Before and After: No More White Cabinets in This Stunning $1,700 Bathroom Redo
Built-in cabinets are a blessing in bathrooms, and Jen and Keith Berry’s bathroom already had great quality, Shaker-style ones — they just needed a splash of color. In fact, the whole room needed a color reassessment.
“The chocolate brown walls, blue ceiling, and large ceiling fan were making the room feel dark and heavy,” Jen says, and the white cabinets were just a little too basic.
Deep blues and greens are replacing white as the trendy kitchen cabinet color as of late; they can add a bit of moodiness and warmth to a space meant for families to gather. And the Berrys’ $1,700 bathroom reno proves that deep blue looks just as dreamy on bathroom cabinets, too.
Jen and Keith started by sanding their built-ins, then added a fresh coat of deep blue (Valspar’s Moon Shade). They also filled in the holes from the existing chunky pulls and replaced them with sleeker black and bronze ones. Both the paint and the pulls make the cabinets look a little more custom and high-end. “One of my friends says it’s like Ralph Lauren’s yacht,” Jen says. “Even though the cabinets are dark now, the whole space seems lighter and brighter, and the wood countertops warm everything up so nicely!”
Jen and Keith were looking for a way to raise the counter without demoing the entire vanity. “The countertop was really low and the sink was small,” she says. “My husband and I were always fighting over the sink.”
The solution? They built a frame to raise the counter up. A local wood shop cut holes for the new cast-iron sink and existing faucet in a butcher block counter from Lowes, and then Jen stained it and sealed it. It took one coat of wood conditioner, one coat of stain, two coats of tung oil, and three coats of sealer to create the final look.
Jen’s other DIY wins in the space include painting the ceiling white and adding wallpaper to one wall. Both, again, make the bathroom much feel brighter and airier. “The most difficult project, I think, was the wallpaper,” Jen says. “I can attest that it definitely pays to have a super sharp craft knife and two people for the install. But I love how it turned out, and it really brightens the room.”
Plus, she was extra creative with her mirror sconces. “Originally my plan was to remove them and spray paint the chrome black, but we realized that if we were able to remove them, we may not be able to re-install them,” she says. “So I used washi tape to cover up the chrome parts, and it gave it a bit of an Art Deco vibe for only $5! I used the same tape around the inside edge of the mirror to tie it together.”
Full of clever DIYs and cosmetic changes, this bathroom is now much brighter and looks high-end — all for $1,700 with no major construction. By making smart, high-impact changes with wood, paint, pulls, and wallpaper, Jen and Eric created a bathroom that wows.
Inspired? Submit your own project here.