Room Sources: Wood Stool | Wood Bath Caddy | Vase | Black Tub Filler | Rug

Whether you’re remodeling your primary bathroom or a guest bathroom, there are a handful of ways that you can save money on your bathroom remodel. Bathroom remodels can get expensive, with the average project running from $6,500 all the way up to a whopping $16,000. Luckily, there are a few basic decisions you can make when remodeling your bathroom that will really bring that number down. 

Keep Your Current Layout

The most cost-saving choice you can make during a bathroom remodel is to keep your current layout. This includes leaving walls (especially load-bearing walls), plumbing, fixtures, doors, and electrical wiring in their current location. Moving plumbing can be especially expensive, so consider this when you are in your planning phase.

Keeping the footprint of your bathroom means that you can’t make any huge changes like moving walls to make the room bigger. Instead think of other cosmetic ways to make the bathroom feel larger, like using a lighter paint color and using larger mirrors. There’s really a lot of changes you can make without changing the infrastructure of your bathroom. 

Do It Yourself

Doing it yourself instead of hiring out the project will save you a lot of money. Even if you don’t have the experience to handle the whole remodel yourself, consider doing what you can and hiring out what you can’t do. Acting as your own contractor will also help lower costs. Over the past nineteen years, DIYing lots of projects has saved us thousands of dollars and even led us to where we are today with no mortgage.

Install a Prefabricated Shower

Adding a newly tiled shower may be on your dream list but you may reconsider when you look at the cost. Tearing out a shower and adding a tiled shower can actually be one of the most expensive changes you can make to a bathroom besides changing the layout. 

A prefabricated shower comes as a complete shower stall, already put together. It’s a breeze to install and they’re a great budget-conscious choice. You’ll also love the easy maintenance that comes from not having any grout to clean. 

Keep the Tub

Instead of replacing your tub, consider keeping it. Tubs can be expensive, especially if it requires you to change the layout of the bathroom. Give it a deep cleaning with some baking soda and vinegar and see it shine. You might decide it’s not so bad after all. We chose to keep the tub in one of the upstairs bathrooms in our current flip house. It is only a base tub, so we decided to make it more custom by adding subway tile around the top.

Update Your Toilet

You could replace your entire toilet for a remodel but you may want to reconsider that decision. Updating your toilet with a new toilet seat may be just what it needs. If you do need to replace your toilet, get a standard one that doesn’t have a lot of features. Those extra features are what can drive the cost up. You may think those fancy features are cool, but the reality is, they will not add value to your home.

Don’t Splurge on a Vanity

It might be tempting to go for a custom-built vanity or one from Restoration Hardware, but that’s probably not the best way to save money on a bathroom remodel. There are other stylish vanity options out there that actually look amazing and are quality built. A quick google search will give you plenty of results!

Make Cosmetic Changes Only

You can still make some great updates to your bathroom with some cosmetic changes. Think about adding a fresh coat of paint, adding a new mirror, updating a vanity, and changing out faucets and lighting. Adding accessories is also an important last step to a remodel. Get some new towels, window treatments, and storage containers. 

Implementing some of these ideas will save you big time when it comes to your bathroom remodel. Even if you don’t make any big changes to your bathroom, your remodel will be the perfect refresh that you’ll enjoy for years.