DIY Bathroom Remodel: Beginner’s Guide

Do you have an old, dated bathroom, but dream of a modern, beautiful, and insta-worthy one?

Interested in tackling a DIY Bathroom remodel yourself – but have never tackled such a big project, so not sure what you are getting into?

You’ve come to the right place! We recently remodeled TWO bathrooms so want to share all our tips, tricks, and mistakes. I’ll show you that you don’t need to be a professional contractor to do a basic bathroom remodel – you got this!

Beginners Guide to a DIY Bathroom Remodel
Save this Beginner’s Guide to Pinterest for later.

This article will outline the whole bathroom remodeling process from start to finish, specifically for someone who is a beginner DIY’er. You will get:

  • Awesome, practical tips we learned at each step of our own bathroom remodel
  • Learnings from all of our mistakes so you don’t make the same ones.
  • Tips on planning and prep, budgeting, materials and labor
  • More tips on demo, tiling, and shower/tubs.
  • Info on selecting and installing things like vanities, toilets, and lighting.

I’ll take you along when we renovated our TWO small bathrooms (except for the tub/shower area) in one week, using our own blood, sweat, and tears. Yes there was blood, it was mine, and it was only a minor scrape (during the luxury vinyl tile install).

We are regular people just like you, although I do have a handy husband, and this was our first time doing such a big project ourselves. I thought our bathroom remodeling experience (and mistakes) could help out other first timers!

Before and after of our guest bathroom DIY remodel

After reading this, you will be able to tackle your DIY bathroom remodel with confidence, to get a stunning result that will last for decades.

Let’s get you the bathroom of your dreams, right this way!

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

1. Make a design plan

Before and after of our master bathroom DIY remodel

First things first, I needed to come up with a plan before we started any demo. We had a 1 week timeframe to finish TWO bathrooms, which is how long we took off work for our “vacation.” First I needed to figure out what I wanted to do.

Get inspired

Random Sky Unsplash Grey and White Modern Bathroom
Inspiration photo courtesy of: Random Sky via Unsplash

This is the fun part – looking on Pinterest and Instagram for beautiful bathrooms for design ideas. If you have flooring stores or fixture showrooms, go there and look around. Grab tile, flooring, and paint chip samples if you can. Even Home Depot and Lowes are good sources of inspiration.

Here are the Pinterest boards I created for my own project:

Grey and White Bathroom Ideas

Black and White Bathroom Ideas

Pick a color scheme and design style

Picking a color scheme and basic style are two tasks you need to complete right away, as it will help narrow down your options when shopping.

Search online using your chosen style name “modern bathroom ideas” or color scheme “grey and white bathroom ideas” on Pinterest and pin away! A lot of stuff may be unaffordable, but it can give you an idea what types of looks and styles to aim for in your design plan.

A great article by That Homebird Life, for helping you choose your materials, finishes, and colors is the Step by Step Guide to Choosing Materials for a Bathroom Renovation.

Use what you got

One way to save both time AND money, is to leave things right where they are. For example, changing your bathroom layout will be much more complicated than just replacing what is already there. If this is your first DIY bathroom remodel – I advise you to just replace what’s already there.

grey and white transitional kitchen

In terms of the design – you can also use the other parts of your home to drive the design. For example, our kitchen cabinets were white shaker so I wanted our bathroom cabinets to match.

Our flooring on our main floor was a grey wood look luxury vinyl plank, so I knew I wanted bathroom flooring in the same color family – grey or black.

You don’t have to match everything exactly, but staying in the same color family will help make your home look more cohesive and thoughtful.

You do NOT have to do it that way, if you want a beige bathroom with a blue kitchen – that’s ok too! You could always bring in accent colors like backsplash, towels, rugs, accessories, or artwork to tie the two rooms together.

Another way to use what you already have, is to keep some elements of your bathroom that are still in good shape. That could mean using or painting an existing vanity, or keeping or painting your hardware.

Black modern mirror and globe light

I decided to keep some items in one bathroom that I had recently updated, a black framed mirror, globe light, and flat black hardware. This made me want to go with a black/grey/white color scheme in both bathrooms.

Ray black tile from Home Depot

The 12×24 inch ceramic floor tile we selected was called Ray Black from Home Depot. It was less than $2 a square foot so a great deal!

After you get inspired and come up with a basic design plan and color scheme, you need to create your budget…

2. Determine your budget

How much does a DIY bathroom remodel cost?

According to Home Advisor, the average bathroom remodel costs around $10,000 in the United States, and depends on where you live which can drive up (or down) labor costs. For a small DIY bathroom remodel, it might be closer to $5000 refreshing your basics.

In San Diego, California, our full bathroom remodel will cost between $9,000 – $13,830 for each bathroom. That is with doing most of the work ourselves, except for the shower/tub area (we are using professionals for that).

If you leave the shower/tub area out, it would come in closer to $1500 – $5000 if you do everything yourself. The tub/shower is about 70% of our total cost, probably due to all the skilled labor involved.

How do you make a budget for a DIY bathroom remodel?

First cost out your basic essentials

Here’s the basics you need to find and price out:

  • Shower/tub
  • Toilet
  • Vanity, countertop, sink, backsplash
  • Flooring (measure your floors length and width, figure out square footage, and add 10% for waste)
  • Mirror
  • Lighting and bathroom fan
  • Fixtures (showerhead, knob, tub faucet, sink faucet)
  • Hardware (towel bars, toilet paper holder, etc.)

I like to shop online, then snip digital photos and paste into Microsoft Powerpoint to create a mood board. Then you can make sure everything “goes” together and fits your design plan.

mood board grey black and white bathroom
Example of our mood board for our primary bathroom

As I shop, I write in the notes where each item is from, along with the cost. This builds my budget along with my mood board at the same time. Then I can remember where each item is from when it’s time to buy. Here’s my initial budget based on my mood board:

Budget for materials list for primary bathroom
Original budget for materials for primary bathroom

This will give you a high level cost, without any labor, tools, or the smaller items you might need (paint, paint supplies, pipes, wires, switches, baseboard, grout, etc).

Want a pre-made Bathroom Remodel Budgeting Worksheet to get started on your bathroom remodel right now? Read on…

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Next determine labor costs

Labor can cost almost half the cost of a bathroom remodel

This is a big step since you need to determine who is going to provide the labor. According to Home Advisor, around 50% of a bathroom remodel’s cost is from labor.

You have a few options that are on the less expensive side:

  • Do most/all of the labor yourself or have family/friends help
  • Use a handyman to help on some of the tasks
  • Use a general contractor or specialized trade (i.e. plumber or tile installer) to do some of the more challenging stuff

A handyman can likely install things like ready-to-install vanities, sink faucets, vanity lighting, toilets, and luxury vinyl plank or waterproof laminate flooring.

For certain things, like a shower install or real stone tile flooring, or complicated backsplash, I would recommend skilled or specialized labor.

Cost out tools and ancillary materials

Tools and all the little extras can certainly add up. Don’t forget about this part as you’ll need a lot of special tools for tile, plumbing, and painting.

large tile saw rental from home depot

Our large tile saw rental was about $85 for 24 hours from Home Depot. We were working well into the night, to be able to take that baby back on time.

3. Expect the unexpected

This is a really important tip for your budget, and your timeline during any DIY bathroom remodel. When remodeling a bathroom, keep in mind that this room has been exposed to a lot of water and steam over time. Anyways, once you remove things or open up any walls, you may find something gnarly.

Asbestos, mold, and termites are real. If your house was built pre-1980, it is likely to have one (or more) of the above. Also some older homes will likely have lead paint in some of the older paint layers, which is also a concern when you sand the walls, or rip out drywall.

Add 10% to your budget for something unexpected, also called a contingency.

What do I do if I find something unexpected during my bathroom remodel?

For us, we started demo’ing our tile on a Friday night, and found a layer of tile under the tile. I took one look and knew it was that old, thin, ugly, asbestos tile.

after demo of vanity in bathroom
Demo can expose some nasty stuff

We stopped everything, left it alone, got it tested the next day at a local lab (Yelp helped me find one). The results came out positive for asbestos and then we called a couple of asbestos abatement companies to remove it safely (Yelp again).

We got the asbestos tile professionally abated for around $1000, for a 30 foot square floor. It was about a 2 day delay, but we did some tasks in the other bathroom while we waited.

This also changed our design plan for our other bathroom. We chose to put this awesome waterproof luxury vinyl tile on top of the existing tile, vs ripping it out.

travertine mist by duralux from floor and decor

We went with a stone-look luxury vinyl tile, Travertine Mist by Duralux, from Floor and Decor. It was a super easy 1 day install and I love it, so it turned out fine.

If you think you find asbestos, mold, lead paint, or termites – my advice is to call a specialized professional to deal with the issue. Ignoring it could create a health hazard down the road, so this is important stuff.

This tip is all about needing to be flexible and roll with the punches during your bathroom remodel.

4. Watch How-To Videos before you demo ANYTHING

If you are going the DIY bathroom remodel route, and have not remodeled a bathroom before or for a long time, DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP.

Also, don’t be like us a watch the how-to video literally as you about to do the thing. There will be something you didn’t do or buy that they recommend that you will wish you had known 2 or 3 days ago.

So, a few days before you begin the project, make sure you go on YouTube for the things you are going to do yourself (clickable links below to YouTube videos we found super helpful).

Best YouTube Videos for DIY Bathroom Remodel:

Hopefully you get the picture. With the tile, we rented a tile saw by the day, before we watched any videos. Then we learned we needed to do a TON of prep work on the floor before cutting a single tile. Had we known that, we would have waited to rent the tile saw another day. Laying tile is complicated – watch a LOT of how-to videos first.

5. Build out a timeline

This step is important if you are on a tight schedule, like we were. We took one week off of work, so needed to do all our major tasks in one week. We had to turn this dated beast into a modern beauty – fast!

First you need to know what steps you need to take, the order to do them in, and how long each one will take.

What are the steps to remodel a bathroom, and in what order?

  1. Demo everything you are replacing
  2. Install shower/bathtub
  3. Drywall repair & paint
  4. Install flooring
  5. Install toilet
  6. Install vanity/countertop
  7. Replace lighting & mirror

These are the “major” things we needed to do for our DIY bathroom remodel. We wanted to get all those things done in one week, except the showers. We decided to go with Dreamstyle Shower Systems, and they were going to come in a later date, and be installed by professionals. The showers are supposed to be first, but we are doing them last, so I’ll update this post later if that was a totally terrible plan.

How long does a bathroom remodel take?

The timeline really depends on how big your bathroom is, if you remove the drywall, and if you change the layout. Also, if you find any “surprises” once you do the demo that can extend your timeline.

I can attest that we basically got two full bathrooms done, with the exception of the tub/shower areas, in 1 week. We only did ceramic tile on one bathroom, we did vinyl tile on the other. We also had a 2 day delay due to the asbestos abatement.

Here is a rough estimate of the time needed for each task:

  1. Demo – 1/2 day to 1 day. Depending on if you remove walls, shower, tub. We did everything but the walls and tub/shower and it took us 1/2 day or less per bathroom.
  2. Install shower/bathtub – 2 – 5 days. Dreamstyle says it takes 2-3 days per shower system but they are the 3 wall type, not tile w/ grout. Real tile could probably 2 – 5 days depending on how much tile you do. Remember there is a lot of prep work, and you should replace the pipes, valves, and plumbing while you have opened things up.
  3. Install flooring – 1 – 3 days. Vinyl or waterproof laminate could be done in one day. Ceramic or stone tile will take a bare minimum of 2 days. One day to prep, cut, and do the mortar. The next day would be grout. You likely will need to do some leveling in your prep, so give it 3 days to be safe.
  4. Replace toilet – 1-2 hours.
  5. Install vanity/countertop – 1/2 day to 1 day or more. Depends if you get the prefab ones that come w/ the top attached. Those can take half a day or less, including the plumbing hookups. If you do separate custom/semi-custom cabinets then then have to attach sink and the prefab countertop separately it could take a day.
  6. Install lighting & mirror – 1 – 2 hours. If you don’t make any changes to the lighting placement, should only take an hour or two max.

Total time needed for basic DIY bathroom remodel without shower/bathtub: 2.5 to 5.5 days.

Total time needed for basic DIY bathroom remodel with shower: 5 days to 10.5 days.

I budgeted about 3 days per bathroom for our basic DIY bathroom remodel, but we did plan on doing some things on the same day – such as texturing, painting, then installing both toilets and vanities on the same day.

Don’t forget you might find something unexpected which could add 1 day or more to your timeline, so be prepared to roll with it!

6. Purchase & gather materials and tools

The lighting aisle at Home Depot

Ok, so I find shopping for home improvement stuff relaxing, and love to roam home improvement stores looking at stone tiles, fixtures, and lighting. However, when you are on a tight deadline to find something for your install that’s tomorrow, it’s not so fun.

My tips for your materials and tools are:

  • Try to stick to your design plan and mood board, but be flexible on the exact items. The exact item you wanted might sell out, or have a delivery date that doesn’t work for you, so you gotta roll with it.
  • When buying materials online, go through the checkout process to see the estimated delivery dates. A lot of stuff, like vanities and lighting, are “dropshipped” from the vendor, so it can take a week or two to get delivered.
  • You may find it easier and faster to go to a big box store like Home Depot or Lowes, but their in-store selection is much more limited than their online selection. Order online and leave time for delivery.
  • Make sure everything delivers at least 1 week before you start the job. This gives you some wiggle room if anything gets delayed or damaged during shipping.
  • When replacing things like pipes or spigots, take photos, measurements, or the exact item with you when buying a replacement.
  • Expect to have to run to the nearest home improvement store many times during your DIY bathroom remodel. It’s totally normal (although annoying).
  • Save your receipts in case you need to return anything if it doesn’t work out!

7. Schedule contractors or labor accordingly

  • Refer back to step 5, where I told you the basic steps to remodel a bathroom, in order. This is how you should schedule your labor, if you are contracting any activities out.
  • Schedule your contractors at least 2 – 4 weeks in advance. Most contractors, in the busy season, are booked up at least 4 weeks out.
  • Be prepared to have to juggle folks around or get creative, as something might take longer than expected due to an unexpected surprise.

8. Demo Day!

Demo is fun, but a pain in the butt. Her is our demo’d bathroom after installing the waterproof backerboard. Below are my demo day tips…

  • You don’t always need a sledgehammer, that’s just for HGTV. We didn’t use one at all.
  • A crowbar is pretty useful, and a regular hammer, along with a power drill to remove most items.
  • Try not to cause huge holes in the wall, so use some finesse when removing things from the wall. Cut the caulking first.
  • Be on the lookout for things like mold and termite droppings. Mildew is pretty easy to clean – I just use a bleach based bathroom cleaner to scrub the walls behind our old vanity.
  • If your home is pre-1980 I would assume there is asbestos or lead paint somewhere. Take the appropriate precautions or call a professional.

9. Drywall repair

Retexturing a wall during DIY Bathroom Remodel

Oh, drywall. Drywall repair is one of my least favorite parts of a renovation, but it’s very much needed if you are not replacing the walls. It’s actually seldom talked about in most DIY tutorials, but I’ve now done 3 bathroom remodels and have had to re-texture whole walls to make it look good.

There are three main types of drywall repair you may need to make during a DIY bathroom remodel:

  • Drywall repair when you remove your built-in vanity and/or wall tiles.
  • Repair when a towel bar or toilet paper holder is moved or changed out.
  • Repair from when you remove a glued-on mirror from the wall
drywall repair during diy bathroom remodel

Example of drywall repair after removing a built in vanity. You can see my putty & texturing skills are not perfect, but I’m learning. Here are my tips on drywall repair:

  • Do watch a few videos on drywall repair on YouTube. Each situation is different and the repair will depend on the texture of you existing walls (smooth, orange peel, etc).
  • Do finish you drywall repairs and paint before installing your new vanity, mirror, lights, etc. It’s just way easier.
  • If you just need to hide your old towel bar holes, you may just be able to apply some DryDex Spackling Paste from Dap and be done with it. Make sure you sand it a little after to make it blend in with the rest of the wall.
  • I’m a fan of the Homax wall texture – the Pro Grade version kicks butt (get the low odor kind) if you have large areas to do, as the squeeze trigger makes it really easy. I basically did my whole bathroom with Homax Pro cans of texture since the original texture job was completely horrible.
  • Do practice – if using cans of texture, practice first on cardboard to see how it comes out. It will look really bubbly and thick at first but it does smooth out a bit once dry.
  • Do apply layers. A light layer of spackle, lightly sand, then a few light layers of texture. It’s hard to get right. I’m still working on mine, obviously!
  • If you have the time, the best result will certainly come from applying a fresh skim coat, which makes your whole wall smooth. Then reapply texture to match the other walls. I didn’t do this and kind of regret it.
  • If you really mess up your texture, you can always sand it down and try again, or just apply a new layer.

Some of my fave drywall repair products:

supplies needed for drywall repair

Homax Wall Texture Pro Grade Orange Peel, Low odor, and Drydex Premium Joint Compound, along with fine grit sandpaper a Husky putty knife.

10. Install shower/tub & fixtures/plumbing

This part we skipped (for now) but I can give some general advice.

  • Do replace, don’t reconfigure. Keep the configuration exactly how it is if this is your first DIY bathroom remodel. Keep the drains, tub spout, and shower head in the same exact place to avoid more complicated and advanced work.
  • Install your shower/tub before the flooring, to avoid messing up your tile when you remove everything.
  • If this is not your forever home, keep in mind what buyers might like (neutrals/white) in the future vs buying something that is very unique or trendy in terms of tile. Showers are very costly to replace and you would not want to turn buyers off by something that will get dated quickly.
  • The 3 piece shower wall systems have a lot of benefits vs grouted tile. They are a quicker install, and you don’t have to worry about getting dirty grout.
  • Grouted ceramic/stone tile is preferred by a lot of buyers but remember that white grout can get moldy and mildewy so it’s a little bit more maintenance and cleaning.
  • Real stone tile, although beautiful, requires special preparation and also has different maintenance (sealing for example) and cleaning requirements than ceramic.
  • Bigger is better (my opinion) in terms of shower head. Go big or go home!
  • Radically changing your shower, like going from a normal shower head placement to a rain shower head coming out of the ceiling is best left to the professionals.

11. Paint walls & ceiling

Here’s our guest bathroom in the middle of painting our walls Behr Premium Plus in Pixel White. Should have done this BEFORE installing the vanity and toilet but oh well. I’ve painted all my bathrooms, in two different homes, by myself, so have quite a few tips on painting.

  • Do paint before you install all your new stuff like the vanity, mirror, light, switch covers, hardware, etc. It’s just way easier to not worry about that stuff.
  • Make sure you remove all light switch covers, electrical outlet covers, etc.
  • Paint the ceiling before the walls, it’s easier.
  • Prep before you paint and wipe down your walls, then apply blue tape to all the stuff you don’t want to get paint on like ceiling, light switches, fixtures, tiles, baseboards, trim on doors, etc.
  • Do choose an interior semi gloss paint (not eggshell/flat) for bathrooms as it will help prevent mildew/mold in a damp environment.
  • Ceiling paint can be just an ultra white semi gloss paint for a bathroom. You will probably need two coats if your ceiling is not already white (trust me on this one).
  • Start first with small paintbrush and do your corners and edges, then use the roller to fill in the large spaces.
  • Most paint will require 2 coats. I did use the Behr Marquee One Coat Guarantee Interior Semi Gloss paint to go from swiss coffee (an off white) to pixel white (a greyish white) and it was basically one coat. This is amazing paint and I highly recommend, although it is a little pricey.
  • Do save your leftover paint for touchups at the end of your remodel. Accept the fact you might have to do some touch ups afterwards, especially after do all your installs.
  • I used this Shur-Line edger tool from Home Depot for less than $4. It saved me so much time since I didn’t have to apply tape to get amazing edges, so I highly recommend.

12. Flooring tips and tricks

Deciding between samples of the luxury vinyl tile vs the ceramic tile

I am going to write a separate post on luxury vinyl tile vs ceramic tile since we did both at the same time basically. Here are some tips on each type of flooring, based on our experience during our DIY bathroom remodel. I highly recommend the luxury vinyl tile as it took one day to install, versus three days for ceramic tile.

For any type of flooring, you want to remove the baseboards and toilet first, then install the flooring. This makes it look way better, trust me.

Tips for installing ceramic tile flooring:

We use 12×24 inch ceramic floor tile called Ray Black from Home Depot.

Tips for prepping for tile

  • Do watch a lot of YouTube videos days before you attempt this for the first time.
  • Do build into your timeline the 24 hours EACH it takes for leveling compound to dry, for the mortared tile to dry, and for the grout to dry.
  • Do prep your floor, and know this could take 1 day to complete, especially if you use self leveling compound, which takes time to dry.
  • Do make sure your floor is level. Self leveling compound is your friend and you will probably need it. We did not do this and our tiles shifted in a couple of spots.
  • Do use a schluter edge strip for the doorway, to make it even. If you don’t, you will probably need a transition strip.
  • Do not rent/borrow a tile saw until you watch several YouTube videos AND have prepped and leveled your floors.
  • Do team up – two people will make measuring and cutting tile go faster.
  • Do get the special saw to make the circular cut on your tile for the toilet hole. We didn’t and you can see our square cut behind the back of the toilet,

Tips for during the tile install

  • A tile saw will make cutting the tile way faster and easier than using a hand/manual saw. Make sure it’s the right size for your tile – we needed a “large” tile saw since we had 12″ x 24″ tiles.Do a dry fit where you cut and place all your tiles (with spacers) before applying any mortar.
  • Grouting is not absolutely necessary to install the vanity or toilet on top of, but it’s probably a good idea.
  • Do note that high contrast grout lines will show uneven grout lines and mistakes a LOT more than grout that is same/similar color as the tile.
  • Do remove “grout haze” after you finish grouting – I used a Magic Eraser and it was super easy in removing all the haze fast.
  • Read the label on your grout and/or tile to determine if it needs a sealer after installation.
Magic Erasers are great at removing grout haze!

Tips for installing luxury vinyl tile flooring:

photo of luxury vinly tile from our DIY Bathroom remodel
Our stone-look luxury vinyl tile, Travertine Mist by Duralux, from Floor and Decor.
  • Do read the instructions and installation videos before attempting the tile install.
  • Do clean the floor very well prior to placing any tile. Mop and sweep, then vacuum. Make sure it’s clean and dry.
  • Do get the recommended wall spacers to ensure some room for expanding an contracting.
  • Do remove the baseboards before installing the tile, it will look so much better than a quarter round.
  • Do get a utility knife and extra razorblades. This is what worked for us in cutting the planks, but our razorblades kept getting dull.
  • Do be careful around the toilet and make sure you cut the planks properly to allow enough space for the toilet pipe.
  • Do make sure your doors can still close, or you may need to saw or sand the door to make it shorter.
  • Do get a small saw to cut the doorjambs, if needed.

13. Toilet Talk

Toilet buying tips – I know it seems silly but there is important information you need to know when choosing a toilet.

Toilet vs door clearance when remodeling small bathroom
Measure toilet vs door clearance
  • Measure your space. A lot of small bathrooms don’t have much room between the front of the toilet and the door. Getting an elongated bowl toilet might mean you can’t open your door all the way. A round bowl will be better if your space is smaller. Measure!
  • Toilet height matters. A lot of toilets have the top of the bowl very high, 16″ or more, which is not good for toddlers/kids. If you have small children, I recommend the standard height toilet (15″) for a kids’ bathroom just to keep your own sanity.
  • Some higher end toilets have a “clog free” claim. If you have had this issue a lot in the past, you may want to upgrade to a clog free variety.
  • There is also something called “rough in” which is how far your sewer pipe is from the wall. The standard is 12″ but you should measure your pipe to make sure it’s standard.

Here were the toilets we chose, both from Home Depot & they pretty much include everything you need (even the seat):

Kohler HIghline Arc Toilet with elongated bowl from Home Depot

For the master bath, we chose the Kohler Highline Arc Elongated Toilet in White, from Home Depot. It was in the lower end of the price range (around $165) and I loved the modern looking handle, and the slim tank.

For the hallway bathroom, to be used by our kids, we chose the The American Standard Reliant Round Toilet in White, from Home Depot. We picked this one because the seat is only 15″ high, which is more kid friendly than “tall” toilets.

14. Vanity and faucets

We chose the Valentino from Design Elements as our vanity for our DIY bathroom remodel, from Home Depot. It comes with a marble countertop, chrome handles, rectangle sink, and is a great value at around $1000 for a 48″ vanity. There are also dovetail drawers and soft close drawers and doors. Available in white or blue, in multiple sizes. We love it!

Vanity Tips

  • Measure your space first and pick the right size vanity. Slightly smaller is ok as you will need to wiggle it in there if it’s an exact fit.
  • Having a small gap or large gap on each side of the vanity is not the end of the world and will actually make it easier to install yourself.
  • A fully pre-assembled vanity is a LOT cheaper and easier if you are going the DIY route. The one we picked, the Valentino from Design Elements, included the countertop, sink, pre-drilled faucet holes, and also soft close doors and drawers, along with handles/pulls. It was half the cost of getting semi-custom cabinets + custom countertops.
  • Look for dovetail drawer construction as that is a general mark of higher quality.

Faucet Tips

  • Make sure the holes on your vanity match your faucet type, before you buy the faucet.
  • There are four main styles of faucet mountings: Centerset,single hole, widespread, and wall mounted.
  • It’s ok to mix 2 different metals. I have chrome handles with a black faucet in one of our bathrooms, and it looks great. Centsational Style has a great blog post on mixing metals for more info.
  • Faucets come in high arc or low arc. I’m a fan of high arc if you have kids, as it shoots the water more towards the center of the sink to make it easier for kid-sized arms to wash their hands.
The black faucet is an example of high arc, and the chrome faucet is low arc. Both are by Glacier Bay from Home Depot.

15. Lighting and bathroom fan

Providence Chrome Vanity LIght by Livex Lighting

For the guest bathroom, we chose the Providence 4-Light Chrome Vanity Light by Livex. Available at Home Depot. It’s around $165. I love the modern look and the fact it has slim lampshades to diffuse the light.

  • Lighting is easiest to do yourself if you replace the existing light in the same spot with the same style. For example we were replacing a standard builder vanity light with a round base. We bought the same basic type (round base with 4 lights) and installed it in about 30 minutes.
  • Keep in mind the length of your mirror when you buy your light. The light should not be longer than the length of the mirror. Shorter is ok.
  • Mixing and matching metals/finishes is becoming ok – just try to repeat the finishes a couple of times. If you have a brass light, get a brass framed mirror, and and maybe some brass accents. Other fixtures can by black or even chrome.
  • If you get one of the modern/industrial lights with an exposed bulb and clear glass, just remember it’s a LOT brighter than the frosted glass shades. You may want to get the lowest brightness light bulbs to go in that baby or you’ll be blinded.
  • Bathroom fans can be a pain to replace if you have a builder basic. It could require cutting a new size hole depending on what you buy. We found this awesome “fan upgrade” at Home Depot which works with a LOT of bathroom fans to give you a light without having to replace the whole box/motor. I love this thing and it’s under $30!
Bathroom fan upgrade from home depot

We love this bathroom fan upgrade from Broan-Nu-tone, its a light AND grill cover, and installs right into your existing fan motor/box. Only $29 from Home Depot, installs in less than 5 minutes!

16. Mirror and hardware

One of the mirrors we selected during our DIY bathroom remodel was the Rectangular Mirror from Threshold designed with Studio McGee – from Target. Only $70, and it has a super modern design with it’s thin black frame and rounded corners.

  • Some mirrors are rated for being in damp location or bathroom, and buying one of those will help prevent some fogging. Most mirrors are going to fog up though, so just deal.
  • Take a look at the spec sheet to understand how the mirror needs to be mounted, and if you need to buy any special mounting hardware.
  • Mirror should be centered over the vanity, and shorter than the vanity.
  • If you are mounting two mirrors over a double vanity, get out your level and measuring tape to ensure they are level and spaced correctly.
  • Hardware can be different finish than other things in the bathroom, just make sure it matches something else. For example, black hardware along with a black mirror and light, would look fine with brass faucet and brass shower/tub fixtures.
  • Consider spray painting your existing hardware if you like the style, but want to change the finish. I did this with a lot of success, it just takes a little patience and time (lots of thin coats of spray paint). See my budget bathroom remodel post for how to paint your hardware.

Conclusion

Sharing is caring, if you like this post, please pin to Pinterest or the social media of your choice!

Holy cow! That was a long post, but tackling a DIY bathroom remodel is a huge undertaking! I wanted you to have ALL the tips and tools to make sure you know what you are getting into, and to give you the confidence you need to succeed.

We covered everything from the planning and budgeting phase, to demo, then tiling and installing everything from toilets to lighting. I hope you got a ton of useful info, plus links to a lot of the products I use myself to save you time (and money).

What part of a DIY bathroom remodel seems the most daunting to you? Let me know in the comments below. Hopefully I didn’t scare you off, but if you want more of any easy refacing bathroom project, check out my post: Budget Bathroom Remodel (DIY under $350).

Pssst – don’t forget your free Bathroom Remodel Budget Worksheet to help get your project started. Simply fill in your name and email below and push the button. Plus get weekly home decor inspo and tips, from me. No spam, I promise, & unsubscribe any time.

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Until next time!

Affordable Patio Furniture: Styling Tips & Sources

Summer’s here! It’s time go outside and have drinks on the deck! Wait, what? Your patio game’s not on point?

Want your patio furniture to match the awesome look inside your home? Has your jaw hit the floor once you started looking up the cost of a cute patio set? Or, are you stumped on how to put an outdoor look together for a cohesive look?

We’ve got the goods right here!

Today we’ll review:

  • Three different complete patio mood boards that will help inspire you to design your own outdoor space in a modern style.
  • Sources for affordable patio furniture and decor, to help you stick to a modest budget.
  • 6 styling tips on how to put everything together to create a harmonious color scheme and cohesive look.

Picking a color scheme is hard! So I’ll help you out by giving you a few to get started. The first look is wicker, beige, and blue. The second is a warm wood and tangerine decor scheme. Finally, we’ll show you a grey and white outdoor neutral lover’s dream.

By the end of this post, you’ll have the confidence and knowledge to put your own mood board together, and stay within your budget, to make your outdoor space look amazing. Then you can have that backyard BBQ and feel proud of your outdoor patio decor.

Let’s go!

Wicker, Beige, and Blue Affordable Patio Furniture & Decor

Scroll down for sources & shoppable links

Putting this one together took a while since I really wanted to to have a more formal and modern, but still approachable feel.

Tip 1: Choose a variety of shapes

I mixed shapes like the square couch and planters, with the round table and round chairs. Mixing shapes adds visual interest, even when you use the same materials – in this case the dark brown wicker.

Tip 2: Pick an accent color

My two main colors were the brown in the wicker furniture, along with beige in the umbrella and cushions. Blue and beige really “go” together, to create a coastal design and a relaxing mood. I decided to use light blue as an accent color to get a beachy, breezy look to offset the dark brown of the furniture.

Someone told me once that using a color at least 3 times creates a pattern, and makes a room look more cohesive. So, I used a pretty light blue for the pillows, rug, and accent table.

Sources:

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

Umbrella – This offset umbrella has a lot of great reviews, and is a huge 10 feet. Amazon (affiliate link) Le Conte 10ft Patio Offset Umbrella Cantilever Umbrella Hanging Market Umbrella Outdoor Umbrellas with Crank & Cross Base (10 ft, Beige) – $120 + shipping

Couch & Coffee Table – This square shaped set looks very modern, but is in an outdoor friendly wicker material. From Home Depot – Grey 3-Piece Wicker Outdoor Sectional Sofa Set with Beige Cushions, By Maypex – $370

Throw Pillows – Loving these stripes – will always be in style. Amazon Brand – Stone & Beam Classic Outdoor Throw Pillow, 20″ x 20″, Light Blue. $40 each.

Side Table – This table has a very boho feel, and the pop of color will help bring a brown & beige patio to life. Amazon Brand – Ravenna Home Clover-Pattern Ceramic Garden Stool or Side Table, 16″H, Light Blue. $115.

Planter – Loving the tall, elegant square shape -super modern. Plus they are a great deal since you get two for $68. Amazon – Eden Outdoor Wicker Flower Pots (Set of 2) (MultiBrown) – $68

Outdoor Rug – A geometric rug pattern will Wal Mart in beige and blue will help set a coastal but modern vibe – Unique Loom Trellis Outdoor Modern Geometric Area Rug or Runner – $105.

Swivel Chairs and Table – The shape of these chairs is anything but boring. They are round, and the wicker helps them match the planter and sectional. Amazon – Christopher Knight Home Kono PE Wicker Chat Set, 3-Pcs Set, Brown. $494.

Warm Wood and Tangerine Affordable Patio Furniture & Decor

warm wood and tangerine patio ideas
Sources and shoppable links below…

This affordable patio furniture look is so cozy, warm, and inviting! It screams, “Come hither and have a glass of wine with me.”

Tip 3: Use organic materials

I love the use of wood, while keeping a more modern and contemporary style in terms of the shape of the pieces. The planters are also made of wood, and the chairs look like cane or bamboo – all plant based materials.

The tangerine rug definitely picks up some color from the warm wood, so it all works together and creates a warm color palette.

Tip 4: Don’t be afraid to mix and match

Notice in my design I didn’t pick too many pieces that match exactly. You don’t need matchy-matchy everything for it all to go together. If you keep things in the same color family, they’ll look great.

For example, I picked cane chairs and a wood couch, along with planters and a chair that are all in different shades of a warm brown.

Sources:

Conversation set – I love the look, that it almost looks like cane. It’s also light an airy, so adds a lighter element to the design. Amazon – Quality Outdoor Living 65-YZSP02 Hermosa 3 Piece Chat Set, Tan Wicker + Light Beige Cushions – $336

Sofa – Love the wood color on this cute, modern sofa. Amazon – Christopher Knight Home 305076 Baish Outdoor Acacia Wood 2 Seater Sofa, Teak Finish/Dark Gray – $380

Planter – These are simple but help echo the warm wood tones throughout the design. They are also BIG – 15″x17″x15″. From Amazon – Furinno 2-FG16450 Tioman Hardwood Flower Box, Two-Pack, Natural – $108 for two planters.

Coffee Table – Another piece reflecting the warm wood tones. This is a beautiful table and is 45″ long, made of Wal Mart – Outdoor Acacia Wood Coffee Table, Sandblast Finish – $120

Rug – The color of this rug is called cinnamon stick, and I love how it just warms up a room, but is geometric so very modern and contemporary. Safavieh Martha Stewart Patrick Geometric Indoor/Outdoor Area Rug, in Cinnamon Stick – $156 for a 6′ x 9′ rug.

Grey and White Affordable Patio Furniture and Decor

Grey and White Patio Ideas
Sources & Shoppable Links Below

This is for you neutral lovers out there. If you are like me and love all things neutral, this look’s the BEST!

Tip 5: Neutrals are your friend.

I think the grey furniture looks super modern and chic, and the cream carpet and planters will really pop. This is especially true if you have a lot of greenery. Having a yard full of grass or greenery next to a neutral setup like this will look amazing – and like you are staying in a luxury resort.

Tip 6: Repeat Colors to Make a Pattern

If you have a color in your design just once, it kind of sticks out. If you have too many colors in your design, it can create a lack of harmony and balance. The Home Stories A to Z blog has a great article with 6 more tips for outdoor decorating, and she recommends choosing no more than 2 colors to decorate with, as a beginner.

So, in this moodboard, I tried to emphasize grey and white by repeating the grey color in both sets of patio cushions, and also the pouf. Then I repeated white in the umbrella, rug, and planters. This helps bring to life my color scheme and make it look purposeful and planned.

Sources:

Umbrella – A white patio umbrella just screams “resort” to me. Best Choice Products 10ft Offset Hanging Outdoor Market Patio Umbrella w/ Easy Tilt Adjustment – Cream – $85

Conversation Set – This wicker one with grey cushions is an amazing price, for getting 2 chairs, a loveseat, and a coffee table. The grey cushions will help hide stains too if you have kids. Amazon – Wisteria Lane 5 Piece Outdoor Patio Furniture Sets, Wicker Rattan Sectional Sofa with Seat Cushions, Gray – $399 – $499 + shipping.

2 Chair Chat set – The way this is shaped gives it a modern vibe, while still being comfortable since it has both bottom and back cushions. Wal Mart – Better Homes and Gardens Brecken Patio 5 Piece Chat Set with Gray Cushions – $430

Pouf – Everybody needs a good pouf – this one has a cute geometric trellis type pattern. Majestic Home Goods Indoor Outdoor Treated Polyester Gray Athens Ottoman Pouf – $102

Rug – I love all things tribal and Moroccan when it comes to rugs. It helps give a more boho and relaxed vibe. Rugs USA – Ivory Diamond Tribal Indoor/Outdoor Area Rug – $172 for a 7’x10′.

Tall Planters – Tall white planters with amazing greenery peeking out – it helps your plants really pop. Amazon – LA JOLIE MUSE Tall Planters Outdoor Indoor – Tree Planter 20 inch, Pack of 2 – $106.

Short Planters – These round planters are simple, but still go with the grey and white vibe. Amazon – Flower Pots Outdoor Indoor Planter – 11.3 inch, Set of 2 – $40.

Conclusion and Wrap Up

Ok, so that was fun, right? I hope you learned a LOT about putting together a “look” for your patio, and my six tips help you pick the perfect outdoor decor to make a cohesive design.

The three different color schemes should help inspire you to mix things up on your own patio. We covered beige and blue, then tangerine and wood, and finally grey and white.

Plus you got a solid list of affordable sources of modern outdoor patio furniture, all who deliver right to your door: Wal Mart, Amazon, Home Depot, and Rugs USA.

Which moodboard do you like the best? Beige & Blue, Tangerine & Wood, or the Grey & White? Let me know in the comments below!

Now that you have the “big” pieces set, check out my post on 12 Ideas for Patio Decor (on a budget) for things like art, planters, lighting, and water features to make your outdoor space complete.

12 Ideas for Patio Decor (on a budget)

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

Have you got your patio furniture, and the basic layout for your patio or backyard – but it doesn’t feel “finished” or show your personality?

Well, stop here for a minute – I’ll give you 12 different ideas for patio decor to make your outdoor space more personal, playful, and inviting. At the same time, I’ll feature items that are on the affordable side, and will have the convenience of shipping right to your home.

Save to Pinterest for later!

Today we’ll focus mainly on outdoor decorative items like:

  • Outdoor art
  • Planters
  • Lighting
  • Water features

The inspiration behind this post was actually my friend who has been overhauling her backyard with her husband. They put up a brand new beautiful cedar wood fence around their entire patio. They needed some ideas to make their patio decor look pulled together, especially the areas near their fence.

We’ll start with the most creative ideas for patio decor first – art!

Decorative Outdoor Art

1. Whimsical Art

Etsy is a great source for finding beautiful and unique outdoor art by all sorts of independent artists. Here are a few of my picks for my friend’s style, but there are literally 1000’s of artists to choose from on Etsy.

When I was talking with my friend, she mentioned a piece a couple of times – a cute ceramic blue owl similar to this one on Etsy. Something like this could be used as your “lead piece” for inspiration to guide your patio decor. See my guide – How to Design a Room for more info on the lead piece.

Outdoor wall art SET OF 6 Moroccan tiles, from GVEGA. $60 from Etsy. This would definitely go with the owl, and help give a little bit of boho vibe to your space.

6 Flying birds wall art made from ceramic for outdoor wall art, from GVEGA. $88 on Etsy. These would really “pop” when placed on a cedar fence and just look beautiful.

2. Natural Art

My friend also wanted her patio decor to be inspired by nature – the greens and oranges of succulents and so on. So, a DIY moss artwork could be a fun project to try.

Our Crafty Mom has a great tutorial on how to make a DIY Moss Garden Wall Art. It’s using mainly materials from the dollar store. I like this because you could use the same principle to put moss, bark, and even succulents on an artwork to create something beautiful for your patio.

Photo: Our Crafty Mom – How To Make A Unique DIY Moss Garden Wall Art

3. Metal Art

Below are a couple of more purely decorative metal art pieces from Amazon that would be great on a fence, wall, or post in any patio. They are fairly neutral in terms of color so would go well with pretty much any color scheme.

Outdoor planter ideas for patio decor

Photo: Lindsey Lamont via Unsplash

My friend wanted some cool planters to put on or near her brand new fence. I came up with several options including a vertical garden, hanging planters, and more traditional planter pots. Getting a variety of planters are a great idea for patio decor, and making your space look finished and well-thought-out.

4. Vertical Gardens

I’m loving this vertical cedar ladder style planter from Etsy, for about $180. I think it would make watering a thirsty herb garden super easy, and would be great if you are limited on space.

You can also get vertical garden planter plans on Etsy to make your own and save some serious cash.

5. Living Walls

Living walls are basically a vertical planter for succulents, and are perfect to hang on a fence or wall. They look awesome and are fairly low maintenance. Plus they add a splash of color and personality to an otherwise boring fence.

Photo: A Life Unfolding – Simple Outdoor Decor Inspiration Just in Time for Memorial Day

Etsy has some amazing options for really awesome hand made succulent planters. Here is one from Stewart Landing Co., CEDAR Living Wall Picture Frame Planter 11″ or 17.”

6. Fence Planters

This is a really cute dragonfly succulent planter made from old fence boards from Etsy. I thought the little dragonfly touch would help echo the whimsical nature of our signature piece – the blue ceramic owl.

Using any of below affordable hanging fence planters from Amazon would make any patio look more “finished” and cozy.

Below two planters are a little more traditional:

These fence planters have a little more modern flair with a concrete look:

7. Classic Hook and Hanging Planter

A classic hook and hanging planter, spaced out at regular intervals would also add a pop of color to a back fence, or under your eaves. Here are a few hanging planters from Amazon that I love:

Traditional Plant Pots

8. Square Planters

Large square planters spaced evenly along a fence would look really cute on a long patio. The large ones below are from Amazon.

I found plans for these awesome DIY planter boxes from Etsy, they seem super easy and would make it really affordable to add large planters to your backyard.

Both of below square planters are from Amazon, and are very affordable and have a very modern flair.

9. Round Planters

There are so many modern planter pots available these days. Simply fill with your favorite flower, plants, or succulents. I wanted to include a few plant pots that look modern but are also super affordable:

2-Pack 15 Inch Round Faux Stone Resin Garden Potted Planter  – $45 for 2 huge pots, from Wal-Mart.

2-Pack 15 Inch Round Faux Stone Resin Garden Potted Planter Flower Pot Indoor Outdoor, Brown

Mayne Caprio 18in x 16in Tall Planter – Black – $55 from Wal-Mart

Mayne Caprio 18in x 16in Tall Planter - Black

Pure Garden Fiber Clay Planters – Set of Three – for less than $100 on Amazon.

Outdoor Lighting Ideas

Photo: Randy Fath via Unsplash

Lighting can make or break your backyard or patio. It can add romance, warmth, or mystery. Don’t forget lighting when you are decorating your outdoor space.

10. String Lights

String lights that are Edison style or the globe bulb style will make your patio feel warm and cozy at night. Both of below options are under $50 and sold on Amazon:

11. Outdoor Solar Lanterns

Solar lanterns are super convenient since you can put them literally anywhere in your outdoor space. Since they are powered by the sun, no cords needed. I found a couple with a more contemporary flair on Amazon. They would really help elevate your space and make it look awesome – day or night.

Lights4fun, Inc. Large Black Metal Solar Powered Outdoor Lantern – $57 on Amazon.

Grand Patio Outdoor Solar Powered Resin Wicker Floor Lamp – less than $70 on Amazon.

12. Water Features

Water features and fountains are pretty expensive, but they are so beautiful and relaxing for any outdoor space. I would say, use sparingly, since you don’t want the sound of running water to become overpowering.

I had a hard time finding many under $150. But, I did find a few, so here’s my mini-roundup of affordable water features:

AquaSprouts Fountain: Hydroponic, Aquaponic, Water Garden (8 Gallons) – less than $136 from Etsy. You can grow plants in addition to adding a zen-like quality to your backyard or patio, a win-win.

Belham Living Paradise Zen Frog Solar Outdoor Fountain – under $140 from Wal-Mart. This cute little yogi frog also has a built in solar power to power the pump, so no cords will show.

Belham Living Paradise Zen Frog Solar Outdoor Fountain

PeterIvan Outdoor Waterfall Fountain – under $100 on Amazon. I like the simplicity of this fountain, and think it would make your space quiet and serene.

Conclusion

Sharing is caring – save to Pinterest for later!

Overall, creating a finished, cohesive look for your patio decor should be fun, and allow you to express your personality and style. I hope some of my ideas for outdoor art, planters, lighting, and water features inspired you to make your space great!

To truly create a cohesive look for your space, check out my post, How to Design a Room (for beginners) for a step-by-step process that will help you put together an awesome look – even for a patio or backyard!

Which of my 12 ideas for patio decor do you want to try for your own space?

What are you struggling with when you decorate your own backyard, patio, or deck?

Leave a comment below, I’d love to hear from you.

Budget Bathroom Remodel (DIY for under $350)

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

Have you been living with a bathroom you hate?

I have – for the past 2 years!

If you are ready for a budget bathroom remodel and are willing to put in a little work to save a lot of money, then this post is for you! Don’t worry – no demo required!

I’m going to give you a step-by-step breakdown on how to take your bathroom from meh to modern for under $350. The main way we’ll stick to this budget is by using a LOT of paint, and avoiding doing ANY demo. I’ll give you affordable sources and pro tips for getting a clean, modern look that will make your small bathroom seem bigger and more spa-like.

Here are the steps we’ll cover for our budget bathroom remodel:

  • Make a plan and create a moodboard
  • Clean and prep for painting
  • Paint the walls
  • Paint the hardware & shower curtain rod
  • Change out lights
  • Change out mirror
  • Clean again
  • Accessorize!

When we bought our condo the whole place had been painted a pleasing light grey – except for the Master Bedroom and Master Bathroom. That was left a lovely dark khaki brown and light beige combo. Oy!

So here we are 2 years later – and I’m finally tackling this project since I’ve been at home a lot more lately. My goal was to do this for under $400 – which we did by doing the work ourselves, painting our hardware, and finding some hot deals.

General material list (totaling less than $350):

OK let me break it down for ya…

Here is what I was starting with (AKA The Before Photo):

Before photo – beige, khaki, and brushed nickel

Plan and Moodboard

First things first – I needed a plan! I always start my projects with a few Pinterest searches and then make a moodboard showing whatever items I want to keep, along with anything new. That way I can make sure everything goes together.

My moodboard below shows my vanity, which I wanted to keep, with some ideas to achieve the bright, clean, modern look I wanted. I used a tribal/boho bath mat as my inspiration piece.

My master bedroom was a beige and khaki color scheme from the old owners so I needed to keep color scheme fairly neutral. The paint colors I chose were Behr Swiss Coffee for our walls and matte black for our hardware that would provide a nice contrast with the walls.

Master bathroom moodboard – new and old

Clean and Prep

Next step of our budget bathroom remodel is cleaning and prepping. Not my favorite step, I’ll be honest.

Clean

By cleaning, I mainly mean cleaning the walls, since there was dust, hair, and nasty stuff everywhere. So I just washed the walls with a wet rag and a scrubber.

Prep

Next comes prepping the walls. If you have semi-gloss on your bathroom walls, which you probably do, you may want to remove the gloss to make the new paint stick. I found the easiest way is to use Klean Strip Liquid Sandpaper which deglosses the shiny coating. You can just wipe it on with a sponge.

Pro Tip: Take off all the light switch covers, hardware, and any light fixtures or mirrors you are going to replace. This way you won’t have to do touch ups later when you change them out (found this out the hard way).

Fix Texture (if needed)

My walls were in bad shape – which is why I waited 2 years for this project. The texture on my walls was honestly the worst texture job I have ever seen. So, I actually had to re-texture my walls, using Homax orange peel spray texture. This was scary at first, so I watched a couple of YouTube videos and went for it.

Pro Tips: Practice spraying texture on a large piece of cardboard to get the hang of it. Cover everything up you don’t want texture on, it’s messy. Also if you have large globs of texture you are trying to hide, sand them down first.

Here’s a photo during the retexturing process:

Photo of retexturing walls using Homax Citrus Peel spray texture
During retexturing process – cover EVERYTHING with plastic.

Paint the Walls

This is pretty self explanatory – paint is a must-have for nearly every budget bathroom remodel. As far as wall paint goes, I chose a Behr Premium Plus Primer Semi Gloss, in Swiss Coffee. Swiss Coffee was a great choice because it made our small bathroom seem so much bigger. If you have a small bathroom like me, I’d definitely recommend using something light on the walls for your budget bathroom remodel.

Swiss Coffee seems way lighter on the wall, than on the paint chip, but here’s a comparison for you. It’s hard to tell since our bathroom hardly gets any natural light. It’s basically a creamy, warm off white.

The Behr Premium Plus is thick! I went from a dark khaki to the off white of Behr Swiss Coffee, and I only needed 2 coats, no primer needed. It’s a little more expensive, but a time saver, so totally worth it for me.

I like to do the corners and details first with a brush, then take my roller and roll it out to try and hide the brush marks. Don’t forget the trim. Will make a big difference in refreshing that too. Here’s a shot during the painting process:

Paint the Hardware

Painted bathroom hardware – Matte Black

This was a new frontier for me, but it turned out great. I thought that having matte black hardware would make my budget bathroom remodel seem more modern, and would contrast nicely with the light colored walls.

Since my hardware was fairly new, but in brushed nickel, I thought it would be worth a try to paint everything matte black, and keep this a true DIY budget bathroom remodel. I ended up spray painting my towel bars, toilet paper holder, vanity knobs, and even my shower curtain rod to stay within my budget.

Here are the products I used, in order of application (primer, paint, topcoat)

Here’s how to paint your bathroom hardware:

  • First find a spot to do the painting outside – and cover everything you don’t want paint on with a tarp or old sheet. At first I put everything on an old sheet, but found an old cardboard box worked better, which I could transfer inside for drying.
  • Next, give the hardware a light sanding with 300-400 grit sandpaper (fine or extra fine) will help all the paint stick. Try to avoid deep scratches but light scratching is ok.
  • Then spray a light coat of primer at 8 or 10 inches away. The key to avoid drips is making it a light mist and do a few light coats right away.
How to paint bathroom hardware - primer
Sanded and Primered Hardware
  • Next spray on your first coat of color – I chose Matte Black by Rustoleum.
How to paint bathroom hardware - first coat of paint
First coat of color
  • Let dry, then spray a second coat of the same color – a light mist using several coats is the key to avoid drips. Turn things over, upside down, etc to get all the sides.
  • A clear topcoat is key as your final step, since you’ll be touching your hardware – especially the towel bar. I used a flat topcoat but I think a satin might be better for reducing the amount of dust that sticks to these babies.

I’ll be honest the shower curtain rod was the most difficult, and I had to do like 10 coats but it looks pretty good. I’ll update this post to let you know how long it lasts.

If you don’t want to do any painting of your hardware, here are a couple of similar options that you can buy on Amazon (no paint required!), each less than $65 for the whole set:

Change Out Lights

Once the painting was over we were in the home stretch! Picking out lights is fun, and both of ours were old and hideous.

I went to my inspiration photos from Pinterest, and kept seeing a matte black modern globe-type light in a lot of the photos I liked.

I found a similar one called the Trade Winds Angie 2-Light Wall Sconce, from Lights Online. It was only $70 after their 20% discount code from joining their email list, and 2-day shipping was free. This baby was also dimmable, which was an added bonus.

Pro Tip: If you pick out a light that has the same “style” or base as your existing, it’s super easy to swap out. Just follow the manufacturer’s instructions and turn off the power going to that location.

New Vanity Light: Trade Winds Angie from Lights Online
White Low profile LED Ceiling Flush Mount LIght Fixture from Home Depot

For the room with the shower, I had a rusty white “boob” light, which was just in terrible shape. I picked a nice super-low profile LED light from Home Depot, which was very bright but also dimmable. It’s called the Commercial Electric 15 in. White Round LED Energy Star Flat Panel Ceiling Flush Mount Fixture and was $50 from Home Depot. This helped make the whole room look modern and bright.

Change Out Mirror

One of the biggest changes for my budget bathroom remodel was the mirror. I originally intended to paint the existing antique looking mirror frame black. I did that, and it just reminded me of a mirror from a gothic-inspired bathroom so I had to resort to plan B, buying a new mirror.

Studio McGee Decorative Mirror from Threshold by Target
Mirror by Studio McGee with Threshold, from Target

Lucky for me, Studio McGee just did a collaboration with Threshold from Target, and they have an awesome modern black mirror with rounded corners for only $70 (photo above).

I just ordered online at Target, and went and picked up at a local store. Target has lots of great deals for modern home decor so check their website, especially around holidays.

Here is another similar sized mirror with sharper corners from Amazon (affiliate link) for $133. I love the thin frame and think it would great over both a single or double vanity.

Clean Again

Next up was cleaning up all the mess and deep cleaning our shower, floors, and vanity like nobody’s business. Nothing makes a bathroom feel brand new like a deep clean!

Pro Tip: Magic Erasers really are magic and can even work on getting off mildew from grout in your shower, and can make old grimy tile look way better. Plus they are great for removing marks and fingerprints from doors, walls, etc.

Accessorize

Keep some money in your budget for a new toothbrush holder and soap dispenser, bathroom rug, shower curtain, towels, etc. Once you have an updated bathroom, you’ll want to update those too! I included a bunch of accessories below that will go with a modern, neutral color scheme.

For the bathroom accessories, I went with grey ceramic to tie in one of the colors from the countertop, from Amazon (affiliate links) for $25:

I’m including a few other modern and affordable accessory sets I considered (ranging between $31 – $41):

For the shower curtain, I like the simple waffle weave textured ones, or geometric patterns for a more modern look.

Pro Tip: To make the room seem bigger, remember to hang your shower curtain rod as high as the curtain allows.

Some great shower curtains from Amazon (affiliate links) are below (each less than $19):

The rug was really fun to shop for, since you can opt for something more trendy that you can always change out later. We wanted something cream and black or grey, and in a geometric design. Below are a couple of options less than $25 I found on Amazon (affiliate links).

Below is a more neutral, solid color rug from Wal-Mart (affiliate link). The Luxurious Plush and Braided Chenille Anti-Skid Overside Rug, in ivory, for $22. Since this was for our master bath, we wanted something soft for our feet – that would also cover up our older tile.

Wrap Up

Save to Pinterest for inspiration later!

Well – there you go – a full breakdown of my budget bathroom remodel for less than $350. I hope you enjoyed seeing my bathroom go from beige builder to modern marvel. Here’s a final before and after shot of my budget bathroom remodel:

Trust me, the best way to tackle any new project is to do your research (Pinterest and YouTube work great!), make a plan, then just dive in. You can always fix mistakes if they happen when it comes to home makeovers.

Final tip: When buying stuff online – always check the return policy so you can return it if your plan changes or it doesn’t work with your decor scheme.

Check out my resource page for more sources of affordable modern home decor to help you with your own budget bathroom remodel!

Let me know what you think of my budget makeover, in the comments below…

DIY: Entryway Closet to Mudroom

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

Do you have a tiny, non-functional entryway or no entryway?

Do your loved ones leave their shoes/jackets/backpacks all over your living spaces and it’s making you crazy?

Wish you had a mudroom/drop zone for everyone to drop their stuff off when they come in?

For me, the answer was absolutely YES to all of the above! So, I decided to do something about it, and transform our entryway closet to a mudroom.

I spent a lot of time thinking how I could take our entryway closet to a mudroom on a tight budget, and want to share it with you to show you how easy it is! It’s been a game changer, since now I have trained my toddler and hubby to drop their shoes, jackets, and backpacks in our mini-mudroom, and it’s made me feel more relaxed and at peace with my family.

Entryway closet to mudroom before and after
Sharing is caring! Would love it if you pin this idea to Pinterest!

Here’s what I did go from entryway closet to mudroom:

  1. Clean out the closet (AKA the hardest part)
  2. Measure everything
  3. Gather or buy materials
  4. Paint the inside
  5. Put up the wallpaper
  6. Add hooks (lots) & mini-bench
  7. Put in your stuff & enjoy

Let me show you each step…

Step 1: Clean Out The Entryway Closet (AKA the hardest part)

Entryway Closet - Before

Our entryway closet was terrible, let’s face it. First things first, I had to clean out this baby.

The previous owners had not painted it when they painted the rest of the house – so it was a lovely shade of rust… We had a jumble of stuff thrown in there – from a vacuum, to toolbox, to toys, brooms, etc.

Honestly the hardest part was finding an alternate place for some of this stuff. The toys we purged or put in my toddler’s bedroom closet.

The vacuum we put upstairs in a spare bedroom closet. Our downstairs has luxury vinyl plank flooring, and the upstairs is carpeted – so it made more sense anyways.

The brooms and cleaning supplies we moved to our laundry closet (which I’ll get to organizing “someday.”

The toolbox went outside in our utility closet.

Step 2: Measure Everything

Entryway Closet Before - Emptied out

Next up was to measure the space inside, since I needed to buy enough wallpaper for the back wall, and create a mini-bench for backpacks.

We also removed our old broom holder, and relocated it to the laundry closet.

Step 3: Gather or Buy Materials for Your New Mudroom

Next up we needed to gather all the materials needed for our mini-mudroom makeover. I ended up spending about $62 for this entryway closet makeover since I was able to use quite a few items I already had around the house.

Here is my full materials list, which should total around $100 – $150 if you needed to buy everything on the list. I challenge you to try and use stuff you already have on hand to save $ (that’s what I did).

  • Primer and Paint – 1 quart cans of each = $16 – $25 depending on brand.
  • Peel-and-Stick Wallpaper – around $35 for 1 roll
  • Hooks and Hook Rack – $20 – $37
  • Shelf and Brackets – $7 – $18
  • Drywall anchors & wood screws for installing everything – $9.
  • Optional Shoe Rack – $17

Primer and Paint

First I needed some primer and paint, you may not even need this step if your closet matches the rest of your house. Thankfully I had some paint left over from a different remodeling project last year (I know you probably shouldn’t use year-old paint but let’s face it, we do it).

I used Killz Primer from Home Depot to cover up the ugly rust colored paint. It does the trick every time when you want to cover up dark colors with light ones! 1 quart is probably all you need for a closet, it runs around $9.

Peel & Stick Wallpaper

This was my favorite part of the whole project! I have always wanted to try some of the new peel and stick wallpapers and wasn’t sure where in my house I wanted to put it.

When I had the idea for a mini-mudroom – I thought putting wallpaper on the back wall would really elevate the space, and be a cute, thoughtful touch when guests grab their coat from the coat closet.

I used the wallpaper from the first photo below, around $34: RoomMates Gray Chevron Stripe Peel and Stick Wallpaper from Amazon (affiliate link). I also included a couple of other ones I considered that would give your mini-mudroom a modern look.

Hooks and Hook Rack

I knew I wanted hooks for things like backpacks, kids jackets, and hats, so some serious hooks were a must. The white coat rack was around $21 from Amazon, and the pack of 5 coat hooks was $15.99. If you only need a couple of coat hooks you can probably just pick some up for less at Home Depot, Target, or Wal Mart.

Shelf and Brackets

Creating a mini-bench for backpacks took me a while to figure out, as I wanted to do this on the cheap. So, I happened to be cleaning out our garage, and found something like the below heavy duty brackets ($18), which I had bought for a different project:

Then, I saw an awesome Rubbermaid 12″ x 24″ wood shelf at Home Depot for under $7, so picked it up to go with my brackets. My closet was only 25 inches wide so I needed something small, and this fit perfectly.

Another way to do this step inexpensively is to build a shelf out of wood or wood scraps, with wood brackets as support. Then paint to match the rest of your closet.

Drywall Screws and Wood Screws

We had a bunch of drywall anchors on hand, which you need for installing both the shelf and hook rack, to make sure they are stable. Home Depot has drywall and stud anchors that work beautifully for $9.

Optional Shoe Rack

At some point I want to add a small shoe rack, like this Closetmaid one below for only $17, but that will have to wait for now.

Step 4: Paint the Inside

Entryway closet after painting the inside

I painted the closet with 1 coat of Killz primer, and then 2 coats of the same color paint as the rest of our downstairs. I also painted the closet ceiling & trim the same color as the walls (which is how the rest of our home was painted). Looks better already!

Step 5: Put Up the Wallpaper

Mini Mudroom with RoomMates Grey Chevron Wallpaper

The RoomMates wallpaper was super easy to work with, the only hard part was matching up the pattern. I did this whole thing in about 45 minutes.

Luckily you can remove it if you “mess up” the pattern – so it makes if very easy to use this stuff.

Step 6: Add Hooks and Mini-bench

Mini Mudroom with hooks and mini-bench

I’m spoiled since I have a handy husband, and he installed all my hooks and the little mini-bench using a drill and drywall anchors.

The mini-bench is made from 2 brackets and a little shelf from Rubbermaid. This was mainly to set backpacks on.

The mini-bench you could also make with spare wood you have on hand from other projects.

Step 7: Put in Your Stuff and Enjoy Your New Mudroom

Once I put some of our stuff inside, it made me so happy. Finally a place for backpacks, shoes, hats, and coats that was beautiful and functional.

I added a bin on the top shelf to store our reusable grocery bags. At some point I’ll also add the small shoe rack from Closetmaid to store shoes.

Conclusion

Well this one was pretty short and sweet. We cleaned out our ugly entryway closet and completely transformed it into a working stylish, mudroom:

7 Easy Steps to turn your entryway closet into a mudroom
Sharing is caring! Please pin to Pinterest if you like this post!

Our steps were first cleaning out and finding new homes for stuff like the vacuum and brooms. Then we measured, gathered our materials, painted, and put up the wallpaper. Finally we added in our hooks, coat rack, and mini-bench. Then it was just a matter of adding our coats and hats.

For around $60, this was totally worth it for me to keep me from having to pick up other people’s stuff all day. I hope it inspires you too!

Leave a comment below telling me what part about my entryway closet to mudroom transformation you liked the best!

For more ideas on how to spruce up any space on the cheap, check out my article, 5 Ways to Make a Room Cozy (on a budget).

10 Helpful Tips to Buy Furniture Online

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

Tempted to buy furniture online during the lockdown? Never done it before?

Have no fear – I’ve become a pro at buying furniture online over the years, and will share everything I’ve learned to help you buy furniture online like a boss! I’ve bought coffee tables that are way too short, couches that are a bit too big, and a desk that was the perfect fit. Nearly everything in the below photo was purchased online (by me)!

10 helpful tips to buy furniture online Pin

My mistakes and wins are your learnings, so you can buy furniture online with confidence. I’ve made a list of 10 helpful tips for YOU to buy furniture online like a boss! Here’s what we’ll cover:

  • Understand Your Needs (and wants)
  • Measure, Measure, Measure
  • Determine Your Budget
  • Check the Specs
  • Check for Scale
  • Evaluate Quality
  • Find the Best Price
  • Examine Return Policy
  • Select Shipping Option and/or Assembly
  • Inspect & Enjoy!

1: Understand Your Needs (and wants)

Prioritize

Figure out what you really need in terms of furniture, and the function it needs to serve. If it’s more than one piece, then make a list of priorities (in order of urgency).

Next Consider Function

Who’s going to use this furniture? How durable does it need to be? What comfort level do you want? Or, can form be placed over function if it’s not a heavy-use item?

A lot of these functionality questions can help you decide what type of materials you need. For example, if you have small kids, white fabric dining chairs are probably a bad idea (trust me, it is!). Something darker or with wipeable fabric would be more appropriate.

If you want something to last a long time, you may want to steer clear of particle board and go for real hardwood construction.

Determine Your Design Style

Next up, determine your design style – this will help you find inspiration and furniture online that fits with your style. Take the interior design style quiz on my post, Finding your Interior Design Style – Quiz and Sources.

After you find your style, make your vision board on Pinterest, Instagram, or a Google Image search, and look for examples of furniture online that matches your style. Even if the pieces are out of your price range, it will help give you something to try to mimic in a lower price range.

Insider tip: Use your design style as a descriptor when doing a search for your furniture item. For example, “Scandinavian coffee table” or “Mid-century modern couch.”

2: Measure, Measure, Measure

I would say this is the single most important step in buying furniture online. You won’t be walking into a showroom to get a feel for the height of a table, or how tall (or short) a chair is. So, you need to measure and check the product’s specs to make sure it fits and is proportional to other items in the room.

First, Measure your Space

First, you need to measure the space you want to place this furniture. This is to get a basic idea of maximum dimensions for your new pieces.

If you’re buying any kind of larger piece – make sure there is enough space around it for traffic flow. Apartment Therapy has a great article, Dimensions to Follow: Furniture Spacing Basics. This will tell you the minimum space you need around your dining table or coffee table, for example.

Next, Measure Adjacent Furniture

Next, measure the pieces of furniture that will be near your new piece. For example, if you are buying dining room chairs, measure your dining room table.

If you are buying a coffee table, measure your couch and armchairs. According to Freshome, a coffee table shouldn’t be lower than 1-2 inches from the cushion of your couch seat. I made this mistake myself:

Coffee table that is too short for the couch
My coffee table was about 4-6 inches shorter than the couch cushion

I learned this the hard way when I ordered the above coffee table online from All Modern, and it was about 4 – 6 inches shorter than my couch seat! It looked tiny compared to my huge couch. It was on clearance at the All Modern Outlet, so no returns allowed!

I had to buy $30 of Nannarp furniture legs from IKEA to make it tall enough to be functional.

coffee table with IKEA legs added
Coffee table with IKEA Nannarp legs added to it.

Also Measure Items Your Are Replacing

Make sure you measure your existing items if you are replacing them, so you can try to get something the approximate same size (or bigger/smaller if that’s what you want), just a different style or color.

Don’t Forget Your Doorways and Passageways

Finally, measure all doors, entryways, hallways, and stairways (or elevators!) the furniture must travel through to reach it’s final destination. Crate and Barrel has a quick guide on How To Measure Furniture for Delivery. This step is mainly if you are buying something online that is already assembled like a couch or mattress, since most online furniture comes with some assembly required.

3: What’s Your Budget?

This one is pretty self explanatory but super-important. You don’t want to waste your time looking for couches, tables, or chairs you simply can’t afford. A lot of times I actually need to shop for furniture online a little bit before I can set a realistic budget.

Keep in mind, smaller is generally cheaper. So, if you are looking at the lower end of price ranges, double check the product specs to make sure the item is big enough. More on specs next…

4: Check the Specs

Dimensions Are Key

Once you find the pieces you like online, look at the product specifications on the product details page and write down the dimensions. Make sure you are looking at the assembled dimensions, not the dimensions of the box that it comes in.

Make sure the new furniture fits in your space and will work with the scale of your other furniture.

Project 62 Paulo Desk from Target

I needed a slim profile desk to fit in my small home office space, so checking the length and width of the Project 62 Paulo desk from Target, which I bought online, became super important. Check out my full review of the Project 62 Paulo Desk from Target.

Check the Materials

The product specifications or description will often reveal the materials of the item. If not, you can always call or email the online furniture retailer a question on what it’s actually made of.

Wood and Wood Products

For types of wood, The Stated Home Blog has a great post, Types of Wood for Furniture, that has an extremely thorough explanation of every type of wood or wood product commonly used in furniture.

How to buy furniture - types of wood
Coffee table with wood veneer

The coffee table I ended up getting for my living room had to be a light colored wood. I ended up getting this coffee table from All Modern, and it had a pretty nice manufactured wood finish. A similar one can be found here.

I will say that furniture in the lower price ranges typically uses wood veneers which can chip off or peel, with age or if you get it wet. But if you’re not looking for it to last a lifetime – that may be okay.

I’m somewhat partial to IKEA as they have a lot of real wood furniture (like inexpensive pine) that you can easily paint down the road if you get sick of the color.

Upholstery Fabrics

A great article with tons of information about the most common types of upholstery fabrics is Fabric.com’s post on Picking the Perfect Upholstery Fabric. I have a little boy at home so have been looking for easily cleaned upholstery like wipeable faux leather, dark fabrics, and easy cleaning wood veneers.

Toy Storage Ideas for Living Room

For our coffee table we chose bonded leather upholstery, the Noble House Angelo Bonded Leather Storage Ottoman (affiliate link) from Wal Mart, and I love it! My toddler often has snacks and drinks on the coffee table and cleanup is a breeze.

Check the Color (then check again)

Color can be super tricky when buying furniture online. Some ways around it include:

  • View the photos and closeups of the color on multiple devices (for example on your laptop, then your mobile, and maybe on an iPad).
  • Look at the reviews if anyone uploaded photos of the piece inside their home.
  • Read the reviews to see if anyone comments on the color, if it came in lighter/darker than expected.
  • Get a swatch – If the online retailer has a physical store, go in and check it out or ask them directly for a swatch of the fabric you like.

The West Elm Henry sofa I purchased online had a slate grey upholstery. It actually comes in over 90 different fabrics! I went to the store to check out a swatch and took a sample home with me, to look at in my place.

5: Check for Scale

There are a couple of ways to check for scale – meaning how the new piece will look relevant to other nearby pieces.

One way to check scale is to use painters tape or masking tape and tape out the dimensions on the floor in the room where it will go. This will give you an idea if it fits and if traffic can flow around it.

Another way to check for scale is to draw out a floorplan to make sure everything fits (for details, go to my post, 7 Simple Tips to Create a Floorplan. To sketch our your floorplan, you can use pencil and paper, or try a free online app like Room Planner.

The last way to check for scale is quick and dirty. I simply take a tape measure and measure out the product’s dimensions next to the adjacent furniture and imagine it being there. You could use cardboard boxes too, to get a good visual of how it will look.

I learned about scale when looking for an end table to go with my new coffee table. I almost bought below Sauder North Avenue Side Table from Wal Mart. It was super cute, very modern, and the price was amazing at less than $45!

Before I hit the “buy” button, I checked the product specs. It measures 15″ x 15″ x 20″ high. I measured my couch, the arm of the couch was 26″ high. So, this table would be 6″ lower than the arm of my couch – not very useful when you want to try to put your drink down somewhere.

The general rule, according to Apartment Therapy, is to have the side table around the same height as the arm of your couch.

how to buy the right height side table

So, I ended up picking up a cute side table at Ross for Less, which was within an inch or two in height of the couch arm. It was only $40, so a great price, and matched my coffee table well.

Bottom Line: Make sure you check for scale before you hit the “buy” button when buying furniture online!

6: Evaluate Quality

Question: How Can You Determine Quality When Buying Furniture Online?

Answer: Reviews & Personal Evaluation

Read Reviews

One of the major benefits of buying furniture online is you can often find numerous product reviews online, to inform your buying decision. Read BOTH the good and bad reviews to see the pro’s and cons of each.

Once I find a piece of furniture online that I like, I often put the exact product name into Google and add the word “reviews.” Then I can try to find the item on other websites to find even more reviews (and do some price comparisons too!).

Personal Evaluation (if possible)

Another option is to buy from stores offering both online and brick-and-mortar stores. This way you could actually go into the store to try and find the item you like to see how it feels and looks. Then, you could always wait until they have a big holiday sale, buy the furniture online, and have it delivered to your door.

Henry Couch from West Elm

This is exactly what we did when we bought the Henry sofa from West Elm. We went to a West Elm store and tried it out, then waited until they had a big sale, bought it online, and had it delivered to our door.

Alternately you could try to find someone who owns the exact piece of furniture you are looking at. The best place for that is probably some of the interior design groups on Facebook, or if a blogger has posted a review of the item, you could always email them a question.

7: Find the Best Price (including shipping)

Start with a Google Search

Finding the best deal on Google is fairly easy if you are looking for a specific piece, but can be harder if you are open to any manufacturer or color. Google Shopping is a great option here, but a lot of times Amazon is left out from the Google search results.

Wait for Holiday Sales

Another tactic to finding the best price is patience. A lot of furniture stores and big box stores like Target will have sales around nearly every major holiday. If you can wait, start checking online furniture retailers for sales on holiday weekends.

Sign Up for Their Email List

A lot of online furniture stores offer discounts for signing up for their email marketing list. This is usually a pop-up on their site, or a newsletter subscription box.

Insider Tip: If you sign up for an account (or get on their email list) and put stuff in your cart, then you may get some “abandoned cart” deals. Some retailers will email you offers for your item, or even special discounts to try to entice you to purchase what’s in your cart.

8: Check the Return Policy

Return policy is important so make sure you read the fine print. Anything custom is typically a no-return policy, so be careful.

If returns are allowed, some company’s require you pay a restocking fee, or pay for shipping back to them. Again, read the fine print.

One benefit of shopping for furniture online through a brick-and-mortar store is that you may be able to return the item by taking it to a physical store. Wal-Mart, Target, and Home Depot are great retailers with both online and physical stores where you can take most returns purchased online.

Always read the fine print for return info on the product listing page. Check out the Penny Modern Resource page for more modern and affordable sources to buy furniture online.

9: Select your Shipping & Assembly Options

Shipping Options when Buying Furniture Online

A lot of online furniture stores offer free shipping if you order a certain dollar value worth of furniture. Others, who also have physical stores, offer free ship-to-store service, where you pick it up for free at your nearest store. Alternately, you would need to factor shipping costs into your budget, after you enter your zip code at the checkout.

Keep in mind, most furniture purchased online has some assembly required. If you are not handy, some online furniture retailers offer assembly and setup for a fee (it’s usually given as an option at checkout):

  • Amazon and IKEA offer an add-on to buy assembly and set up service through a third party.
  • Living Spaces offers full service delivery for an added fee.
  • All Modern and Wayfair also offer assembly for an extra fee.

10: Inspect and Enjoy!

OK, you bought your new table, and now it’s time to sit back and relax, right?

It’s not over yet folks – make sure you do a thorough inspection of the furniture once it arrives. You want to make sure all the pieces are there, and there are no scratches, stains, or broken parts. If so, you should take photos and contact the store’s customer service ASAP and let them know.

Put your furniture together, and enjoy it. You worked hard to find the perfect piece now put it to use.

Insider Tip: Some companies may not want to take returns on damaged merchandise, so they may offer you a significant discount if you agree to keep a piece damaged in transit.

Recap:

10 Tips for Buying Furniture Online Pin
Sharing is caring – if you liked this article – please share on Pinterest!

So, you now know everything I know about buying furniture online! We went through so much, and covered:

Understanding your needs & wants, measuring everything, budgeting, checking the specs, checking for scale. Then we figured out how to evaluate the quality of furniture online, finding the best price, and reviewing the return policy. Lastly, we learned about shipping and assembly options, and how to inspect once you get your brand new furniture delivered.

Which one surprised you? Let me know in the comments below.

I hope that my mistakes will help you buy furniture online like a boss! You got this!

Next, I recommend checking out my post, How to Design a Room (for beginners), for a full step-by-step guide on getting a cohesive, modern look to your home.

15 Stylish Toy Storage Ideas for Living Rooms

15 Stylish Toy Storage Ideas for Living Rooms

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

Are you sick of looking at toys all day, when you hang out in your living room? Are the piles of toys starting to look threatening? Or, do you just need some toy storage ideas for living rooms that are both modern and stylish vs basic and boring?

I have an almost-3-year-old toddler at home, and in the current situation, we have been having WAY too many toys out at nearly all times of the day and night. I needed some toy storage ideas for my living room, ASAP!

So, I’ve researched the heck out of how to hide and store toys in the living room, and can’t wait to share what I have learned!

This post is all about modern and stylish toy storage ideas for living rooms – while keeping to a modest budget. We’ll go over a 6 step process to get the toys under control, which includes an awesome product roundup with convenient shopping links. Our roundup will cover 4 main toy storage options including:

  • Cubbies
  • Storage ottomans
  • Storage benches
  • TV stands/credenzas

Plus we’ll ONLY show you pieces that are modern and contemporary to help create a cohesive look to your modern living room.

Let’s do this!

Step 1: Get rid of some toys

Donate or store old toys

The first step is admitting there is a problem – too many toys in the living room! Most kids just don’t need that many toys so I would propose a purge, preferably when they are not around. Donate or move to storage some toys that they just don’t play with any more.

Another thing you can do is move some of the toys to another room – either the kids bedroom, or a play room.

Step 2: Determine your living room’s exact toy storage needs

Put all the remaining toys in boxes – this will help you determine how much storage space you really need.

Next measure your space that you have to put a piece of furniture. This is really important when you buy anything online, as you need to make sure it fits the space, and will fit all your toys.

Step 3: Select a toy storage idea for your living room

toy storage ideas living room kam idris
Photo: Kam Idris via Unsplash

Here’s where I come in! Below are a bunch toy storage ideas for living rooms from different categories: cubbies, ottomans, benches, and TV stands. You may need a combination of a few of these pieces to fit all the toys in your living room.

Cubbies (from left to right):

Gotta love cubbies to provide a place to store toys in your living room. I tried to avoid the super basic ones so found a few that should be able to go with pretty much any color decor. Just buy some cute baskets or storage cubes to go inside and you are all set.

  1. Homfa Kids Toy Storage Cabinet – $129.99 from Amazon
  2. Better Homes and Gardens Bookshelf Square Storage Cabinet 4-Cube (Weathered) – $42.28 from Amazon
  3. FURINNO Basic 3×2 Bookcase Storage, Dark Walnut – $38.79 from Amazon

Storage Ottomans:

Toy Storage Ideas for Living Room

Storage Ottomans rule! We use the Noble House Angelo Bonded Leather Storage Ottoman (affiliate link) as our coffee table in our family room (photo to the left). Since we have a toddler, I wanted to avoid having sharp corners. It’s actually worked out great! It’s truly multifunctional: toy storage, coffee table, and a place to put your feet up! A few more options below:

Storage Benches:

I love storage benches since they can serve multiple purposes. You can store toys (or shoes) underneath, and it provides extra seating. Alternately, you could use it as a mini “drop zone” for backpacks and such too! We’ll probably be getting something like one of the below options for our family room:

TV Stands/Credenzas:

I love the idea of using a credenza or buffet under the TV, especially if it’s wall mounted, like ours. Or you can put it to the side of the room, or between the living and dining room. Here’s a few toy storage ideas that would go with modern or mid-century modern decor:

Step 4: Put the toys in your toy storage solution

Toy Storage Ideas for Living Rooms Phebe Tan
Photo: Phebe Tan via Unsplash

Pretty self explanatory, but now’s the time to put the toys in the toy storage piece you purchased. You could do another purge here if you want, or move some toys to another room if you need to.

Step 5: Make your kids put the toys away regularly

Now that you’ve got a nice, clutter free living room – it’s critical to keep it that way! It’s good to make kids do some work, and put their toys away before bed, even toddlers! You can try to keep toys organized in different bins, or just have them throw everything randomly into bins – probably would depend on their age.

Step 6: Enjoy “adulting” in a clutter-free, relaxing living room

Stylish Toy Storage Ideas for Living Rooms

After you put the kids to bed, have a cocktail with your partner and put your feet up. You did it! Doesn’t it feel great to have the toys out of sight and out of mind in your living room?

Which of the 15 toy storage ideas for living rooms did you like the best? Let me know in the comments below! Once we get our storage bench in from Amazon, I’ll post pics!

Next, if you want your living room to feel even more cozy and relaxed, check out my post, 5 Inexpensive Ways to Make a Room Feel Cozy. The first idea to up your room’s cozy factor is 100% Free!

5 Inexpensive Ways to Make a Room Cozy

5 Ways to Make A Room Cozy

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

Does your room feel cold? A little lifeless? Are the colors too cool, and making you a little bit depressed?

You’re in luck, this post is for you! I had this same exact problem, since my whole house was basically grey and white. I learned how to make a room cozy by doing a ton of research and incorporating a few new ideas into our family room. I thought I’d share everything with you to make your room cozy too!

By the end of this post, you will have the exact skills and ideas you need to make a room cozy, warm, and inviting, even on a small budget.

First we’ll figure out what it means to be cozy, and we’ll share our sources of inspiration. Then you will learn 5 different low-cost ways to make your room feel cozy, comfortable, and warm:

  • Rearrange your furniture
  • Ways to add color on the cheap
  • Use texture to add coziness
  • Pick accessories that will maximize coziness
  • Create mood lighting for your room

So get cozy, and read on to learn how to get even cozier!

What makes you feel cozy?

Cozy Room Andrew Ly Unsplash
Photo: Andrew Ly via Unsplash

Is it your favorite throw blanket and a pair of slippers? Setting your mood lighting by lighting a few candles?

Coziness can be hard to define but in terms of interior decorating, it’s a setting that is warm, inviting, and comfortable.

The Scandinavians also have a good word that is related to coziness, it’s called hygge.

Hygge doesn’t have a direct translation into English, but, according to Hygge House, it’s more of a feeling or state of mind. It’s a feeling of contentment, coziness, comfort, kinship, or charm. It’s considered the art of creating an intimate environment.

A few sources of inspiration for my research on all things cozy include:

5 Simple Ways to Make your Room Cozy:

1. Rearrange your furniture

Cozy Traditional Living Room Demorris Byrd Unsplash
Photo: Demorris Byrd via Unsplash

This one is 100% FREE! If you change up your furniture arrangement, it can make things seem more cozy and intimate.

  • Make seating arrangements closer and chairs/couch facing each other to spark conversation.
  • Make clustered seating around a coffee table or fireplace.
  • Make the focal point NOT the TV. Otherwise when you have guests, everyone will just look at the TV (versus talk to each other).
  • Move furniture away from walls, and try put a sofa table or console table behind the couch.
  • Create a reading nook in a corner.
Cozy Reading Nook Avery Klein
Create a Cozy Reading Nook. Photo cred: Avery Klein

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2. Use color

Cozy Living Room Hannah Busing Unsplash

Color is a great way to warm up a room and make it feel cozy. According to Good Housekeeping’s post, How to Use Warm Colors in Your Home, According to Interior Designers, warm colors are in the family of yellow, orange, and red (or with those undertones).

You can use color to make a room cozy in a number of ways:

Paint the walls

Cozy Emerald Living Room Aina Sharma Unsplash

For an accent wall (or the whole room), a dark color like emerald green (like photo here), trendy black, or moody dark blue, can make a room feel more intimate and relaxed too.

Nothing changes how a room feels better than paint (and it’s way cheaper than buying furniture if you DIY). You can use neutrals like grey or white – but choose a shade with undertones on the warm side.

Warm wood or leather

Penny Modern Cozy Living Room with Accents
Use of wood coffee table and cognac leather pillow make our formal living room more cozy

Warm wood tones or cognac leather can add much needed color to a cool color palette. In our living room above, we bought an awesome faux leather pillow from Wal-Mart.

Natural wood can be added by accents like wood trays, wooden plant pots, natural wood frames, or wood furniture like side tables or end tables. In the photo above, our coffee table is the Whitt coffee table purchased from All Modern. We added IKEA furniture legs to it, to make it taller!

Art

Artwork can add color to a room, my favorite place to buy downloadable art is Etsy. This way you can directly support individual artists, and small businesses – plus the variety of printable art is unbelievable!

You can print the digital files from Etsy at WalMart Photo (poster printing is super inexpensive).

You can also get inexpensive frames at Wal-Mart too, here are a few of my favorites:

Mainstays 24×36 Poster Frame, Matte Black = $17.99

Mainstays Brass Metallic Poster Frame = $24.99

4. Colorful Accents

Penny Modern Cozy Living Room Accents

Pillows, rugs, and throws are another way to add a touch of warm colors to a room. Remember to try and repeat the color at least 3 times to make it a pattern, to make a cohesive look.

In the photo above, I bought pillow covers from H&M Home (the patterned ones were only $5.99 each!) and IKEA in “warm” colors like beige, and a reddish brown pattern. In addition, H&M Home had the cutest wood trays that also helped make our family room more cozy.

3. Add Texture (lots of it)

Cozy Green Living Room Devon Janse van Renseburg
Add texture via pillows, throws, and ottomans. Photo: Devon Janse van Rensburg

Julie Banner’s blog post on making a room cozy explains adding texture can be done in any number of ways:

Pillows – textured, knitted, velvet, leather – you get the idea. A few examples from Amazon below (affiliate links if you click on the photo):

Blankets – chunky, patterns, knitted – drape over your couch or put in a basket.

Rugs – warm color, raised texture, hand knotted, jute.

Window coverings – bamboo shades, velvet, woven, or linen curtains.

4. Accessorize, Baby

Penny Modern brown couch coffee table tray

Use accessories like wood trays, plants, and wooden objects like planters to add warm colors to your room’s decor scheme.

Wood Trays

You can find awesome natural wood trays from Ross or Homegoods. The tray in our living room above, is a mango wood serving tray from H&M Home, only $24.99 (watch for site-wide sales).

Plants

A bit of greenery will help bring the outside in and make people feel more connected to the outdoors, which helps you relax.

Baskets

Natural fiber baskets are everywhere these days and you can use them to store blankets, pillows, or toys. A few of my faves from Amazon (affiliate links):

Wooden Objects

Natural wood vases, trays, small sculptures. Both of below are from Amazon (affiliate links):

Books

Actually putting books on bookshelves will make your room feel more intimate and cozy.

Cozy Bedroom plants bookshelf Timothy Buck Unsplash
Cozy bedroom with bookshelf, plants, basket, and textured blanket

5. Mood Lighting

Light a fire

If you don’t have a fireplace, fear not, candles (even battery operated ones) will add a lot of atmosphere to any room. You can use candles paired with a glass or perforated candle holder to give a soft, intimate glow to a room.

Since we have a toddler, we’re all in on the battery operated candles – like these on Amazon, around $20.

Other Lighting Options

According to Curbly, there are a few other ways to create a feeling of mystery, wonder, and comfort, even with electric lighting:

Lamps

Use floor and table lamps versus overhead lighting to create a more intimate and relaxing environment.

Another option to make a room cozy is using sconces, or wall-mounted lights! If you don’t want to hardwire sconces, you have 2 options:

Option 1: You can use a battery-operated puck light inside a sconce, to put up a wall sconce literally anywhere (no electrician required)! Check out this YouTube video from Nesting with Grace to find out how:

Option 2: There are even sconces that plug into a regular outlet. IKEA has some cute options, and below are a couple of examples found on Amazon (affiliate links) are below:

Pendant lights

Add pendant lighting – IKEA has a TON of affordable options that plug into regular electrical outlets. You can put different types of pendant shades onto a plug in “base”. You can even easily switch out the shades if you want to give your room a new look.

Dimmers

Home Depot, Lowes, and Amazon have dimmer switches you can install for very low cost to make your overhead lighting more cozy. Remember to get bulbs that can be dimmed too!

Light bulbs

In addition to use dimmer bulbs, there are 3 easy ways you can make a room cozy just by changing out a light bulb!

  • Select warm colored light bulbs – use warm white or soft white. 1000 lumens is a good starting point to create cozy lighting.
  • Try Edison bulbs – these are the old-timey looking light bulbs. They even have LED versions of Edison bulbs now on Amazon.
  • Use a color changing light bulb, like the Phillips Hue smart bulb – it has literally millions of color options you can control from your phone!

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My Results

Our family room was very bare and we used it every day, since that is where our TV is. I wanted to make it more inviting but it’s really small & a little cramped already. So, I just added new throw pillows (H&M Home), a soft blanket, and a wood tray (H&M Home) with a few plants.

It’s not much but it made a big difference! My toddler loves all the new pillows – he makes a big pile and likes to jump into them!

How to make a room cozy - cozy living room
My cozy living room after adding some inexpensive “cozy” accents: throw pillows, blanket, wood tray, and plants.

Conclusion

Hope you have found a few ways to make your room more cozy and comfortable. We went deep into 5 inexpensive ways to up your cozy level.

First, we covered a 100% free option through rearranging furniture. Then we reviewed ways to add color through a variety of methods. Next came a lesson on texture, and then accessories. Lastly, we discovered how to set the mood through lighting.

I hope these tips helped you make your home cozy, comfy, and a more relaxing place to spend time. Let me know which one you want to try first in the comments below!

For the next step, try my free guide on How to Design a Room, which will give you a step-by-step blueprint on how to get a modern, cohesive look to your room. See you next time!

9 Modern Small Home Office Ideas

9 Modern Small Home Office Ideas

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

Are you finding yourself working at home on your kitchen table? Finding it hard to be productive without a dedicated home office space?

This article will help you carve out a stylish AND small home office – all at an affordable price with convenient online shopping. You will first learn how to find the perfect spot for your office, and how to make sure everything fits. Then, we’ll give you 9 small space desk and chair combos to make a highly efficient & modern office space to get your stuff done – like a boss!

First, find a good spot for your small home office

The first thing you need to figure out is where you can place your home office (if you, like me, don’t have a dedicated room to use as an office).

You need at least space for a small desk and a chair, at a minimum. A bonus would be room for a bookshelf for things like a printer, and room for a filing cabinet or storage would be ideal, if possible.

Some ideas for locations would be:

  • A spare bedroom
  • A finished basement
  • In the kitchen or dining area
  • In/near your living room
  • In your bedroom or a kid’s bedroom
  • A wide hallway or breezeway

We decided to set up our small home office in our guest bedroom. Our office area now shares a room with a little twin bed.

Black Desk for Small Home Office

The desk is from Target – the Paulo Basic Desk from Project 62. See my full review of this desk here.

The ladder-style bookcase I cannot remember where we got it, but this one on Wayfair looks pretty similar. We are using a dining chair for now but getting the Sauder Harvey Park Occasional Chair in grey (listed below in Combo 1) to complete the look.

Next, measure up

Measuring is critical to determine how big or small of a desk you can fit, and also if you have room for a bookcase or filing cabinet. When buying furniture online, one of the biggest mistakes I made is not measuring my space, and not looking at the product specifications.

Measure twice and make sure whatever furniture you pick will fit in the space.

Check the Specs (Specifications)

Living Spaces Wood and Metal Desk with White Chair Modern Home Office

Next, make sure to look at the product specifications page for all the measurements of the items you pick to make sure they fit in your designated space. Here’s 2 more helpful hints:

  • Look at the specifications for each furniture piece you want to buy and try to figure out if they will work with each other size-wise.
  • You also may want to measure doorways or stairs to make sure you can get the desk in/out of the room.

Check out my post – How to Design a Room – for a step-by-step guide on how to create a cohesive look for your small home office. This is especially useful if you are trying to incorporate your office space into an existing guest room or living room (like we did).

9 Modern Small Home Office Combos

Now’s the fun part! Here are a ton of desk and chair combos to get you thinking about what would look good together. All combos are less than $400, and some are less than $250.

Combo 1: Natural Wood and Grey

Combo 2: White, Wood, & Grey

Combo 3: Black

Combo 4: Mahogany and Slate

Combo 5: Natural Wood & Black

Combo 6: Wood, Metal, and Cognac

Combo 7: Grey on Grey

Combo 8: White and Metal

Combo 9: Natural Wood and White

Final thoughts…

OK, so we went through finding a small area to put your home office, then we covered the importance of measuring and looking at the product’s specifications for the perfect fit.

We gave you 9 different desk and chair combos to make a modern & affordable home office, which I hope you found inspiring. Make working from home a happier and more productive experience by using these ideas to carve out your own personal office space.

For full in-depth reviews of (almost) all the chairs, check out my post, 11 Most Comfortable Desk Chairs for Modern Decor.

Or, you can check out my step-by-step guide to make your small home office look great in any room, How to Design a Room (for beginners).

Get a Scandinavian Living Room – for Less

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

Want to get the “Scandi” look for your living room?

Not sure how?

Don’t want to spend too much?

Well, read on – this post is going to show you how to get a light and open Scandinavian living room without spending thousands. Here’s what we will cover:

  • What Scandinavian design looks like
  • Sources of Scandinavian living room design inspiration
  • Two moodboards with ideas & links to very affordable sources for your Scandinavian living room

What are the elements of Scandinavian design?

Find your interior design style
  • Neutral, muted, and light color palette
  • Light color woods – think beech, ash, pine, bamboo
  • Clean & simple lines – minimal decoration and uncomplicated furniture
  • Use of natural light – minimal window treatments and use of skylights
  • Cozy textiles – think wool, linen, cotton, fur
  • Function before form – open floor plans, and keeping clutter out of sight by having proper storage
  • Simplicity – use of plants, storage baskets, wall mirrors – but sparingly

Use of Scandinavian Patterns

Scandinavian style does not mean boring or lacking color! According to A Beautiful Mess, there is a love of patterns and color in most modern Scandinavian homes. It can be more sparing with pops of color mixed with a neutral background.

Patterns are typically very symmetrical, and often have animal or botanical themes. The graphics used to create patterns are high contrast with bold colors.

Marimekko is a company specializing in Scandinavian patterns for some high end inspiration.

Some pillow covers from Amazon that seem inspired by Scandinavian patterns (affiliate link):

Scandinavian Design Inspiration:

Scandinavian Living Room Inspo
Photo by Minh Pham via Unsplash

For my first moodboard to create a Scandinavian living room, I looked for some inspiration in 2 of my favorite Scandinavian interior design blogs:

My Scandinavian Home blog, “A Copenhagen Family Home Filled with Books and Scandi Design Treasures.”

AMM Blog (A Merry Mishap), “Most frequently asked, “Where is your sofa from?””

And, of course I went to Pinterest for inspiration. Check out my Scandinavian Living Room Board here.

After analyzing all this inspiration, some key pieces that were common in many photos included a grey couch, natural wood armchairs, light rug, and abstract art in neutral colors with a lot of white space. Here is what I put together:

Scandinavian Living Room Moodboard #1:

Scandinavian Living Room 1

Sources for Scandinavian Living Room Moodboard #1 (Get the whole thing for under $1400):

Sofa: Rivet Goodwin Modern Sofa $668 on Amazon (affiliate link)

Coffee Table: Poly and Bark Costanoa Wood Coffee Table in White – Wal Mart $78

Armchairs: JOYBASE Lounge Arm Chair – Amazon $180

Floor Lamp: Oneach Modern Floor Lamp – Amazon – $86.99

Rug: nuLOOM Mackie Moroccan Diamond Shag Area Rug 6’7″ x 9′ – Amazon $194

Grey Throw Pillow Covers: MIULEE Pack of 2 Decorative Throw Pillow Covers  – Amazon $12.99

Beige Throw Pillow Covers – Sunday Praise Cotton-Linen Throw Pillow Covers – Amazon $13.99

Abstract Art: wall26 Floating Framed Canvas Wall Art – Black-h02 & Black-h01 – Amazon, $49.99 each

Scandinavian Living Room Moodboard #2:

For my second Scandinavian Living Room moodboard, I used, as a source of inspiration (along with my Pinterest Board):

The Curated Interior, “The Essential Scandinavian Decor Guide.”

These sources gave me the inspiration to use the black lamp and table, while mixing it with the beige couch and natural wood chair. I chose abstract art and a light Moroccan style rug, since that was in nearly all of my inspiration photos.

Scandinavian Living Room Moodboard 2

Sources for Moodboard #2 (get everything for less than $1500)

Sofa: Elle Decor Mid-Century Modern Chloe Sofa – Wal Mart $428

Coffee Table: Homelegance Liatris 38″ Round Coffee Table – Amazon – $203

Arm Chairs: Safavieh Home Bandelier Woven Accent Chair – Amazon $306

Side Table: Lavish Home Decor Display and Home Accent Table – Amazon $45

Floor Lamp: Milton Greens Suzie Arc Floor Lamp – Wal Mart $155

Pillows: BLUETTEK Modern Simple Geometric Throw Pillow Covers, 18 x 18 – Amazon $19.99

Rug: nuLOOM Alvera Soft & Plush Shag Rug – 6’7″ x 9″ – Amazon $112

Art: NWT Framed Canvas Wall Art Zen3-04 – 24″x36″x3 Panels – Amazon $89.99

Final Thoughts

I’m hoping all my research down the rabbit hole of all things Scandinavian design related will help you out. First we learned about the basic elements of Scandinavian design.

Next, you saw my sources of inspiration and how I find trends for creating a Scandinavian living room from viewing a bunch of photos, and pick out affordable pieces that replicate what top designers are using in their decor schemes.

Finally I showed you my moodboards with detailed sources with very affordable pieces to get the Scandi look for less – mainly through the ease of shopping on Amazon.

Not sure you only want a Scandinavian design style for your room? Take our Design Style Quiz here to find out which style(s) speak to you the most!

Do these moodboards capture the spirit of Scandinavian style? What pieces are your faves? Comment below to let me know your thoughts.

Penny Modern
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