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My tiny bathroom reno on an even smaller budget

Darren
Making a Splash

My tiny bathroom reno on an even smaller budget

Preview of the end resultPreview of the end resultWe live in a late 1950s triple-fronted brick veneer house.

 

Initially our home had one bathroom but in the early 1980s the previous owners added on an extension that was basically a large room with a half bathroom tacked on. Half bathroom? I call it a half bathroom because all it has is a toilet at one end and a shower at the other. No basin. Not sure if that was a mistake or people didn’t wash their hands in the 80s.

 

Anyway, here it is...

 

before---all.jpg

 

This room (clearly) hasn’t been touched since the day it was built. If you wanted to give someone an idea of what early-1980s decor looked like then this is it - brown tiles on the floor, ugly brown patterned tiles on the wall, brown aluminium window, mission brown window frames. I think you get the picture. (I actually found a 30-year old can of mission brown paint when I was cleaning out the garage. Ugly colour but I really like the paint can, so here's a pic.)

 

mission-brown-paint_web.jpg

 

With plans to give our main bathroom a complete renovation (details to come soon), we were left with a small budget to get this job done - our goal was to give the room an update for under $1000. Here’s what we did.

 

As part of the back room reno, we’d removed all the nasty brown floor tiles and had the timber floors polished, so flooring wasn’t an issue. The walls on the other hand were. With a club hammer and a brick bolster in hand I chipped each tile off the wall - it took a whole day. By the end of the day I had a green bin full to the brim with busted tile pieces, a right arm that looked like Popeye’s forearm after swinging a club hammer all day and a stack of random cuts from flying tile pieces (note: as well as protective equipment for your eyes, ears and hands a long-sleeve shirt is a good idea too).

 

tiles-off---all.jpg

 

With the tiles gone the room was already starting to feel lighter but there was still some brown. I sanded the window frames back to timber, I can’t tell you how satisfying this was. Next I sprayed the aluminium window frames black. For this I used Dulux Metalshield in satin black - a super quick, cheap and easy job but it makes a huge difference. A word of advice here, be sure to tape everything and cover the window with newspaper and any other area you want to protect as there can be a bit of overspray when working with spraycans. Also, remove the tape while the paint is wet, otherwise if you wait until the paint is dry there is a risk that the paint will come off with the tape. Last thing on this, spraypaint stinks - use a respirator and open a window if you can.

 

Step two was to tidy up the walls a bit. I wasn’t a fan of the deep gaps between the brickwork, so I mixed up some mortar and filled the gaps. I still wanted to be able to see the outline of the bricks after painting, so I didn’t fill all the way to the edge. It was a messy job, loads of mortar ended up on the floor (use a drop sheet, particularly if you have no skills like me) but the end result was surprisingly OK. Well, to my eyes anyway.

 

With the walls and window frames prepped, it was finally time to paint. The undercoat took forever. Not only does brick soak up paint like a dry sponge but getting in all the cracks and crevices of such an uneven wall took much longer than I expected. In hindsight, spraying this wall would have made it a much quicker job but our budget didn’t allow for that. Rollers and brushes it had to be.

 

I completed two top coats on the walls - Dulux Wash&Wear plus Kitchen & Bathroom. Next up were the shower tilles. Our budget didn’t stretch to re-tiling, so we once again turned to paint to hide the ugly. We used White Knight Tile and Laminate primer followed by White Knight Tile Paint in white. Painting tiles does take a bit of work - as with all painting, the preparation stage will make or break the overall finish. Take the time, follow the instructions and you’ll end up with a pretty good finish. It may not be as good as new tiles, but it’s better than it was.

 

In the end we decided to leave the timber panelling on the ceiling - it’s a bit Swedish sauna, but seeing as the walls and tiles are white, it’s not as offensive as it was before painting the room white. However, the light will be updated at a later date to an IXL-Tastic for light and heat.

 

The plumber came in and installed the new toilet (Mondella Concerto) and shower rail (Mondella Vivace), both of which look great and weren’t expensive.

 

I installed the shelf myself, this took much longer than expected (lack of skills strikes again). In the past I’ve never had an issue screwing into brick, but for some reason this time the screws just wouldn’t hold. I ended up using some DynaBolts and they worked a treat (we won’t be putting anything heavy on the shelf just to be safe) with some black L brackets from Bunnings. The shelf itself is a piece of recycled wormy chestnut that I sourced from a local reclaimed timberyard. After giving the shelf a good sand I waxed it with carnauba polish to maintain the look of the timber.

 

The final touches included new skirting boards, new shower curtain rail, caulking and a new toilet roll holder (Mondella Vivace in matte black) and the job was finally done.

 

So, did we hit our budget? Not quite. The total job came in slightly over at $1250, but this included the cost of the plumber and all materials.

 

It’s certainly not fancy but it’s a lot better than the mission brown wonderland it used to be.

finished-bathroom---all.jpg

Jason
Community Manager
Community Manager

Re: My tiny bathroom reno on an even smaller budget

Fantastic project @Darren, many thanks for sharing. I'm sure this will inspire other community members.

 

Love that Mission Brown paint can. 

 

Jason

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ColR
Growing in Experience

Re: My tiny bathroom reno on an even smaller budget

Darren, I just stumbled across your contribution, coincidentally at the end point of our own very tiny ensuite reno. Oh, how I wish our actual budget was only $1K!

Many years ago we were faced with the same 1982 version of your horror decor assault. White King tile paint saved our bacon too. It still covers the old dark brown tiles until we have a budget for doing the main bathroom downstairs. Gotta love white.

I really love what you did with the spaces, but I was wondering what happened to the basin which the previous owners had forgotten. How did you get around there being no running water for hand washing after using the toilet? During our reno we temporarily had a porta potti with hand sanitiser. I thought that was OK for the short term, but anyway, I was just wondering about that part of the issue.

cheers

Col
Jason
Community Manager
Community Manager

Re: My tiny bathroom reno on an even smaller budget

Hi @ColR,


Welcome to Workshop. It's fantastic to have you join us. I trust you will find our community members will be very helpful for your future projects, both in terms of inspiration and information. 

 

I'm sure @Darren will be happy to get back to you as soon as he can. I also hope you can share some photos of your renovation work. It would be great to see what you have done. You might like to Start a new discussion and share. 

 

Thanks again, and please let me know if you ever need a hand getting the most from the site. 

 

Jason

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Darren
Making a Splash

Re: My tiny bathroom reno on an even smaller budget

Hey @ColR, with this budget unfortunately there was no way of incorporating any new plumbing. We thought about putting in one of those toilets that has a tap above the cistern but we didn't love the look of it. So, in the end we didn't include a basin. Luckily for us the laundry trough is next to our small bathroom, so this is what we use. Not perfect, but a lot cheaper than new pipes!

Jason
Community Manager
Community Manager

Re: My tiny bathroom reno on an even smaller budget

Visitors to this popular project might also be interested in @Darren's diary of a bathroom renovation - an even more comprehensive account of a larger bathroom renovation project.

 

Thanks again for sharing Darren.

 

Jason 

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robyn2202
Cultivating a Following

Re: My tiny bathroom reno on an even smaller budget

Hi @ColR,
Unfortunately in the 80's anyone who had the mission brown and orange bench tops were very much on trend. I know these days there is a myriad of possibilities to use and so many magazines to get inspiration from, but I'm sure you're house is sound and was very well built.
I think you did a great job - especially on a $1000 budget, but then plumbers are expensive.
Good luck with the rest of the house.

Re: My tiny bathroom reno on an even smaller budget

Well done!
Davidtassie
Finding My Feet

Re: My tiny bathroom reno on an even smaller budget

That's a great job Darren, and the window came up a treat..

JanPorter1951
Finding My Feet

Re: My tiny bathroom reno on an even smaller budget

Hi Darren, I've only just stumbled across your post while looking for ideas about bathroom renovation.  Love your work; mission brown is the scourge of the earth but yes, I had it in my first home built in the 70's!!
Just wondering what anybody's thoughts are on bath or no bath please?  I have a townhouse that is in a complex which isn't really compatible with young families; it's more like a retirement village!!.  I have seen the local real estate agent and he says if I went down the 'no bath' track, I'm limiting the scope of buyers - I totally understand that.  My bathroom is quite small and I was hoping to maximise the illusion of space by not including a bath in the mix and putting a larger shower and perhaps cube-style shelving! 

Regards, Jan 

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