This guy:
You saw the wall we were working on before we removed the awkward shelf and towel bar here:
And you saw it again after we spackled and sanded the fixture holes and painted:
Thanks to two small nails (the canvas is pretty lightweight), we hung a DIY painting I made a while back. I originally created it for the bedroom, but using it here ties the color into this bathroom without overpowering the bedroom. Because I used latex wall paint on the canvas—the same product you’d use on bathroom walls—it’s durable enough for this space. It was a lucky fit for this wall. With a ceiling-height shower curtain on the opposite side, an oversized piece on this wall adds balance and feels less intrusive than the old shelf and towel bar did.
The painting’s pattern doesn’t line up perfectly with the decorative tree border tile that wraps around the room; that tile is pretty busy. We plan to replace that border at some point with soft frosted white or gray glass subway tile, and when we do the whole room will read cleaner and more cohesive. The tree tile isn’t terrible, it just doesn’t reflect our style. Swapping it out will make the bathroom feel like ours.
Here’s an art detail shot. Ooh. Ahh.
One of the nicest surprises is how well the painting plays with our blue pendant light. The room shifted from feeling beige and builder-basic to feeling like our space.
And now for a light detail shot. Ooh. Ahh.
We still need to address a practical issue: the door rubs the floor grate, so it won’t open fully. “Remove the door, shave a sliver off the bottom, and rehung it” is on the to-do list. Once that’s done we can use a bath mat outside the tub without it getting scraped. Hurrah.
Speaking of the door, the trim around the window, the door trim, and the door itself used to be a beige off-white. Against bright white towels, a white shower curtain, and a white light switch, the trim read a little dingy. We prefer crisp white trim, so I painted it.
I used leftover semi-gloss white paint we already had. Two coats later and the trim is clean and bright—matching the towels, shower curtain, and switch. Victory.
Here’s the glossy, refreshed window trim.
From the doorway the room still looks largely the same since the art is tucked behind the door, but once you step inside the painting becomes the focal point.
This was a budget-friendly update: the painting was already on hand and the paint was leftover. No new purchases, just rearranging and finishing what we started. Below is the updated to-do list so you can see what’s next for this small bathroom refresh.
paint the walls so they have some contrastreplace the boob lightpaint the cream trim whitehang some bathroom-friendly art- sell the old toilet and replace it with a classic white model
- add some type of privacy solution to the window
- remove the door and trim the bottom so a rug or bath mat fits; add a door stopper so it doesn’t damage the art
- replace the border tile around the room (maybe in a second phase)
- recenter the blue pendant light so it hangs in front of the window
- replace or update the floor tile eventually to break up the large expanse of tile
So that’s the latest on our inexpensive bathroom update. Have you done any quick, low-cost bathroom upgrades lately—painted trim, hung art, or made a large canvas to add color to a small room?
Psst—if you want to follow this bathroom project from the beginning, look for earlier posts that cover the planning, painting, and light swap.