Inexpensive Blue Bathroom Makeover

I’ve been talking about this makeover on Facebook but it’s time to fill you in here too! My friend Kristen lives in our neighborhood and has a very aggressively blue bathroom. She mentioned it one time and I asked for pictures. Here it is now,

Come see what we did to make this outdated blue tiled bathroom charming and more modern! | House Homemade

But, spoiler alert, she was right. It’s very, very blue.

I should mention on Kristen’s behalf that she just transferred all the decor from the bathroom at their old house.

Through the blog I love to show you how to work with what you’ve got. I said it in my bathroom makeover and I’ll say it over and over again. You can love your spaces right now. Not after a gut job or a new house. but, right now. #contentment That’s not to say there is anything wrong with those things, just saying if you can’t do those things, you can more easily work toward this.

Does Kristen have her dream bathroom? No. But does she feel happy when she walks by and it’s so cheery and less blue? Yes! Let’s talk about what we did. *this post contains affiliate links.

First thing. When you’re faced with an older house’s dated “charm”, you have to be very careful with colors you pick. Some shade of white can be the safest bet. For the walls I chose Sherwin Williams ‘White Heron”. It’s pretty light but has a warmer undertone to subtly help with the tone of the floors. Go here for my tips for picking paint.

We painted the vanity a fun color Sherwin Williams “Moscow Midnight” (sounds like a spy movie). Here’s the chalk paint recipe I use. Sample sized paint at Sherwin Williams is my go-to for projects like this. They are around $5 and we still a ton of paint left. I mix chalk paint because, to me, it sticks a lot better and goes on a lot smoother.You have to seal it with poly, we used this. It’s an easy added layer of protection.

To help the space feel larger and less busy, we painted the tall cabinet to blend in with the walls. There is no rule about cabinetry having to match. I’m always more concerned with making a space look as open as possible. Plus, outdated cabinets are not the boss of you.

We covered up the sky blue laminate counters with marble contact paper. YES!! I’ve seen tons of blog posts (here’s one) about people doing this in their kitchens and bathrooms all the time. Then, they post updates about how great it still looks months and months later (like 18 months +). Concrete feather finish was an option to but because Kristen was willing, I thought we could try out something different in here.

It was easy! I went a little too fast around the edges of the sink and cut a little wide but they have plans to caulk the seams so it will look awesome. I know this seems like an iffy idea but here’s the thing. She hated the blue. Even if these have to be replaced every year, it was $12 of contact paper and 30 minutes of time. TOTALLY WORTH IT.

I found this pretty print on etsy that worked so well to pull the colors together. You purchase the rights to download, then we sent it to Staples to print. $7 to download, $1 to print.

Tip for printing your own art. I asked them to print it on an 11×17 piece of paper (it’s an 11×14 frame) but I asked for the art to be printed as a 5×7. If you dont ask for it to be smaller, they will fill the page and the picture looks crammed. This way it has a border around it and looks more professional.

Over the toilet we used old frames and I quickly drew a bobby pin (for their daughter) and 2 combs (for their two sons). Just a cute little way to personalize the space.