale art: $5⁣⁣
• Shower curtain: $21⁣⁣
• Dye: $13⁣⁣
• Lumber for mirror: $27⁣⁣
• Light fixture: $58⁣⁣
• Spray paint: $0*⁣⁣
• Primer: $10⁣⁣
• Cabinet paint: $22⁣⁣
• Foam roller: $4⁣⁣
• Door pulls: $0*⁣⁣
• Other hardware: $0*⁣⁣
• Towels: $0*⁣⁣
• Soap dispensers: $0*⁣⁣
• Other art: $0*⁣⁣

*Things that Andrea already had or DIYed⁣⁣

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