Porch House // What this new bathroom cost + Budget Tips
THE PORCH HOUSE
The powder bathroom budget is part 5 of our Porch House powder bath series. You can read more here: design, why we added a powder bathroom, 8 great wallpapers, and the reveal.
Last week I showed you one of my all-time favorite renovations, the powder bath at the Porch House. This little space is a jewel box within this simple home, which was built in 1900, long before powder baths were popular.
I think it's the finishes that set this room apart: bold wallpaper, brass accents, and board and batten painted in the warmest neutral. It's all just so pretty, but can you believe this new bathroom cost under $2000?
The finishes for this new bathroom rang in at just over $1200. Here's where the dollars went:
Powder Bathroom Finishes Budget
$480 wallpaper (2 rolls)
$100 board and batten materials
$50 paint
$225 pedestal sink
$64 faucet (from ebay)
$50 brass sconce
$150 toilet
$100 plumbing, caulk, misc
$0 framing/drywall/flooring (not included, see below)*
$1219 TOTAL
*framing, drywall, and flooring costs are not included in this budget since those costs are almost impossible to pull out of the whole-house renovation we completed at the same time as this bathroom. If you had to throw a dart at those materials costs, they'd be in the realm of $300-$500. Again, that's materials only.
It's also important to note that this bathroom is brand new to the house. We carved the space out of an existing bedroom. The powder bathroom is about 34sf. You can see the floor plan here.
Tips on How we got a High-End Look on a Budget
Budgeting is an art form that not everyone possess and it's so easy to spend a small fortune on renovating. So today I wanted to include a few insights and tips on how we kept the powder bathroom budget so low. These tips are relevant to any renovation and could help maximize your dollars on your next project.
One // Splurge on one High Impact Item, Save on the Rest.
In this room we splurged on the wallpaper, which is the single most defining design feature. The wallpaper range in at $480, which is over 1/3 of our overall materials budget for this space. But that was our only splurge.
Two // Inexpensive Wall Treatments that Look Expensive.
We designed and built the board and batten wainscot in this room for $100. It's constructed entirely of mdf trim, a little caulk, and some paint. And the finished product looks way more expensive than it actually cost.
Three // Plan Ahead!
Planning ahead can save you a ton of money in shipping fees, rush order, sale prices, and it turns out extra rolls of wallpaper too. Before we got to work on the board and batten, we ran the numbers on the wallpaper's pattern repeat, width, and length and figured out that if we brought the wainscot up to 5' we'd only need two rolls of the expensive wallpaper. In the end there was hardly two feet of wallpaper to spare, but planning ahead saved us from spending another $240 in wallpaper.
Four // Search for second-hand, Refurbished, or Out-of-Box Items.
We found the brass faucet, an out-of-box item, on Ebay. It rang in at a good half of what it would sell for new. And while we weren't able to reuse an existing toilet or repurpose an old sink in this bathroom, we almost always do.
Five // Keep the Design Simple.
This tip is pretty intuitive: having less things in your space means spending less money. Simple, minimal spaces simply cost less to build. We stuck with just the necessities in here and that went for paint colors too. We used the same color on the trim and ceiling in here as we did through the main floor of the Porch House - C2 Vex and BM Simply White - so we didn't need to buy extra paint. And bonus, the simple color palette helps the house flow from one room to the next, giving it that pulled-together feel.
Six // Inexpensive Art.
The single art print in this bathroom was a free download from one of my favorite blogs, the Faux Martha. I printed it at Costco and framed it in a Target frame for a total cost of under $15. Talk about budget! You can check out more inexpensive art ideas here.
Seven // Do the Work Yourself!
You knew this one was coming. We're big advocates of doing work ourselves because it saves money, teaches valuable skills, and controls the end product. Plus it can be hard to recoup your investment when you hire out entire projects, at least in a small-town real estate market like Ellensburg (Seattle is a whooole different ball game). And that may not be a huge deal for someone who plans to stay in the home forever and just really wants a pretty powder bathroom, but it is a huge deal for Garrett and I who tackled this renovation as an investment. I'm guessing if you asked a contractor to build this bathroom, you'd be looking at upwards of $10k in materials, design, and labor (plumber, electrician, general labor, wallpaper-er, etc), so doing all that ourselves saved a ton of money.
Porch House Powder Bathroom Sources:
You can find all the resources for this bathroom here.