The (almost) $0 bathroom makeover Day 12-ish

CABINET IS DONE

The cabinets have doors and drawers back.  The coolest thing about doing the cabinet this way, is once we're done, the ugly counter top will be a second thought and barely noticable.  Just wait until the final pictures. 

The letters on the knobs were done with printer paper and copious amounts of wood glue.  I could have bought them at Hobby Lobby, but as we're doing this super cheap, there you are.  The best thing about the wood glue is I can varnish it and it should stay fairly intact for awhile.

We're still at just over $13. 

I'm going to frame the mirrors with some left over molding, but I don't have quite enough, so I will be making a trip to Home Depot.  The molding I used is very inexpensive so we shouldn't be adding too much.

A couple of quick notes on why I chose a few of the things I chose.  This is a kids' bathroom.  They aren't really known for cleaning up after themselves unless you're standing over them with a stick and a carrot.  SO, blue paint on the walls to match the toothpaste we use.  And the off-white, aged cabinet will hide dirt and grime.  Our new vinyl floor is also dark and non-slip, unlike the tile we covered, which was so slick that at night all I did was listen for falls. 

Here's what's left to do - shelves over the sink, shelves over the toilet, bathtub surprise, deepen the shelves in the closet and make room for a hamper.  And finally, trim everything out.  I'm probably going to have a few more expenses, but I'm still thinking this is going to come in under $50.  We'll see how accurately I can estimate.

The (not quite) $0 bathroom makeover - Day 9 - 11

FLOORING AND HARDWARE

Problems and more problems. 

The Floor.
These are "looks like wood" vinyl tiles. The floor has to be SQUEAKY clean to get these suckers to stick, so I've spent a couple of days scraping, cleaning, sweeping, wiping, scrubbing to get it REALLY clean. Then I grabbed the isoprophyl alcohol and wiped each area down before laying the tile. Just to make sure. I have all the tiles down - the bad news? I'm short a few tiles. Somehow my math didn't calculate the area correctly. A quick trip to a flooring store, and (of course) my freebie tiles are so old and discontinued that they're unheard of.
Plan B
Buy some tiles that don't match at all, but will go nicely, and put in a pattern. I've done a little stripe that comes off the commode. I also did a diamond pattern to make it look purposeful - after all - it's a super low cost makeover. It's all done with purpose.
The good news is that these tiles were just over a dollar a piece, so at $13.50, not a bad deal.

Here is the finished floor.

The Hardware.

My spray painting idea is a flop. They painted nicely, but it just doesn't look good with the cabinet. I like the idea of staying with the porcelain since the other fixtures are porcelain, chrome and brushed nickle, so, I took a trip to one of my favorite inspiration stores - Hobby Lobby. 

They have a nice area devoted to knobs. I found some porcelain ones with letters and a circle around the letter. Very simple, and it gave it just that little extra that I think will work nicely on the doors. So now I get to figure out how to get the letters on the knobs. I tried the rub on route, and the sticker route, but they don't have what I'm looking for.
A quick search of the web turns up this font, which I will try to put on the knobs with glue, then dip in epoxy to set and seal them. The down side is I don't think I have epoxy.
My solution was to drown them in wood glue.  I got a little shine on them.  Not sure how well they'll hold up, but we'll find out.

Tune in next time when we finish the base of the cabinet and put our doors back on!!

The (almost) $0 bathroom makeover - Day 8

I'm still technically working on the cabinets.  I think I have a solution to my hardware problem.  I'm currently testing spray painting the porcelain knobs we have.  I'll let you know how it goes.  I may use those on the drawers and the pulls on the doors, or, but the knobs on the decorative drawers, since they won't be used much, and the pulls on everything that will be used.

It's a work in progress.

I'll be sanding the base of the cabinet today and staining so that it matches the doors.  The hinges were painted by the previous homeowner so I'm considering getting the paint off of those, which could be an issue.  We'll see how that goes as well.  :)

The primer and spray paint were leftovers from something else as well, so I'm still on $0 dollars.  So far, so good!!