9 Ways to Save on a Bathroom Remodel Cost

Want to renovate your bathroom but not sure how much a bathroom remodel will cost?

Did you just buy a fixer upper, but don’t have much money leftover to fund the cost of a bathroom remodel?

Is your bathroom dated, but you want your guests to feel like they walk into a luxury spa, when they come to visit and need to use the bathroom?

Have no fear – I got you!

Today I will give you 9 awesome ideas, with sources and examples, to help you reduce your bathroom remodel cost. A lot of these ideas are considered cosmetic updates, and are perfect if you have just bought a house, but can’t fit the full cost of a bathroom remodel into your budget right now.

By the end of this post, you will have 9 actionable ideas and sources to help you make a fast and easy bathroom makeover fit into your shoestring budget.

Here’s what we will cover:

These are all tried-and-true ideas and tips, from someone who has done cosmetic and full DIY bathroom remodels on 3 different bathrooms. I have either tried the idea myself or researched it thoroughly and examined hundreds of reviews to make sure it actually works and lasts.

Let’s get started saving you money and making your bathroom look like a luxury spa on the California coast!

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, at NO extra cost to you.

But first,

How much does a bathroom remodel cost?

According to Home Advisor, the average bathroom remodel costs between $6,015 and $15,043 in the United States. For a small DIY bathroom remodel, it might cost $3500 – $7000 refreshing your basics.

In San Diego, California, our semi-DIY bathroom remodel costs between $9,900 – $13,830 for each bathroom. I’ll break it down below.

Budget for a small (mostly) DIY bathroom remodel:

• Tub/Shower combo – $7000 – $10,000 (includes labor, demo, plumbing, fixtures, 3 piece shower walls, & tub)
• Vanity/Countertop/Sink – $1000 – $1500
• Toilet – $125 – $200
• Tile – $110 – $200
• Faucet – $90 – $120
• Light – $70 – $170
• Mirror – $70 – $175
• Paint – $45 – $75
• Wallpaper – $50
• Small stuff – $150
• Tile saw rental – $90
• Miscellaneous Tools – $200
• Contingency – $900

Okay so that’s like a LOT of money, so we’ll cover how YOU can reduce the cost of a bathroom remodel as much as possible in the 9 tips below. These are ideas to help you avoid the cost of a full bathroom remodel, and just do a “light” cosmetic makeover.

But first, I made a FREE budget worksheet for YOU to start building out your budget for your own bathroom remodel.

Just fill out your info below, and I’ll email you a 100% free bathroom budgeting worksheet so you don’t miss anything developing your budget for your next remodel.

Question: What is the cheapest way to remodel a bathroom?

Answer: Buy the cheapest materials possible (new, gifted, or used), reuse/refinish everything you can, and perform all the labor yourself.

I would think you could be scrappy and do a full, but basic, DIY bathroom remodel for under $5000 this way, but the quality might not be the best, or you might need to spend some time searching for used or on-sale materials.

You can see from the above budget breakdown that around 70% of the budget is the shower/tub combo. If you could use what you already have, refinish your tub/tile, or do the shower/tub renovation yourself (or ask a knowledgeable family member friend to help), that would save quite a bit of money in your budget.

Refresh vs Replace

One of the best ways to save money on a bathroom remodel is to use what you already have, but make it look better. This is called a cosmetic update. Some ideas to refresh your bathroom are:

• Paint or stain a bathroom vanity a different color
• Reface bathroom cabinets (meaning just get new doors and drawer fronts)
• Get tile grout professionally cleaned to brighten up grout lines
• Have your tub and tiled shower professionally reglazed
• Remove dated shower/tub doors and replace with shower rod/curtain
• Paint old tile flooring (with special tile paint)
• Paint existing fixtures such as towel bars, toilet paper holder, etc.

Ways to save on labor cost for a bathroom remodel

According to Home Advisor, around 50% of a bathroom remodel’s cost is from labor. Using a general contractor or full service design firm to manage your project can make your costs go up exponentially.

How can you save on labor costs for a bathroom remodel?

There are a few approaches to labor you can take for your bathroom remodel:

• Do everything yourself (YouTube is a big help here, for DIY’ers). Not for the faint of heart but most stuff is very do-able if you are handy – even a tile floor. Don’t forget to factor in buying specialized tools.
• Be your own general contractor and hire out and schedule all the trades yourself. This can be very tricky if you have never done this before, but it’s manageable if you have some project management experience or can get some advice from someone who’s done it before.
• Do some things yourself (like installing a ready-to-install vanity, replacing a faucet or vanity light), but hire professionals for harder jobs (like replacing bath/shower, large tile jobs, replacing stone countertops).
• Hire a handyman for some of the easy stuff (replace faucet/lights, install a one piece vanity, painting, install luxury vinyl plank flooring), then skip doing the tub/shower or just reface it.

How do I save on skilled labor for my bathroom remodel?

Ask for referrals

A referral is always best – so ask friends, family, and neighbors.

Look online

Home Depot also has a list of independent contractors they will provide if you if you ask or look on their website. There is also Yelp, Next Door, Angie’s List, and Houzz – all good places to search for a contractor to get some bids. Read all the online reviews, both good and bad.

Get at least 3 bids

Always call at least 3 different contractors to compare costs. They will almost also require to come look at your space to give you a quote.

Request an itemized quote

Ask exactly what is included, and for an itemized quote, in writing of the cost of every single thing you are asking them to do. Most of the time the main materials you will need to purchase yourself, but the contractor will often buy the smaller plumbing items/pipes/fittings/etc.

Note:

If you are changing the layout or configuration of your bathroom, or opening up any walls, I would advise to call a licensed contractor. Always check your local construction codes to ensure your are in compliance with all local building code requirements.

Paint can transform almost everything in a bathroom

Consider just cosmetic changes like painting, if you can’t afford a full remodel right now. You can literally paint almost every single surface in the bathroom – even the vanity, tiles, bathtub, fixtures, shower rod (I did it – check out my post on our budget bathroom remodel!), and countertops.

There is specialized paint for every surface imaginable, here are some examples, all available at Home Depot:

Cabinet paint (I personally have used and can recommend):

Tub & Tile Paint (4 stars with over 1200 reviews):

Floor tile paint (four stars with over 300 reviews):

Countertop paint (over 1400 reviews on Home Depot @ 4.5 stars):

Paint for fixtures (I personally used and recommend this brand), this one is from Amazon:

Ways to save on purchasing materials

Here are some ways to save on materials:

• Wait for holiday sales at Home Depot and Lowes
• Take advantage of Home Depot “special buy” events to buy tile and vanity
• Find gently used materials at resale shops (ReStore by Habitat for Humanity for example).
• Look online on Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, NextDoor for used materials from someone else’s remodel
• Find clearance materials at your local home improvement store

Use peel and stick floor tiles, backsplash, or wallpaper

This is more of a reface what you got, kind of approach, but it’s a great temporary fix. Example, you just bought a fixer upper, and did some must-have renovations, but ran out of money for the bathroom. To make your dated, old bathroom look good – peel and stick tiles are a great way to go.

Peel and stick options are significantly cheaper and faster than using real tile and are something you can do yourself, often with just a scissors or utility knife.

There are peel and stick floor tiles, backsplash, and even wallpaper. Some people even use peel and stick contact paper over their countertop, but I have not personally tried that.

Here are some amazing peel and stick floor tiles (some are even groutable):

TrafficMASTER Carrara Marble 12 in. x 24 in. Peel and Stick Vinyl Tile

TrafficMASTER Light Grey 12 in. x 24 in. Travertine Peel and Stick Vinyl Tile Flooring:

Some examples of amazing peel and stick backsplash:

RoomMates 10.5 in x 10.5 in Carrara Marble Hexagon Peel and Stick Backsplash

smart tiles Metro Grigio Grey 11.56 in. W x 8.38 in. H Peel and Stick Self-Adhesive Decorative Mosaic Wall Tile Backsplash

Amazing peel and stick wallpapers for a killer accent wall (so much cheaper and faster than tile!):

NuWallpaper Black Linear Peel and Stick Wallpaper 

Transform Dark Grey Herringbone Wood Peel and Stick Removable Wallpaper (I used this in my own bathroom, see below):

Reface or replace countertop to reduce a bathroom remodel cost

Refacing bathroom countertops

Countertops can be difficult to reface. I have seen people refinishing their countertops in one of two ways:

Option One: Countertop Paint

DAICH SpreadStone Mineral Select 1 qt. Onyx Fog Countertop Refinishing Kit

Option Two: Adhesive Film

DC Fix 78.74 in. x 17.7 in. Grey Marble Adhesive Film (Set of 2)

Replacing bathroom countertops

Refinishing is way less expensive than replacing. But replacing the countertops is much less than replacing the whole vanity. So if you vanity is still in good shape, you could contact a countertop or stone shop, or even Home Depot or Lowes to get a quote to replace the countertops.

Another option to save on countertops is to replace them yourself with a pre-made countertop (with attached sink, and pre-drilled faucet holes) from Home Depot. Example below of one that is around $200:

Home Decorators Collection 37 in. W x 22 in. D Stone Effect Vanity Top in Lunar with White Sink

New lighting & fixtures are cheap to replace vs reconfigure

There are so many options for lighting and fixtures, and getting new ones is a super fast and inexpensive way to update your bathroom. The way to save time and money on lighting is look for a light in the same basic style as your current (meaning the same base, so you can use the existing box in the wall).

Here is a before an after of our bathroom when we updated the lighting and fixtures, along with the mirror (but kept the vanity). The towel hook and vanity knobs were simply spray painted – which was a great way to save money. Check out the full post, Budget Bathroom Remodel for all the sources and all the details on how we did this bathroom remodel for less than $350.

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A new mirror can make or break your space

Mirrors are a huge focal area for any bathroom, so you need one that looks great. Some budget friendly ideas for upgrading your mirror are:

Add a frame around one of those builder-grade glued-on wall mirrors. MirrorChic from Home Depot has tons of different frames for mirrors.

MirrorChic Driftwood 54 in. x 42 in. Mirror Frame Kit in White – Mirror Not Included 

Paint the frame of your existing mirror (spray paint will work just fine).

Buy a new mirror from somewhere like Target or Home Depot. The large beveled mirror below was by Neu-Type from Home Depot and is only around $80!

Budget flooring options to reduce a bathroom remodel cost

Flooring can feel like a real challenge in bathrooms, since who wants to rip up tile and take the time and effort to lay new tile? Here are several budget friendly ways to update your bathroom flooring:

Paint

Paint your current tile – using Rustoleum Home floor coating – it comes in over 30 colors! You can even use this paint to stencil your floor tiles.

Peel & Stick Tile

Apply peel and stick floor tiles over your existing vinyl or ceramic tiles. Some options are listed above.

Luxury Vinyl Plank

Use waterproof luxury vinyl plank over your existing tile or flooring. Check out my full breakdown of all the pros and cons of luxury vinyl plank for bathrooms.

Below is the before (on the left) and after (on the right) our install of luxury vinyl plank right over our existing ceramic tile.

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Vinyl Sheet Flooring

Apply vinyl sheet flooring over existing vinyl, and Home Depot has some super cute designs to choose from, like the below onyx hexagon tile.

Armstrong CushionStep Better with Diamond 10 Tech Marble Onyx Residential Vinyl Sheet Flooring

Final Thoughts

Well that was a lot of ideas! We covered everything from hiring a contractor, to painting (nearly) every surface, to applying peel and stick tiles, to updating flooring. I sincerely think we thought of just about everything in terms of how you could remove costs from your next bathroom remodel.

Don’t forget to download your FREE bathroom remodel budget worksheet here:

I hope you found a few ideas that will help you to reduce your bathroom remodel cost. Most of these ideas I have tried myself, so I can attest they can look good, without breaking the bank.

Which idea to reduce the cost of your bathroom remodel do you want to try the most? Leave a comment below!

Now, I’m sure you are motivated and ready, so you want to DIY your own bathroom remodel, right? First go to my post, DIY Bathroom Remodel: Beginnners Guide, to get all kinds of tips and shortcuts we learned while remodeling our TWO bathrooms in ONE week! I’m sure our learnings will help you to take your bathroom from blah to wow!