Before and After: A $200 Bathroom Transformation Done in a Weekend

New and recently-renovated homes have a lot going for them when it comes to functionality, but sometimes they can lack the charm of older homes. That’s what Hunter Rohwer found when her family moved into their recently renovated house this past May. Since then, they’ve been slowly taking on rooms to take them from builder-grade to cozy and personal. The powder room off the home’s main living space was one such project. “It is HUGE for a half bathroom,” says Hunter. “Seriously, I could lay down in this half bathroom and make a bathroom snow angel.”

Too much space might not be the worst thing, except, Hunter says, “besides being overly massive, it was overly boring and had no character or fun.”

“Everyone wants to make a room feel bigger,” says Hunter, “but the half bathroom felt silly that it was so large.” So her primary goal was to help it feel a little cozier and more intimate using a dark-colored paint. She also wanted to add some more modern elements—and kick that boring plain mirror to the curb.

Knowing she had a rug she wanted to use in the powder room, she took it to the hardware store to try to find a paint match for its pretty blue. Valspar’s Cobalt Cannon fit the bill; Hunter used it on just the vanity wall. For the other walls, she used Valspar’s Ultra White.

After painting, Hunter replaced the ho-hum nickel faucet with a more substantial one in a chic black finish (“Am I a plumber now?!” Hunter asks). In place of the old clip-on mirror, she added a way-more-stylish round one with a black frame. Finishing touches: a floating shelf, a new towel bar and toilet paper holder, and, of course, the rug that inspired the room’s new paint color.

Total cost? Just $200, and only a weekend’s worth of work—”the ultimate DIY,” Hunter says.

Inspired? Submit your own project here.