Before & After: A Subtle Yet Significant Bathroom Upgrade

When Patricia moved into her rental loft earlier this year, her least favorite room in the whole place was the bathroom. The rest of the place is open, with tall ceilings and plenty of natural light. The bathroom, however, was old, grey, and windowless —basically the complete opposite of the rest of the home. Her leasing manager is extremely friendly, but wasn’t okay with her making any major changes. So, Patricia started making small tweaks to improve the space, bit by bit.

The first thing she did was replace the cabinet knobs. Patricia wasn’t a fan of the silver builder-grade variety already in place. It only took ten minutes, and $20, and they were the start of something different.

She then spent 2-3 hours each night for three nights after work cleaning, painting the walls, and buying new items for the bathroom. Lastly, she “shopped” her own house, bringing in items she already owned, or had saved from past travels and purchases.

Patricia also has a tip for painting textured walls like hers. Buy a smooth-to-rough surface paint roller, then do 2-3 coats to make sure you cover all the surfaces evenly. It makes all the difference!

This is what Patricia has to say about her “new” bathroom:

I love that our bathroom now feels less narrow and dingy, and now brighter and friendlier. We don’t have great lighting in here (fixing that soon, hopefully), but painting the wall a much lighter color made such a big difference that I’m not in too much of a rush to fix the lighting fixtures now. I’m still in that honeymoon period when everything is just as I hoped it would be.

• Wall Paint: Behr Paint “Polar Bear” and Sherwin Williams “Ripe Olive”
• Wall-mounted Shelf: World Market
• Jute Runner Rug: Safavieh
• Cabinet Knobs & Hooks: World Market
• Shower Curtain: Target
• Laundry Basket: Home Goods

Thanks for sharing Patricia, and enjoy your new bathroom!