9 Tricks How to Quickly Update an Old Bathroom
When You Cannot Afford Expensive Bathroom Remodeling
Chic bathroom mirror, a pot of orchid flowers and white contemporary blinds work well for any bathroom.
Bathrooms are among the most expensive rooms to renovate. The cost is magnified by removing old tiling, moving plumbing around the area, as well as costs of new tiling, bathroom furniture and accessories.
What if your budget is microscopic, and your bathroom hurts your eyes?
Do not despair, you can turn it into quite an excellent room, a statement of your courage and creativity. At least, till the day you will be able to afford a proper bathroom renovation.
Bathroom Tiles from the 60s, 70s or 80s
These tiles in pastel shades of blue, pink, green mint? Yes, they are perfectly en vogue now, but only if the bathroom has been recently renovated. In old bathrooms they don’t look chic, they just look dated.
1. Be Bold With Wall Colour
So, if you have dated bathroom tiles, try to juxtapose them against bold colours of the walls, and maybe the ceiling. Don’t be scared – if you don’t like the paint, you can paint the walls again in another colour.
For pink tiles, I would consider painting the walls with dark charcoal grey colours, such as Colorbond Ironstone. Or you can try painting them with shades of eggplant.
Pale blue tiles will look well surrounded by greyish navy colours. If the blue of your tiles has green undertones, choose a dark grey-navy-teal paint. For neutral blues, pick a dark greyish navy with no purple or green undertones. For purplish blue tiles, pick a dusty grey-charcoal-violet–navy paint.
For green tiles – choose a very dark green in the same tone. Warm green – warm dark green. Cold green – cold very dark green.
Always remember to buy paints suitable for bathrooms. I prefer non-shiny paints, but it may be difficult to achieve for paints for wet areas. Get good advice as to the type of paint suitable for your bathroom. Don’t forget to do paint tests.
2. Dress That Bathroom Window
My favourite way of making the bathroom window look modern is to install white horizontal blinds with wide slats.
You can also hang up plain white sheer curtain and tie it in the middle (not on the side) of the window. Tie it with a colourful scarf that includes shades of your tiles. The brighter the better. Now is not the time to be “beige” in your decorating, you want to give the bathroom an uplift.
3. Mirror, Mirror on the Wall – Are You the Ugliest of Them All?
Bathroom mirror in silver and gold frame with matching bathroom accessories on feature tiles.
Bathroom cabinet mirrors are something I hate with passion. Yes, I understand they are practical for being mirrors, storage spaces and makeup light – but they look plain ugly. Get rid of your bathroom mirror cabinet, and replace it with a large wall mirror in a thick and rich frame. My favourite ones are in ornate silver frames.
Remember these frames are easy to paint, and repaint – and you can play with your bold colours here. For example, you can paint the frame of the mirror white, and paint some elements with the same bold colours you have on the bright scarf tying your white curtain. This way you will have the window and the mirror connected visually.
4. Artwork on the Bathroom Wall
Pick a bold poster from an op-shop, or find one you like on ebay or etsy, get it framed and hang it on the wall. If you can, avoid drilling through tiles. Hang your poster on the non-tiled walls, or for hanging on tiles use good quality, super strong self-adhesive hooks. Make sure your poster is not too heavy if you don’t have strong hooks drilled in the walls. Broken glass is particularly dangerous in bathrooms.
5. Put a Vase or Decorative Sculpture on the Bathroom Shelf
If you have space on a shelf or window sill, put some modern vase or two there. I often find a combination of two pieces visually pleasing. They may be the same, or visually related by being the same colour, or the same texture, or two very opposite pieces that complement each other. Homewares shops are full of contemporary decoration pieces these days.
6. Update Your Bathroom Towels
People often buy towels with minimal attention. And yet, for years we look at these towels every time we enter our bathroom.
Retire your old towels to the spare shelf of your linen cabinet.
Invest TIME, and some money, to buy a set of towels that you will enjoy seeing in your bathroom every day.
7. Add a Potted Plant to Your Bathroom Decoration
Nothing enlivens a space more than a real living plant or a bunch of flowers. Some plants are better suited to dark and humid spaces than others. Hence the popularity of orchids, which in a typical bathroom will lie well and they will require minimal maintenance. As with any indoor potted plants, ensure the pots have plates underneath to allow excess water escape the pot, and to protect your bathroom surface from spills.
8. Or a Vase of Flowers – or just Leaves against Your Bathroom Wall
Elegant look of Clivia leaves in our renovated bathroom.
You can keep a cute small bunch of flowers in your bathroom. My favourite decoration is just a vase of green leaves. Clivia leaves work well for me, but you can choose whatever is available to you. Make sure the leaves are of a type that doesn’t drop too soon.
If you live in an area of plenty of palm trees, small palm leves will look great in any bathroom. It can be just two or three twigs, or, if you have a large bathroom, you can place an impressive vase full of palm leaves there.
You can even use a few twigs of a tree in your bathroom arrangement. They will work wonders for your instant bathroom remodeling.
Once you got more comfortable with floral and greenery arrangements for your bathroom, you will be able to start mixing and matching them. They are easy mixes, most of the time just about any arrangement of flowers, leaves and twigs will look great in most bathrooms. If your bathroom looks dated, bringing contemporary and brave floral, or just plain greenery, arrangements will make your bathroom look modern and updated.
9. Chandelier in Your Bathroom
Be bold with lighting in your bathroom. Change that old ceiling light and get it replaced with a chandelier or ceiling light you will enjoy looking at every time you take a shower. I love adding crystal chandeliers to bathrooms, they bring reflections of light and the instant feel of luxury to my favourite space.
One word of caution regarding bathroom lights and chandeliers: make sure they are of the type suitable for bathroom spaces and you should get them installed by a certified electrician. They will ensure the safety and proper distance from sources of water and other bathroom hazards.
SUMMARY: There are plenty of little things you can do to dramatically improve the look of your bathroom. You don’t need to implement all of them, choosing just a few things to change will make a significant difference.
I have not included painting bathroom tiles or your bath tub in our list of recommendations for a very strong reason. Many times have I seen such painting to look cheap, unprofessional, and the results not lasting for a long time. On the other hand, old tiles, baths and washbasins are frequently of good old quality and you can see solid craftsmanship there. I would recommend you work with them and modernise other elements, so that you can have a very fashionable retro-modern bathroom.
Happy Redecorating
Xena
P.S. Send me Before and After photos of your bathrooms.
