Skip to main content

Bathroom Remodel Before and After

Remember all those years ago when Sexy Nerd started knocking down walls in a surprise master bathroom remodel? The entire renovation project, including the adjoining master bedroom, only cost about $5,000. 

Our goal was to go from builder-boring to spa-like. An unexpected, and gladly welcome, side effect was that the remodel more than paid for itself when we sold out house.

In 2018, we sold our home quickly in a 4-way bidding war - unheard of in our cookie-cutter neighborhood where homes had always sold for much less after languishing forever on the market. Our realtor was stunned. 

We're fairly certain this bathroom was a big part of our success. (Our much-complimented red kitchen certainly helped too.) It raised the average price for our entire neighborhood. You're welcome, neighbors!

I'd hate to go to all the trouble of gutting a bathroom only to end up with a different style of yawn. You know how Iris Apfel says, "More is more. Less is a bore."? I think she would be very proud of our first major renovation.

Bathroom Remodel Before and After

Bathroom Remodel Before and After
Builder-Basic "Before" Photo (Yuck!)

Not only are those sinks gone, that section of the master bathroom is now the shower. So where are the new sinks? SN generously gave up half...maybe a little more...okay, 75% of his walk-in closet to accommodate them on the other side of the bathroom. He doesn't have very many clothes anyway.

He's such a good sport.

Here's a sneak peak of our remodeled master bathroom from the bedroom. Like our tray ceiling? It's a budget-friendly, DIY fake! The whole thing is flat, but with decorative trim dividing two shades of beige paint.

The curtains on the wall make more sense when our Amerisleep bed is between them. Here's a Before photo of the same master bedroom:


Bedroom Remodel - Before

Not only has the door between the bedroom and bathroom been moved to the side, the place where you see my dresser isn't even inside the bedroom anymore. We stole some square footage from the oversized bedroom to create a second walk-in closet inside the remodeled master bath.

Okay, here is our big Bathroom Remodel Before and After reveal:


 Spa-Worthy "After" Photo (Ahh, feel the zen.)

spa bathroom with river rock
I should have moved the bathroom scale from below the vanity for this photo. Shucks.

water closet tile wall idea 
This water closet didn't exist before. Maybe after Sexy Nerd hangs my mirror, he can hang this artwork.

Note: What is going on with the lighting above the toilet? And why does the toilet look crooked? It is impossible to take a good photo inside a bathroom.

his and hers bathroom remodel on a budget
You can learn more about these "expensive" (or so they seem) mirrors in my blog post, 10 Interior Design Upgrades You Can Do Today


river rock floor in bathroom
We originally painted the walls light blue, shown here, but it was a mistake. In a spa bathroom, green looks much better. The paint color we used the second time was Olympic Bayou Shade in satin.


spa bathroom remodel on a budget
I've had these towels since college. They were upgraded shortly after this photo was taken. Fancy new bathroom = fancy new towels! 


Our DIY budget bathroom remodel - after photo
The door you see leads to Sexy Nerd's closet. You can see my closet reflected in the mirror. Painting the doors and ceiling a light beige was so much better than plain white.  


river rock shower
We included built-in storage in the new shower, which is where the original vanity was. It was the ideal spot for storing shampoo and other toiletries. We picked out the totes first so they could be perfectly sized for the cubbies.

Sexy Nerd did everything himself. He even built the vanity and mosaic counter top from scratch! We scored a great deal on a pocket door for the new water closet and a Jacuzzi tub at Re-Store, which is part of Habitat for Humanity. 

The elegant chandelier hanging in an arched alcove? Totally from Ikea and spray painted, along with all of the faucets and other fixtures. (Hooray for oil-rubbed bronze spray paint! It never chipped off or gave us any problems.) The black river rocks and the gorgeous hand-painted sconces? They're a 4-letter secret called eBay.

Enjoy this post? Please share it!
home improvement projects that pay for themselves when you sell your home

remodeled bathroom before and after photos

Yes! It's the same bathroom - our $5,000 DIY spa bath remodel

Popular posts from this blog

Cake Mix Pancakes

This reader-favorite recipe is *almost* as popular as my Cake Mix Cookie Bars recipe .  When making Cake Mix pancakes , the scrumptious possibilities are endless. Red Velvet cake mix pancakes. Chocolate cake mix pancakes. Butter Pecan cake mix pancakes. Funfetti cake mix pancakes. (Yes, Funfetti cake mix pancakes!) With this 2-ingredient recipe, you can turn your favorite cake mix into your favorite pancakes. Pancake making at its finest. Cake Mix Pancakes Personally, I think my funny napkin is the icing on the (pan)cake. It's Sunday morning and you're planning to do all the things today - scrub those grody baseboards, polish your quartz countertop that was supposed to be low maintenance but actually isn't at all, sort through the disaster that is the freezer.  While on your superhuman kick, you think I'm going to make my family pancakes for breakfast. Not just any pancakes - the best pancakes ever. I may even serve them as breakfast in bed! You pu

10 Canned Cinnamon Roll Hacks

You're in for a treat. Today I'm sharing my best canned cinnamon roll hacks and improvements for turning store-bought cinnamon rolls, like the Pillsbury Grands ones or even the store brand, into something special.  Dry cinnamon rolls? No thank you. They need to be OOEY and GOOEY. That's just Cinnamon Roll 101. All of these ideas keep Pillsbury canned cinnamon rolls soft, company-worthy, and delicious. These are also great for taking homemade cinnamon rolls up a notch, but what a pain that is. With these better-than-homemade canned cinnamon roll hacks, you'll never bother to bake them from scratch again. Test out some of these ideas tomorrow. Won't it be nice to dig into a mouthwatering cinnamon roll for breakfast? You can't get a better start to your day than that. Canned Cinnamon Roll Hacks Actually, make that 11 easy ways to improve store-bought cinnamon rolls: you can top them with homemade coffee whipped cream . Yum! Nope, make that 12 canned cinnam

Chemical Peel Before & After

This article has been updated! My new chemical peel post, which includes pricing, Jessner peel before and after photos, product recommendations, and a helpful timeline for scheduling your treatments, is at the bottom. My original Jessner peel post (one of the most popular on my site of all time) is at the beginning. Original Chemical Peel Article Considering a chemical peel? I recently underwent my first Jessner peel and thought I'd share my results, post a Jessner peel review, and answer some frequently asked chemical peel questions. (I'm guessing that "Does a chemical peel hurt?" is a biggie!) I'd been planning to order an over-the-counter peel when we were in Iceland , but my computer led me a different direction. I decided to do this on a whim after Groupon greeted me one morning with a great $40 chemical peel deal. Now, I can read your mind. You just gasped in horror and thought  You trusted your face to a  discount  chemical peel?!  You're wondering w

Hello Fresh Complaints

Hello, my bloggy friends. I have a HelloFresh complaint and believe they are pulling a scam. Yours truly came *this close* to falling for it.  Maybe scam is too harsh of a word. Sneaky? You can decide for yourself. The fact that there are so many Hello Fresh complaints online does seem suspicious. My main complaint about Hello Fresh has to do with their promotional rate, which seems like it is set up to be intentionally misleading (more on this below). Despite so many people complaining about being charged more than they thought they'd agreed to, Hello Fresh maintains this as part of their business model and continues to mislead. So it's intentional, right? I do not recommend Hello Fresh. For starters, the service is just ingredients-by-mail with recipes, not meals. You can buy your own ingredients for much less, especially now that most grocery stores conveniently offer pickup and delivery. Excellent recipes are easy to find.  Click here for a list of top-rated, reader-favorit

Window Seat Idea - Dream Home Inspiration of the Day

See it? Waaay at the back of the photo?  I like how the window seat extends past the window all the way to the wall. How about you? If that's not your style, how about one of these lovely window seats? I'll seat you, my pretty, and your little dog too. How perfect would this be in a home office? I'd swap out that wimpy rug with a larger one.

How to Move a Mattress

My site is popular for reviewing memory foam mattresses. With today's bed-in-a-box options lasting much longer than the traditional 7 years of a spring mattress, there's a good chance you'll eventually need to move one. But how? This is  how to move a mattress  without damaging it - even by yourself!  When we were faced with the challenge of moving our beloved Amerisleep AS3  to our new home, it seemed like my readers would enjoy the details. This handy tip should work for any memory foam bed, including Casper, Leesa, and Nectar.  I'm happy to report there is an extremely simple way to do it. Apartment and dorm dwellers rejoice! How to Move a Mattress At first, I wasn't sure how to move our king-size mattress down a flight of stairs. It's a problem we've dreaded solving ever since we made the decision to build a new house.  The answer? It was right in the back of our truck.  Ratchet straps . This solution could also serve as a 'How To' for returning

My Instant Pot Explosion!

Like many new Instant Pot owners, I've wondered, How many Instant Pots have exploded?  (Eeek!) I'm happy to report that my research on Snopes and other sites has shown that these do not explode, at least not when used properly. There is a lawsuit between a woman in Texas and the Instant Pot manufacturer, but she admits she had thrown a towel over the steam vent. Do NOT do this.  Still concerned? Consider that on Prime Day of 2018, Amazon sold more than 300,000 Instant Pots. That's more than a quarter of a million sales in only 1 day! If these things were not safe, you would see news stories every day about someone being injured. Still, things can go wrong. We love our Instant Pot, the digital pressure cooker that seems to suddenly be in every home. You can't mess up - just throw in random ingredients and you'll get something yummy every time. It's foolproof. At least, that's how I used to feel about our Instant Pot, until the explosion... Inst

Sharing Funny Memes

Funny Memes Post 2 of 3:  kittydeschanel.com/2021/05/funny-dog-memes.html Funny Memes Post 3 of 3:  https://www.kittydeschanel.com/2021/12/christmas-memes.html You know those people who have nothing better to do than browse through memes for hours at a time, many of which are in poor taste? Yeah, I'm one of them. Oh, except I actually do have so much to do and absolutely should not be scrolling through memes. Just try and stop me. Covering everything from working to cake, here are my Top  Funny Memes from the last week: More Funny Memes to Make You Smile: The last one was created by yours truly. Kitty Deschanel - now a source for funny dog memes AND original memes! Funny Memes Post 2 of 3:  kittydeschanel.com/2021/05/funny-dog-memes.html Funny Memes Post 3 of 3:  kittydeschanel.com/2021/12/christmas-memes.html