12 of the Most Dramatic Bathroom Makeovers I’ve Ever Seen (They Go from Disgusting to Designer!)
If there’s one room you want to feel especially clean and well-lit in your home, it’s probably the bathroom. After all, how can you truly feel clean after a shower or like your hair and makeup look great if your shower is visibly dingy and it’s too dim to actually see what you’re doing?
When it comes to sprucing up your bathroom space, some powder rooms and primary baths could just use a more aesthetically pleasing look for selfies and general home happiness, and some are completely unusable. Below are some of the dimmest, dirtiest, most dire bathroom beginnings Apartment Therapy has ever featured — and some of the most dramatic transformations. All of these bathrooms totally transformed into functional spaces perfect for guest usage or getting ready daily.
1. This bathroom makeover squeezes so much storage into 30 square feet.
This tiny bathroom had exposed plumbing, cables, and haphazard pipes before, and adding ledges along the walls not only helped to conceal some of that, but also added storage. The new cabinetry is painted dark brown (Graham & Brown’s Elderton), the wallpaper is also from Graham & Brown, and the tile floors got a paint makeover. All of these changes rescue the bathroom from looking as bare-bones as it did before. Read more about homeowner Lorna Denton’s bathroom makeover here.
2. Goodbye, carpet and yellow walls. Hello, style and function.
“What do you do with an oversized, weirdly placed guest bathroom with wild (and threadbare) red floral carpet, green velvet curtains, and deteriorating plaster walls?” Apartment Therapy contributor Dana McMahan asked when she wrote about her own bathroom renovation. The answer, as it turned out, was to give it a complete demolition and downsize it a bit, adding tiny hex tile to the floors and a glass shower with glossy green tiles for a far more luxe look. See more before and after photos here.
3. This pumpkin orange bathroom’s makeover is a true Cinderella story.
In a second bathroom renovation by Dana, she turns a “pretty scary-looking pumpkin orange room with a long and narrow shape and dark brown stick-on tile” — plus dark brown wooden fixtures — into a brighter, bigger-feeling, space thanks to fresh chevron tile, a mint green vanity, a pocket door that saves on space, and much more. You can read more about the project — and where Dana managed to save a few extra dollars — here.
4. This bathroom makeover keeps the purple fixtures from 1962.
Sure, lots of bathrooms might come with carpet or colored fixtures or extremely dated wallpaper, but the bathroom in Laura Bindloss’s house came with all three. Laura liked the lavender fixtures and decided to work them into the new design, with pink and green paint (Little Greene’s Masquerade and Pea Green, respectively), the perfect wallpaper, a rose-colored marble countertop, and new tile floors. Read more about the transformation here.
5. A crumbling 1970s bathroom gets a makeover that’s a true work of art.
This bathroom makeover has black-and-white floor tiles, an impressive hand-painted bird mural, and a now-smooth ceiling — a far cry from the “tired and extremely dated” before, as homeowner Emily Radford describes. Goodbye to the “stained and beige carpeted floor” and the 1970s toilet with a floral motif on it. For more hand-painted projects check out these 11 stunning wall murals, and for more details on Emily’s bathroom read the full Before & After post.
6. A dreary attic turns into a luxe bathroom.
When homeowner Will Pryor first toured his house, he knew he could make liveable space (read: a bathroom and a bedroom) out of its 1930s-era attic. The bathroom’s new layout cleverly works around the slanted ceiling with a large bathtub that fits snugly, and there’s also room for sleek a standing shower, toilet, and double vanity. See the full transformation here.
7. A “dungeon-y” bathroom gets a bright, modern redo for $500.
The avocado green walls, blue tile, and much-too-dim sconces made this bathroom have a “a dark, dungeon-y vibe,” as homeowner Marissa Espy puts it. It certainly wasn’t easy to put on makeup or get ready for the day. Her redo makes it much brighter, with white walls, a white shower curtain, white vanity, and modern black and white tiles. “I love how much brighter the bathroom is now, and how much cleaner it feels,” Marissa says. Read how she transformed it for about $500.
8. A patchy, lilac-colored bathroom gets the fancy spa treatment.
“This is our main family bathroom, so we couldn’t leave it as it was,” homeowner Sandra Baker says of this patchy, lilac bathroom in her family’s Victorian home. The bathroom was looking, well, straight out of the Victorian era — in a bad way — and a major renovation involving plumbing relocation, tiling, and a copper tub made it much more suitable for a family of four. See the full makeover here.
9. A $500 spruce-up makes this bathroom’s vintage fixtures sing.
Even if old fixtures like sinks, tubs, and toilets don’t need replacing, other features of an older bathroom might cramp their style. “The green tub, sink, and toilet was brought down by ugly beige tiles, vinyl flooring, and a very old medicine cabinet,” in Kristen Wineinger’s bathroom, as she describes. Bright white paint, new black-and-white flooring, and a new mirror and light fixture help make the bathroom the cute, vintage-inspired space that it is today. “We love that we kept the original character, just enhanced it!” Kristen says. See the bathroom redo here.
10. This bland bathroom’s makeover has low-cost, rental-friendly hacks.
Even if you’re a renter, you can make dramatic changes to your bathroom. DIYer Ashley Poskin proved it in her bathroom makeover. She used colorful grout and white tile (not necessarily renter-friendly) and spray starch and fabric (definitely renter-friendly!) to create a colorful bathroom. Who says you need fancy wallpaper when you can come up with a lease-friendly workaround? Read more about Ashley’s project here.
11. See how a stuck-in-the-’80s bathroom got a serene makeover.
This bathroom belonging to Lexie Kerr had very ‘80s orange gradient tile on the walls and ceiling. “I can’t believe we lived with it for so long,” Lexie told Apartment Therapy. But if you were partial to the funky tile, don’t worry — Lexie and her husband did keep one square of it and framed it in their bathroom “after,” which you can see here. The new bathroom is calmer, brighter, and has more storage.
12. A “forgettable” bathroom transforms into a showstopper with bold colors.
Homeowners Yvonne Langen and Michael Rizk wanted to take their bathroom “from forgettable to memorable,” Yvonne says. Chartreuse paint (Graham & Brown’s Burnt Saffron), blue wallpaper, blue floor tiles, and a dramatic arched doorway do exactly that. You can read the full Before & After here.
Bathroom Break dives into the depths of your bathroom — from the history of toilets to how to make it smell like a spa. Check out all the stories here.