Bathroom Update for less than $60

Once upon a time, we walked into a gorgeous, spotlessly clean house. Then we bought it. Then it started falling apart.

The reason it was spotlessly clean is because it was freshly painted and then no one lived here. So when we began, you know, living in our house, that paint didn't hold up too well. It turns out it was a matte finish, which shows every. single. smudge. And the whole house is painted in it. Short of buying stock in Mr. Clean's Magic Erasers and driving myself crazy with constant wall cleaning, painting seemed like the best option. But in most spaces, I've hung photos and placed furniture and y'all, I just don't want to paint my whole dang house.

But the bathroom. Oh, the bathroom. It's our only full bathroom upstairs, and it's in the hall, so visitors use it too. We have a lot of little ones through here, and well, they just aren't that great at washing their hands yet. Or at least my little ones aren't. So we had a huge swath of area under the light switch which was a lovely shade of almost-washed-off-dirt. Regardless of how many Magic Erasers I used, it was tinted from all my scrubbing.

Before

So one day, I snapped.

I went to Lowe's, taped two paint chips on the wall for a week, returned to Lowe's, and purchased a gallon of Valspar paint in Lei Flower ($36 before a $10 rebate I'm still waiting on). I also bought an edging tool. I cleaned and taped and cleared out the bathroom. I use Dollar Tree shower curtain liners as drop cloths, so I laid those down.

Then I put on some tunes, and painted.

And painted.

And painted.

I was extremely sweaty and my playlist was just about out of music, but I was finally finished.

Oh, and all of this took place in a single day while my oldest was at Kindergarten and my youngest got to have way more than usual TV time.

After showering and lunching with my youngest, we headed to the car pick up line so he could nap. We picked up big brother, and headed to Target for a new shower curtain.

Lei Flower was a little brighter than I anticipated, and my butterfly shower curtain (purchased at least 14 years ago) was just a little too feminine paired with it. But I knew a nice gray would even it out, and wouldn't you know I'd just seen a gorgeous shower curtain at Target the other day and it was currently 20% off?

After!

Total Cost:
Paint- $36
Edging tool: $3
Shower Curtain: $14
Tiny Paintbrush- $1

I already had painting supplies like rollers, brushes, a paint tray, my Dollar Store drop cloths, and my trusty painter's tape.

After

I'm not totally done; I'd like to paint the vanity a gray to match the shower curtain and frame out the mirror. It turns out, life isn't like an HGTV show. The whole project doesn't always get done in one go. We were able to do this small project by doing just part of it, and now I don't cringe when I walk into the bathroom. Now walking into my bathroom makes me happy, instead of stressing me out. And that makes the work and expense totally worth it.