All round creative junkie

Your bathroom is one of the smallest rooms in your home, but can be one of the biggest expenses. It’s not a task many of us can take on ourselves, we need plumbers, plasterers, electricians and tilers. A simple refit with no redesigning can run into thousands without even trying.

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With the average spend of a new bathroom around £4,500, and even a budget bathroom coming in at £2,500, it’s something a lot of us put off doing. There are ways you can inject your personality into your new bathroom however and keep the costs to a minimum.

With my new bathroom I think I’ve created a modern, quirky space with a bit of upcycling, a lick of paint and a few money saving tips I got myself a brand new bathroom for under £1,800. I’ve listed a few ways to save money on your new bathroom showing you how I did it along the way.

Before – we lived with this for 11 years and only realised how bad it was once we updated it!

Get hands-on
If you’re prepared to do a bit of the work yourself, this can save you the biggest pot of money. Don your overalls, strip the room (not to be confused with stripping in the room!) and do your own painting, you could even tackle the tiling if you’re feeling brave. You can save money by clearing your bathroom away yourself, a few trips to the recycling centre will save you on skip fees.

Upcycling
My sink cabinet was a Gumtree bargain at just £10, then repainted by mixing Rust-Oleum Furniture Gloss paints to get the exact shade of grey to coordinate with the floor. The sink iteslf was also a great find for £40 from a local selling Facebook group, still boxed and perfect, just a wrong order for the previous owner. The plumber then retrofitted the tap and pipes.

The old rusty bin was transformed with Rust-Oleum Painter’s Touch spray paint in Real Orange. See how I did it here.

The windowsill is a my favourite find though. An old school science lab bench sourced from GWK Woodshed was restored and cut to fit the width of the room slotting into the window gaps and adds warmth to the white tiled room. I then added in few accessories that I already owned which now fit perfectly, adding a lotions and potions feel.

Shop second-hand
You can fit out your entire bathroom second hand if you know where to look. Search Gumtree, your local Facebook groups, Freegle, Preloved etc. People sell entire suites, wrong order sinks, left over tiles.

Bargain hunt
Think end of range, discount shops and direct manufacturer sales. My flooring is made from sustainable rubber tiles, these are normally around £35-50 per metre, but they were sourced as an end of line range direct from the manufacturer, Dalhaus, for just £10 per metre. Bathrooms are generally small spaces so you can make a big saving by looking for remnants of tiles, lino or cork.

The matt white tiles were half the price of the larger equivalent, so if you’re prepared to be flexible on sizes and shape you can get a much cheaper version that looks just as good. Mine were from Topps Tiles and as they are matt they don’t show drips and water marks! Win Win!!

The main fittings in the bathroom were purchased from The Plumb Center through my plumber, so we saved money that way rather than buying direct, using his trade discount.

The final result

I’m really pleased with the end result and can’t believe how light and bright my bathroom now is.

I think you can achieve a high end result on a budget if you thinking creatively and get a little hands-on yourself.

I was lucky enough to be featured recently in Style at Home magazine, I’ll be writing about my other rooms soon so watch this space.

 

Disclaimer: Rust-Oleum kindly provided me with the paints for the sink cabinet and orange bin.