Reinvent your Bathroom - 5 DIY Ideas
Just like everything we use, a house and its rooms suffer from wear and tear of continual use – and since a house is occupied and used daily, the amount of wear and tear usually becomes visible within just 1 to 3 years. Most people have the notion that this usually happens only to houses that do not brand new but even newly constructed houses are subject to the same wear and tear, especially the most used rooms and utilities.
In a house, common shared spaces are the first ones to show signs of wear and tear, at the top of this list, are bathrooms. Bathrooms are usually used by all the members of the household thus one of the few spaces wherein almost every inch is utilized.
With this, bathroom walls, floors, fixtures, and bathroom vanity are usually the ones you’ll see looking old and dingy – from the floors looking yellow due to continuous water bacteria build-up to the grout in between the tiles just not going back to the regular white that you remember it being when you first purchased the house, looking at it all together, it’s not a pretty sight to see; which is why we have a few tricks on how to reinvent your bathroom!
True to the meaning of the word, reinventing your bathroom will leave your bathroom looking brand new once again without having to do a complete renovation, we’re here to help you save both time and money with these simple ways to make your bathroom look brand new once more.
Deep-cleaning
Knowing how we all like feeling comfortable in our homes, we know that you do a fair amount of regular cleaning of all the rooms in your house including the bathroom. However, while the routine cleaning that you do may look good enough and make you think that your house is completely clean and spotless on the surface level, there may be a reason why you find yourself having to do this kind of cleaning more and more often.
Routine surface cleaning often focuses on dirt and messes on a surface level, this means that when what you’re cleaning (in this case, the bathroom) already looks clean, you stop cleaning for the day. Cleaning this kind of way slowly allows bacteria to build up in the nooks, corners, and hidden spaces that you don’t usually see, causing the whole room to become more susceptible to dirt and leading to you having to clean up way too often. To prevent this, you can do a type of cleaning called “deep cleaning”.
Deep cleaning refers to cleaning on a deeper level – it is when you’re not focusing on the aesthetic or if the room looks physically clean but focus instead on the bacteria and germs. By deep-cleaning, you are using high-grade disinfectants, strong soaps, and industrial cleaning materials and moving all necessary furniture and decorations to be able to reach ALL the nooks and crannies of your bathroom.
By deep cleaning your bathroom and making sure everything from the grout to the mirror to the crevices of your shower, bidet, and other fixtures – you’ll be giving your bathroom a brand new look AND will be making your bathroom a safer space for you and your family!
Changing into white bright lightbulbs
Somewhere along in the past, our society just collectively agreed on making yellow lightbulbs and lights for bathrooms to be the norm, there was never an explanation for this but most houses still stick by it today. While it may have a few perks here and there such as complimenting your bathroom’s chosen motif or theme, using yellow lights to light up your bathroom actually contribute to making your bathroom look old and dingy.
As most bacteria growth that is caused by water build-up makes tiles, floors, and walls yellow, a yellow lightbulb further enhances it and makes it look worse than it actually is. To prevent this, switch to bright or white lightbulbs!
By using white lightbulbs, you’ll be able to give your bathroom a cleaner glow and will even give you the illusion of your bathroom being more spacious than it actually is. Paired with deep-cleaning your bathroom at least once a month, your bathroom will maintain the brand-new bright look that it had upon your first purchase! An added bonus as well is that some bacteria thrive in cool and dark spaces so by lightening up your bathroom, you’re making it cleaner as well as newer-looking.
Coating Your Mirrors in Anti-fog Film
Because of the nature of what we do inside bathrooms, there are at least one or two mirrors in most household bathrooms. Now, bathrooms aren’t exactly the most ventilated spaces and are in varying degrees of wetness at all times, because of this, mirrors are rarely completely clean and clear inside bathrooms and most of us have just accepted the seemingly permanent stare of fog and noticeable water drips on our mirrors.
It may seem like a small and negligible thing but it does add to making your bathroom look like it’s in a worse condition than it actually is, making it look dirty and old. This can be fixed in just a few easy steps!
By buying an anti-fog film or even spray (as it comes in many forms and types), you can simply use this to coat your mirrors and viola! All the constant fog and droplets will be gone. The anti-fog coating allows water to just roll off the coating and drip back down to your sink or floor as well as inhibit fog from forming on your mirrors. This will make your mirrors look brand new at all times with no visible sign of wear and tear for years!
Just remember to ask the home depot or supplier where you’ll be purchasing your anti-fog coating when you should be changing or reapplying another layer of coating to maintain the cleanliness of your mirrors.
Replace Cloth Decorations
It’s always a great idea to hang a few trinkets here and there to make our bathrooms feel more like home and to be able to stick to the motif and style that we want our bathrooms and houses to have. As we do this, we sometimes choose tapestries made out of yarn, cloth, or cotton to hang in our bathrooms as well as use this type of material to cover bathroom essentials such as tissue boxes and the like.
We’re here to tell you today that that is an absolute no-no when choosing bathroom decorations. Cloth materials do nothing but collect dirt and bacteria and while it is alright in larger sunnier spaces, it just becomes a safe haven for bacteria in cramped spaces such as bathrooms. Moreover, these kinds of decorations aren’t the easiest decorations to clean so you’ll end up letting it be when a few specks of dirt get on it and will just look worse and worse as time passes by.
As our main goal here is for your bathroom to look brand new and to stay looking brand new for a long period of time, you may want to consider permanently retiring cloth-based decorations in your bathroom as they’re likely the biggest factor why your bathroom looks old and settle for plastic, wooden or even metal ones. Decorations with this material accrue less dirt and bacteria, are easier to clean and maintain, and will collectively make your bathroom look cleaner than it ever was.
Assessing and Adding Storage
Most likely than not, the amount of stuff you’ve been storing and buying for your bathroom has drastically increased over the length of your stay in your house. As you and your family realize more and more what you need, the number of essentials for each of your household members increases. Because of this, your fixed bathroom storage when you first moved in may no longer suffice and you’ve added a few temporary cabinets, shelves, and the like to be able to properly house everyone’s essentials. It may be practical, but it’s actually making your bathroom look old, cramped, and severely used.
To reinvent your bathroom and make it look new again, reassessing and adding permanent bathroom storage (such as a built-in cabinet or a bigger fixture under the sink/near the shower, etc.) will help restore your bathroom into looking spacious and new once again. It’s a worth-it investment that will last for several years to come.
The Bottom Line
Reinventing your bathroom doesn’t have to mean making it look as luxurious and grand as possible – that’s redecorating your bathroom. You just have to look at your bathroom using a fresh pair of eyes and acknowledge the detriment since the time you first moved in and restore it to its former glory. By following the few DIY tips and tricks listed here, you’ll definitely make your bathroom look and feel brand new in no time.
