When you hear the words “bathroom” and “remodel” put together in the same sentence, you might imagine high price tags and weeks of construction. But not all bathroom remodel ideas are created equal when it comes to time and money. You can make a big change in your bathroom by making small, targeted changes in specific areas. For example, putting in new light fixtures can give the room an entirely new look and feel, and you don’t have to change anything else in the room to make it feel fresh. Here are some bathroom remodel ideas that target specific parts of the room that can allow you to revamp your home without spending too much in vain.
1. Use Lower-Cost Lookalike Materials
Retaining and refurbishing your existing materials is always the best option for saving money. But if you must swap out materials, inexpensive alternatives often can look amazingly like the real thing. For example, instead of real wood plank flooring, try luxury vinyl flooring. Today’s vinyl flooring looks far better than earlier iterations. Innovations such as luxury vinyl flooring and plank vinyl can even fool the eye from a distance. High-definition laminate countertops and quartz countertops now vie with granite for the look of authentic natural stone. Faux-stone ceramic and porcelain tile backsplashes can mimic the look of travertine and marble.
2. Paint Your Wooden Floor
If your bathroom happens to have a wooden floor, you can rip it out and replace it with a more moisture-hardy flooring, such as tile. Or you can save time, energy, and money by keeping your wooden floor and painting it with protective enamel. Keep in mind, though, that solid hardwood should not be your first choice for bathroom flooring. But if you already do have wooden floors, this is one low-cost way to keep them around for as long as possible.
3. Refinish Your Tub Instead of Replacing It
Consider total replacement of your bathtub to be your last possible option, at least from a cost-saving standpoint. Instead, try relining or refinishing. Bathtub and shower refinishing is a prime example of the dictum “Repair and retain rather than remove.” If the problem is mainly cosmetic, such as a yellowed surface and some cracks and nicks, you can refinish your shower or bathtub. Alternatively, bathtub and shower liners, never a permanent fix, are not as affordable as they seem. Requiring professional installation, liners will carry you through a few years. Bathtub refinishing, instead, is more inexpensive and often looks better.
4. Refresh Cabinets With New Hardware
Buying and installing new bathroom cabinets can get expensive. A far easier and more affordable way to bring life to your existing cabinets is to strip out the old hardware and replace it with fun new hardware. To make the process even easier, before you buy the new hardware, make sure that its screw alignment matches up with the holes on your existing cabinets. This eliminates the need to drill new holes.
5. Install a New Sink Faucet
As with installing new hardware on cabinets, installing a new sink faucet is one trick designers and do-it-yourselfers alike use to make a sink sparkle without replacing the entire top or vanity.
6. Install Your Own Toilet
Plumbers are worth their weight in gold. But if you have the strength to carry a toilet, avoid calling in a plumber to switch out the old toilet. Instead, install your toilet by yourself. Toilet installation involves very few waterline hookups. The hardest part of installing a toilet is physically moving the toilet into place. For that, buy an inexpensive hand truck or enlist the services of a friend.
