When Totty sent us photos of her almost unbelievable bathroom makeover, we had to share the impressive transformation. Below is her note describing the project and the choices she and her husband made to bring the dated space up to date.
My husband and I are lifelong Richmond residents and have followed your blog for years. We recently finished renovating our bathroom and wanted to share some photos. This room had two makeovers in four years: it hadn’t been updated since the 1960s, and after a poor job by a tile installer we hired the first time, we ended up redoing it again this summer. I wrote the full story on my own blog, but here’s the short version.
Because we were on a tight budget, we chose to hire a contractor only for the re-tiling work—re-tiling the shower and floor was beyond our comfort level. We interviewed several contractors and selected one we trusted. My husband and I handled the rest of the tasks ourselves: painting, replacing the window trim, updating the lighting, and doing the electrical work. For the shower and floor, we used an inexpensive bone-colored basic tile from Home Depot, and we picked up the shower floor tile on clearance from Mosaic Tile.
The wall paint is Valspar from Lowe’s in Natural WV37001, and the wallpaper is a commercial-grade pattern called Wolf-Gordon Wave in Champagne. For storage, we used Ikea boxes that came with white terry cloth covers; I bought a half yard of fabric from Williams and Sherrill and used a staple gun to recover the boxes. Those reupholstered storage bins may be my favorite part of the whole makeover. I hope you enjoy the reveal as much as we do.
Here’s the dated-looking before shot:
(Before photo)
And the amazing after photos:
(After photos)
The difference is striking. The room went from feeling stuck in the 1960s to modern, calm, and thoughtfully designed—all while staying budget conscious. A few key choices made a big impact:
- Practical tile selections: Choosing basic, neutral tile for the walls and sourcing the shower floor tile on clearance kept costs down without sacrificing the overall look.
- Do-it-yourself finishing: By doing the paint, trim, lighting, and electrical work themselves, Totty and her husband were able to allocate budget to the trades work they couldn’t handle, like re-tiling.
- Small custom touches: Recovering Ikea storage boxes with a simple piece of fabric and a staple gun created a custom, cohesive look for very little money.
- Balanced materials and color: The combination of a soft, neutral wall paint and a subtle, commercial-grade wallpaper behind the sink provides texture and interest without overwhelming the space.
The result is a polished bathroom that reads far more expensive than the actual cost of many of the materials. The wallpaper behind the sink adds a refined backdrop, while the re-covered storage bins introduce a personal, handmade quality that keeps the room from feeling overly retail or impersonal.
If you’re planning a bathroom update, Totty’s experience highlights several helpful takeaways: know when to hire professionals (for specialized work like tiling), do the finish work you can handle yourself to save money, and use small, affordable details—like recovered storage or a well-chosen wallpaper—to elevate the finished space.
We love how this project balances budget awareness with style. Which detail stands out to you most: the reupholstered storage bins or the subtle wallpaper behind the sink? Feel free to share your thoughts and favorite elements of this renovation.