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Hi,
We are starting our first internal reno work on our shower room, with a limited budget.
The room is small, old and a moldy and needs some real TLC.
We'd appreciate any advice on how to approach this task.
I've just replaced the showerhead and need to get the walls and surfaces sorted out.
Thanks
Hello @Whiteley71,
Many thanks for your question on refreshing your shower room. There are so many ways you can transform this space. I'm sure our resident D.I.Y. expert @EricL will be happy to suggest a few methods as soon as he can. In the meantime, let me tag some of our other helpful Workshop members @homeinmelbourne, @Renowayoflife and @Alyce_Pham to see if they have any suggestions.
While waiting, I recommend having a look at these 10 ways to transform your bathroom in case they spark any ideas. Experienced Workshop member @Adam_W's guide How to plan a bathroom renovation might also contain some relevant advice.
Good luck for this exciting project and we look forward to seeing the final result.
Akanksha
HI @Whiteley71 how exciting! Congrats for taking on this project, it will be life changing as it can feel so frustrating when you're not happy with a space.
You mentioned you're on a limited budget so I'm assuming you're not planning to gut your bathroom but instead cosmetically update?
If that's the case then the first thing you will want to do is to clean the mold. You will need to determine if you need to remedy a leak or if it's just years of a poorly ventilated bathroom that's caused the mold. If it's the latter and you don't want to replace the walls and ceiling I would suggest the following
- using bleach diluted in water to wash down your walls and ceiling to kill the mold. I usually go back over it with clove oil diluted in warm water, this smells amazing and helps to block mold from growing back.
- You can also use a steamer to clean the grout lines and the tiles, make sure to get one with the smaller attachments.
- To update the bath and shower combo you can paint the bath
- I would also paint the floor and wall tiles to freshen them up. Take a look at the Dulux renovation range to pick your colour. You can also stencil the floortiles to create a fun custom finish.
- Change out the taps and shower head to freshen them up
- Re silicone around the bathtub
Vanity
- I'm not sure If you plan to keep the vanity but you could always update the look by painting the cabinet and you could get really creative with the doors by nailing on wood slats or cutting out the arch with a jig saw and gluing a some material onto ply and attaching them to the cut out on the inside.
- You could also replace it with an upcycled cabinet and finish it with a varnish and stain or paint and add a mounted sink.
Walls
- Make sure to prime the walls and ceiling before painting. You may want to look at the Dulux wash and wear for kitchens and bathrooms for your finish coat.
You may also want to explore replacing the extractor to ensure it's working efficiently.
Hope this helps 
Happy renovating
Claire xx
Hello @Whiteley71
It's great that you've received excellent advice from @Renowayoflife. The recommendations made are spot on, a cosmetic update will not cost you a great deal and if done properly will give your bathroom a fresh new look. I suggest having a quick look at this featured discussion - 80s bathroom refresh using paint by @Liselotte78. This is an excellent example of what you can achieve using paint.
Here are some fantastic painted tile projects our Workshop members have shared.
- Toilet makeover with tile paint by @januaryrevival
- Painted bathroom tiles by @Ari
- Budget bathroom makeover with painted bath and tiles by @raceytrace
- Ensuite revamp using tile paint by @stelz
Here is a link to our best advice on painting tiles: Can you paint bathroom tiles?
The only other thing that I would recommend having fixed or upgraded is your heat, light fan combo. One of the main causes of mould and mildew infestation and is poor ventilation. The trapped moisture sits inside the bathroom making it an ideal environment for mould to grow. I suggest having a look at the Click 3-In-1 Bathroom Heat Lamp. It should be powerful enough to clear out the moisture generated by your shower.
Please keep us updated with your progress, we look forward to seeing the start of your revamp.
If you have any other questions we can help with, please let us know.
Eric
Hi @Whiteley71 and thanks for the tag @Akanksha
Congratulations @Whiteley71 on taking on your first internal project! Bathrooms can definitely seem over whelming, but a bit of TLC and cosmetic changes can make a huge difference!
As the others have mentioned, getting the mould issue sorted would be my first step as you don't want mould to resurface again down the track and ruin all your hard work.
Once that is sorted, I'd highly recommend checking out the Dulux renovation range (available at Bunnings of course!). The range is amazing, and I used it myself to completely refresh my tired and dark ensuite. The renovation range includes a variety of paints that can be used for painting wall tiles, cabinetry and even the floor tiles! I'd highly recommend painting the walls a nice fresh white as it will make the space feel much bigger and give it a nice and fresh feeling.
From there you could possibly look at adding a mirror and some shelving or hooks to the wall opposite the bath to help keep the space organised and practical.
Happy to answer any other questions you may have or feel free to check out my ensuite renovation which I managed to achieve on a limited budget as well
Goodluck!
Alyce
Hi @Whiteley71 You should be able to pick it up at Woolies or coles or a pharmacy, anywhere that sells essential oil.
You don't need a whole lot - you can also order it from Amazon so you could shop around and check the price
Use a quarter teaspoon of clove oil per litre of water, put it in a spray bottle, lightly mist on the mouldy surface. Leave for 20 minutes and wipe off. Spray again and leave. It will take between 24-48 hours for the mould spores to dry and drop off.
I hope this helps
Hello,
Once you have removed the mould & mildew, (exit mould sprayed, then wiped with a damp cloth sprayed with exit mould, leave it for an hour or so, then wipe with a clean damp cloth), you can re-paint with Bathroom mould resistant paint. White always good idea for small rooms, it looks clean and bright and makes small spaces look bigger too.If you buy un-tinted white base paint, it will be the same colour as ceilings, so no cutting in required.
Do you use your bath much? If you have showers more often.. While you mentioned you had a small budget, you could save some money by buying secondhand or change of mind/surplus fixtures off Marketplace, like the Shower head with a gooseneck, and wall mounted vanity, frameless glass shower screen heavily discounted price off Facebook Marketplace.
And keep looking on Marketplace and the local Buy & Sell Groups, and Gumtree until you find the right things at the right price, buying 1 or 2 at a time each pay, (& selling anything you no longer use in your garage, and with the current trend of de-cluttering, there's a lot around for free or for a low cost, projects that didn't go ahead, surplus Reno Materials, leftover tiles, etc are available for a small cost. It allows you to buy a little at a time around as budget permits. Bathroom fixtures, vanity in vgc
To save money, you can paint existing tiles or re-grout with a contrast Black Grout or add a row of feature tiles in a texture or contrast colour.
Or to save the mess, you can tile over the existing tile with a waterproof membrane and a Plywood sheet cut to size over the existing wall tiles, screwed to the wall studs over tiles, so the new tiles have a level surface and a waterproof membrane (available as a paint on product too)
If you want to paint the existing tile, you must use a Tile Primer first. Then you can paint with mould resistant interior paint.
You can get the existing bath re-coated, but this is best a job for professionals for a new surface that will last, (you could check with a Bunnings Team member if this bath. You could use tile Primer and after it's had a few days to dry and cure, to spray paint the existing bath tub for the best finish with a can of spray paint
Or if this is your only bathroom, it's a good idea to stay you need to get this Bathroom
You can buy a secondhand bath for a lot less than the cost of resurfacing the existing bath though. The plastic baths are easily scratched, so best to look at ceramic bath tubs, or porcelain or the old claw foot cast iron bath tubs.
The wall hung vanities will make your bathroom look bigger, but it does pay to be a bit flexible on a tight budget, when you find a great deal on a secondhand materials, like bathroom vanity, sink with taps,
Or, instead by removing the bath altogether, we had room for a much larger frameless glass shower screen.
We bought the brand new shower screen kit for a third of the new price off Facebook Marketplace. And the new (to us) IKEA vanity was a bargain.
Keep looking on Marketplace until you find the right things at the right price, buying 1 at a time as budget permits, or using Afterpay or Zip pay.
You can get at least 3 quotes and reviews by other customers too, if you add your bathroom tiling & waterproofing the walls, or grout removed on your existing tiles - and changed to white grout for a lighter brighter look, or once you have found a new bathtub or got a quote to resurface the green bathtub in white professionally
A vanity is much easier to remove and replace in the same day.
But if you want to remove the bathtub, and re-tile the floors and walls and fit a new bath, with qualified Tradies - This is a free service on serviceseeking.com.au for any kind of Tradies, with several quotes which can vary a lot.
Add photos and the dimensions of your floor and each wall, with the dimensions of your window too. The width and height of each wall too, and you can post the job (for a Tiler or plumber) once you have the new vanity, you need to turn the water off at the mains first to DIY the replacement of the vanity, sink and taps, and if you want to do any replacement of Bathroom fixtures and re-tiling, or even removing the grout and regrouting your existing tiles.
If/when you remove the bath it's a good idea to stay somewhere else unless you have another Bathroom. Our bathroom took 1 week to finish, with the demo (removing the bath, vanity and tiles, we did ourselves over one weekend), the waterproofing, replacing old terracotta pipes for PVC pipes, and the new tiling took 5 days, and the new vanity was put up by the plumber on the Saturday and my Husband put up the glass frameless shower screen, and the new make up mirror was up on the Sunday. 8 days from start to finish.
Or you can do it in smaller steps like the vanity replaced, and try painting the existing bath tub with tile-primer paint and then (watch a few videos on spraypainting to get the best finish) and sand then spray the existing bath.
If you are not happy with the finish, you have only spent small cost.
Get at least 3 quotes to remove the bathtub and replace it with a new modern bathtub or claw foot tub, or you can install a frameless glass shower screen onto a tiled shower floor or directly onto a Mondella Shower base.
Take a look at the difference at the before & after by removing the bathtub, and adding a large 1200x 900mm Shower.
Instead by replacing the old freestanding vanity with a wall hung bathroom vanity.
It makes the bathroom look bigger when you can see all the way to the wall.. And black & white tiles/white paint, doesn't date..
Finding budget plain white tiles, we tiled floor to ceiling, and contrasting dark charcoal floor tiles & white walls, and a feature vertical small tile in the shower screen gave the visual extra height in the bathroom. Or you could do a border horizontal Textured or feature tiles.
We paid a tiler to waterproof & tile the bathroom, floor to ceiling, using the cheapest square white tiles but you could also paint the bathroom walls to save money.
After we removed the old shower, and the chocolate brown bath and the old vanity but you can save money if you are confident & watch DIY videos here..
We Renovated a dated 1960's Bathroom with a dark brown bath and a small shower to look a lot more spacious bathroom, done on a small budget
Hard to believe it's the same Bathroom!
We did this budget bathroom Reno 11 years ago, and it still hasn't dated. You can do your bathroom renovation in stages,
I would start with painting the walls and ceiling in un-tinted white base paint, in mould resistant wet area paint. And removing the vanity with a wall mounted vanity or freestanding, you can change the handles & taps if you find one for a bargain you want to upcycle to give it a makeover.
Building regulations require a waterproofing membrane in a bathroom, which will prevent rising damp or mould issues in behind the tiles. A ceiling exhaust fan should prevent future mould issues.
"BEFORE"
"AFTER"
This walk mounted Vanity with a sink was an IKEA. By removing the bath, we had room for large frameless glass shower screen
