Updating a ’90s Bathroom on a Budget of $600
We may earn money from the companies mentioned in this post.
It all started simply enough with baseboards. Easy enough. I wanted new, thicker baseboards along the floor in our downstairs bathroom to give it a slightly updated look. So, I naively began prying off the old baseboard–and accidentally took some laminate flooring with it; it was caulked together. Uh oh. Now we need new flooring. It’s hard to find laminate flooring rolls in 2022 because it’s outdated. Ok, we’ll fork over money for tile. Well, we can’t have beautiful tile floors with a ’90s vanity and sink. If we’re updating all that, why not repaint and update the lighting? Fine, we’ll paint and add modern lighting. Final plan: updating a ’90s bathroom…on a budget!
Cue the “updating a ’90s bathroom” montage music.
My sad, dingey-feeling downstairs bathroom pleaded for a makeover ever since we moved in. But it was just updated enough not to be “ugly,” so I decided to just ignore its sad pleas. Especially since the kitchen was desperately wailing out for help.
My “let’s-do-it” moment came that fateful day when we decided to pull up the border and inadvertently pulled up pieces of the linoleum floor with it. I’ve recently come to adore the white/black/natural look in Pinterest room makeovers, and I already had the powder room of my dreams in mind. One deterrent? A budget.
Here’s how events went down, and how we did this ’90s bathroom makeover on a $600 budget.
1. Updating a ’90s bathroom? Think thick, beautiful baseboard!
If I’ve learned anything from Generation Z, it’s that thick is beautiful. Nowhere is that more relevant than with baseboard molding. I recently visited my sister-in-law in her newish home that has nice, thick bordering along the floors and windows. As a zoomer might say, it was “thick AF.” I had to get some. A teensy little upgrade won’t hurt the budget, right?
2. Updating a ’90s bathroom mandates new flooring
After we accidentally ripped our ’90s laminate flooring, we knew flooring was in our future. We considered peel-and-stick, but we tried that 14 years ago in an old kitchen, and it tended to peel up at corners in places where the water hit. This is just a half-bath, so it probably wasn’t going to get too wet, but we didn’t want to take chances.
We decided on tile and spent way too many days floor-shopping to pick some out. Our original choice was a cute Spanish style from Lowe’s, but after laying it out on the floor in a trial run, we decided it looked like a casino floor. I could just envision myself with the stomach flu, hugging the toilet and wishing the kaleidoscope tiles would stop twirling. I decided to go with a more classic look that would age well with time; something that’d hopefully still be beautiful way down the road, lest anyone feel like they need to write an article about my bathroom in the future. It’d be called, ’20s bathroom makeover” and she’d probably write, “Eww, I can’t believe someone chose these tacky, loud tiles.”
Not a chance with these ivory/gray rectangular tiles. They’re beautiful, non-offending (I hope), and hopefully classic enough to last well into the 3000s, or at least the 2030s. At $2/tile they’re not a bad deal either.
3. Fresh, bright, paint
I was astounded and excited by the difference a fresh coat of paint made in my ’90s bathroom makeover. We used straight-outta-the-can bright white paint from Lowes in a satin tone. I can’t get over how fresh and clean the room feels. An especially welcome change considering the room was originally floral wall-papered, and then “upgraded” to ivory with a big, brown accent wall in the ’90s.
Yes, brown.
You might think bright white would be too stark without seeing it in real life, but the warm lighting still adds an element of coziness to the bathroom, if a bathroom can be called cozy. It’s a very small space, but no longer feels claustrophobic. Instead of doing your business and getting out, you wanna stay awhile and hang out.
4. A cute Glacier Bay bathroom vanity
We went back and forth on the vanity thing. I wanted to paint the cabinetry initially, but soon found it’d be hard to replace just the counter and sink for our vanity size of 37 inches. So, we found this 30.5 in” wide vanity and just accepted that there’d be a bit of space between the wall and vanity. Since we ripped out old backsplash tile, we had to re-sheetrock the wall and add texture via a can of Homax wall texture.
When we ran into this fun Glacier Bay vanity at Home Depot, I was sold.
It came with boring round, chrome, handles, and I once again took way too long to find pulls I wanted here. They needed to be substantial, like my kitchen pulls, and also go well with the $60 Pfister faucet I bought on Ebay. Why Pfister? I’ve bought one too many cheap bathroom faucets that’ve crapped out in my day, and will now gladly pay for the reputable brands now–Pfister, Delta, Moen, etc. Since I bought an open-box model on Ebay, it was a fantastic deal.
Back to the pulls. I finally found the pulls on Homedepot.com. Strangely, they’re not sold in stores. But they were worth the wait. Even when I received the wrong ones and had to return them for the correct style.
And check out the knobs, also from Liberty. I love how they’re not quite square, and not quite round. Perfect for the gal who can’t make up her mind about square vs round style knobs.
These Liberty Mandara collection pulls and knobs are now my favorite part of the bathroom (I love them in gold too, but my husband thought it’d look too glamorous). Even better than my thick baseboard.
6. DIY framed mirror
Have you seen the prices of mirrors lately? After reeling from the unexpected costs of updating a 90’s bathroom, I was ready to do whatever it takes to finish this job as cheap as possible. Rather than shell out $150 to Wayfair for a drop-dead-gorgeous mirror, we made a pretty cute mirror out of $3 pre-cut pieces of wood at Lowes. I stained it with walnut stain, gave a second coat of gray stain (I used what I had), and then two coats of water-based matte poly sealant. Then we gorilla-glued those bad boys onto the old mirror and and I love the way it turned out.
We unsuccessfully tried to cut the mirror with a cheap glass cutter. While it didn’t work and gave us a jagged, crooked, leftover mirror, we salvaged it by sanding the edges and covering the crookedness with our wood pieces made into a frame. Since we used the old mirror that hung with clips, we had to dig out grooves in the back of the wood to accommodate those clips.
7. ’90s bathroom makeover finale: wastebasket and accessories
If I thought the price of mirrors was shocking, then the price of accessories and decor really blew me away.
Enter ebay. Thanks to open-box items and the “make-offer” feature on some listings, I came out of the finale of the ’90s bathroom makeover experience financially unscathed. I nabbed a no-name black matte towel holder for a mere $12 with free shipping. The toilet paper holder was an open-box by Pfister for $21. I love how the borders of both of these match My Liberty hardware and Pfister faucet.
And the adorable natural-colored wastebasket? $22 or FREE to me after I utilized Target’s $40 off $40 purchase offer to new Target Redcard holders in May. They offer this deal every couple of months, so keep your eyes peeled if interested in that deal. I love how I can tuck the trash bag in under the wicker, so only the beautiful basket shows on the outside.
The basket and plant are a $5 find from Savers.
8. Bonus tip for updating a ’90s bathroom: discount Home Depot or Lowe’s gift cards
Maximize your savings when updating your ’90s bathroom on a budget by getting discount Lowe’s gift cards (new members get extra 15% off first purchase with code 15percent, maximum $20 discount) or utilizing Kroger’s x4 fuel points for Home Depot gift cards. Kroger’s gift card offers are plentiful over the summer–it seems like they’re on sale every weekend.
Whatcha think?
