Before and After: A Colorful Rental-Friendly Bathroom Makeover

When we sat down to talk with our client (and friend) Katie about her space, one of the first things she said was that she hated her bathroom. The space felt sterile, lifeless, and not at all a reflection of who she is or what she envisioned her bathroom to be like. Sadly, when we saw the room, we had to agree - she was in desperate need of a renter bathroom upgrade. But fear not! We knew jusssst what to do to spruce it up and turn it into the colorful, happy sanctuary she wanted and deserved.

While not horrible, this bathroom did lack personality

The Challenges

The biggest issue Katie had with her bathroom was the floor. She hated EVERYTHING about it - color, material, and texture - so disguising that element was a must! She also felt like the bathroom was very hospital-like and uninviting. As she was coming out of a breakup, Katie was ready to embrace the feminine feeling and transform her space into the ideal lady-pad. For me, that’s music to my ears because I love alllll things girly, so I was PSYCHED to create her dream bathroom! The goal: turn Katie’s current drabby bathroom to an every-day escape for self-care and self-love!

It took very little time to take this bathroom paint color from sterile to adorable

Our Solutions

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again... the easiest and cheapest way to transform a space is paint. For this space, we used Benjamin Moore’s Misty Lilac. Since she had such a small room with very little non-tiled space on the wall, it only took a tester size to get the job done. I’d say it easily took less than 2 hours to do this part of the transformation.

Next, we needed to tackle this rental bathroom floor. We chose this removable, renter-friendly vinyl sticker in a bright blue pattern because we just loved the turquoise against the lilac and the good vibes it brought into the room. For the two of us, it took less than an hour to install the temporary bathroom flooring, but I can admit we miiiiight have rushed it a bit. If you want it to look perfect, I’d plan to spend closer to 2 or 3 hours on this part.

Progress shot of our rental-friendly bathroom floor transformation

Since the bathroom budget was small, we didn’t do a whole lot more to the space. Katie needed a shower curtain, so we added that and raised the height of the shower rod to make the ceiling feel taller. We also added a few affordable accessories - like a cute toilet paper basket and a new towel.

The Transformation

We (and, most importantly, Katie) were sooooo happy with this rental-friendly bathroom makeover. She was so surprised at how easy and affordable it was to take her bathroom from her least favorite room to the absolute best part of her apartment. And the even better news? This rental friendly bathroom makeover cost less than $500 and is very doable in a weekend. Can I get a “helllll yeah!”

Before and After: A Colorful Renter-Friendly Bathroom Makeover

If you’re loving this post and looking for more tips like these, download our FREE guide about the seven easy upgrades you can make to your rental. We love sharing our knowledge with you guys and hope this post and our other free resources inspire you to love where you live TODAY.

Xoxo,

Emma