Low Low Under $100 Budget Master Bath Redo

When I say LOW BUDGET I mean LOW BUDGET.

I love before and afters of beautiful bathrooms and kitchens but folks, please.

Your $10,000 remodel of one room is not low budget. 

It is a project with a $10,000 price tag.

 Yes, I know you replaced all the fixtures and

 moved the tub and tiled everything. It is beautiful. 

But..

it is all a matter of perspective and I know the internet needs 

some projects that are truly way down in price.

Forthwith, I give you the low low budget cosmetic bathroom redo/refresh/upstyle for under $100.

Here is the AFTER.

This bathroom in our old mobile home needed some serious help.

Below is the before showing the new wall medicine cabinet built by

The Welding Man and the existing vanity.

The vanity, shower, flooring and commode were still serviceable, but the whole room needed an update.

BEFORE-

I used the ivy stencil everywhere in that house. Kitchen. Hallway. Bathrooms. 

The mixed mirrors decor just wasn't cutting it anymore.

And below is the old medicine cabinet. Yowza, what a beast!

But hey, is that a cheap $3 golden oak light fixture? That's a good start!

Here's the new room, four days and less than $100 later.

Loving it!

Step by step, here's what we did and spent-

$16 vanilla white semi gloss latex bathroom paint for walls and ceiling. Just do it.

$10 chocolate brown semi gloss latex paint for the vanity and all the woodwork, including the light.

$4 for two pine boards that we used for the mirror shelf and the high wall shelf.

$2 for metal shelf brackets.

$8 plate glass mirror from a contractor friend. Four foot by two foot.Total score!  

$10 bulls eye corner trim and flat boards to frame mirror.  Four foot by two foot.Total score! 

$8 light bulbs

$4 gloss brown spray paint

Total cash outlaid was about $62.

Everything else we used was from our stash. Including the raspberry colored towels which were still in perfect shape and didn't need replaced. And the textured wallpaper on the door of the medicine cabinet and the tall vase holding drieds on the mirror shelf. Here's a link to the story behind that vase.

http://makethebestofthings.blogspot.com/2016/02/vase-repair-with-wallpaper-yes.html

Below is another view of that wallpaper covered vase and

 the bulls eye corner blocks and framing around the mirror.

After all the painting was done and the shelving in place, it was fun to shop the house for all kinds of decor and knick knacks and baskets and art and STUFF. Glossy brown spray paint pulled it all together. 

Man, I LOVED the new look of that bathroom!

This is what I like...a project that comes together on a low budget

 with creative thinking and some clever restyles.

You know, until I can afford to spend thousands of dollars on a room project!

My next bathroom redo is in the works...with a vintage

 vacation/driftwood vibe and loads of fun details.

On a budget, of course!

Simple DIY Family Photo Gallery Hallway

I have always had a family photo gallery wall and I figured after four years in this house it was time to JUST DO IT. 

If you go to Pinterest or Google images or anywhere online looking for inspiration you could get bogged down with the overwhelming creativity and ideas. Trust me on this.

I know from experience that it is almost impossible to keep all the framed photos on a gallery wall straight. So frustrating! But we came up with this design a few years ago and we've been doing it this way ever since.

So we keep it simple and with a bare bones budget, really CHEAP. 

Like, less than $18 cheap.

Here's one end of our project. It's a GOOD start!

For this really simple gallery wall I chose three - 1" x 3" x 8' molding boards for $2 each. They are made of a lightweight wood, usually pine or poplar. It is important that you peer down the long side and make sure the boards you pick are STRAIGHT. Turn them over and look at them from all angles. This will make your project much much simpler, trust me on this. 

Then I had the lumber guy cut them off at 5', so I now had six pieces. Three five footers and three that were three foot long. The store will cut your lumber for free!

Just as important as the straight boards are the bulls eye  rosette blocks I got for each seam. They look just like what they are called and they are IMPORTANT to give your project visual interest and style.

I paid less than $2 apiece for the 6 blocks we needed. What a deal!

I painted all the boards and bulls eye blocks white before we put them up. I know in the photos they look unpainted but they are not.

We laid out our shelves based on the basic framed photo sizes we were using plus we had to work around a smoke detector and the furnace thermostat/controls. Measure twice and make sure your marks are accurate because now the fun stuff starts!

Use a level. Use a level. Use a level. I cannot emphasize this enough. Do it.

We used wood glue and our handy dandy favorite brad nailer to attach the boards to the wall. Easy. Simple. Accurate. And the nail gun makes a really satisfying 'kachunk' sound.

Kachunk! Yes, you can have a turn. 

You can also use regular nails or screws and just fill in any holes with wood filler when you're done.

And here you see how the bulls eye blocks give our gallery wall just a bit of punch and visual style. We staggered the joints on each run for some interest. And even though they look like plain wood here, the blocks and boards are all painted. Though if you choose to leave them plain or even paint them a fun color, that is up to you on your own wall!

I like this alot! There is room up there for dozens more framed photos!

Oooh aaaah. One of my favorite projects, EVER.

Did I mention the neat kachunk sound the brad nailer makes?

A family photo gallery wall doesn't have to be a huge complicated project. Keep it simple, keep it cheap and just DO IT.