Are you getting a few necessary projects done around the house this week? This is a great time to check those home projects off your list. These may be cleaning, organizing, minor repairs, or completely refreshing a room that’s needed attention for some time. The kids bathroom was one of those projects in our house. See how I gave this bathroom a refresh for under $170.
The kids bathroom hasn’t been painted since we moved our house 18 years ago. I think we’ve painted every other room in the house at least twice, some 3 and 4 times, but I never felt the need to update the muslin color in this room.
I admit that this isn’t a huge bathroom makeover. It’s just a few little updates to make it feel clean and refreshed. And when you add up all of the little changes (paint, mirror, towels, curtain, knobs), it’s nice little bathroom update for the kids bath.
This was the year this bathroom started to bother me. I started noticing the pink and blue fish cabinet knobs were a little childish for my high school and college-age kids. The gold framed artwork over the toilet didn’t coordinate with any of the other metals in the room. And there was some missing trim around the shower that’s been hidden by the shower curtain.
Individually, these were all pretty minor, but the sum of them really started to erk me. So it was time for an update.
The room was originally painted Muslin, a Martha Stewart color. Since I never tired of the off-white color and it coordinated well with the creamy off-white cabinet, I decided to stay with a similar color, but one that was a little whiter and brighter. This time I went with Cloud White by Benjamin Moore.
At first, I used the same custom-mixed white from our upstairs hallway and master bedroom. I love this color. It’s a clean winter-white. Not too yellow and not too gray. But when I used it on the south-east side of the house that gets tons of sunlight, that same white looked really yellow. I couldn’t believe the difference in the color. Cloud White was a much better option for this room because it a bit whiter.
The goal of this project, was to refresh the bathroom. I wanted to recycle as many things in the room as I could, but still get a new look.
The project began by emptying out the room. I decided to re-use the large mirror from over the sink and paint it a Dark Royal blue from Benjamin Moore. The project only took about an hour. I was pretty impatient and applied 3 coats, one right after the other, of Benjamin Moore’s Regal paint in the Pearl finish.
The blue frame coordinates with this sign and frame I created for the kids years ago.
I also painted the gold framed picture hanging over the toilet. I think the dark blue coordinates much better with the blue in the picture.
Next up was a new dark blue shower curtain. I purchased two shower curtains on Amazon HERE for only $20. These have a small waffle texture. One of the curtains was used for the shower. The other was cut and made into a two window panels – a much less expensive option than buying yards of fabric.
TIP: Over the years I purchased several sets of more expensive silver shower curtain hooks, but they all rusted. THESE white plastic hooks work just as well, glide easily, and don’t rust!
The kids bathroom never had it’s own set of towels. The kids always used mis-matched towels – some were my towels from college (many, many moons ago) but most were the summer beach towels.
Towels seem to last forever in our house. They’re one of those household items, that are so useful, I could never get myself to be wasteful and throw them away.
I decided I really wanted to give the kids a few new towels though. So I purchased five bath towels and 4 hand towels brand new from Target. Believe it or not I shopped all the stores to find towels I really liked – Macys, Kohls, JC Penny, Bed Bath & Beyond. But I really liked the Threshold towels from Target. They were the perfect blue to match the shower curtain, oversized, soft, absorbent, and just the right thickness so they would dry fairly quickly in the dryer. And the price was nice too.
My original plan to to purchase a new towel rack, hooks, and paper holder, but I’m so glad I opted to re-use our original hardware. They’re in perfect condition and hardware is pretty expensive. I would have easily spent another $100 on them.
Instead, knowing I wanted more hooks for the kids to hang their towels, I purchased two more matching hooks. You can find these hooks on Amazon HERE.
Finally, I had to consider the fish knobs on the cabinet. Re-use or replace? The pink absolutely had to go so I tried painting them dark blue. But my kids vetoed them. They didn’t care for the dark knobs on the white cabinet.
So I hopped onto D.Lawless Hardware and chose a square satin nickel Webber knob. They’re a hefty, weighted knob that coordinate with the door handle. D.Lawless Hardware always seems to have a huge selection and great sales. These were only $1.95 each.
Love these knobs! They also come in a beautiful champagne bronze. Even though there wasn’t a huge transformation in this bathroom, it now feels clean, coordinated, and updated.
Shop this room:
shower curtain hooks // towel hooks // towel // square satin nickel knob // waffle shower curtain // glass soap dispenser // basket trash bin // Chenille Bath Mat
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links
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