Quick and Easy Bathroom Decorating Ideas

If you’re tired of walking into your dated bathroom and dream of a change, we’ve got bathroom decorating ideas for you that are inexpensive and simple to do.

The most important upgrade you can make in your bathroom involves lighting. A Swedish study found that lighting, paired with the right color, affects mood. Changing out your lighting is not difficult or expensive to do, but makes a bathroom look fresher and larger.

Older lighting fixtures and fluorescent lighting cast unattractive shadows and odd color hues on your skin. If changing a fixture isn’t possible, you can upgrade the bulb with some of the new fluorescent bulbs that are similar in color warmth to the light cast on a bright, sunny day.

Once you’ve upgraded the lighting quality of your bathroom, paint is the next quick and easy upgrade to the bathroom. Pick light colors for large surfaces like the walls and save the darker, richer tones for accents. Check how your color choices look in your upgraded lighting before you paint, since color temperature can change a color’s shade.

Set a weekend aside, invite friends over and try a few of these ideas to give your bathroom a facelift.

Here is an overview of our quick and easy bathroom decorating ideas:

Paint

Paint your walls with the perfect shade you selected. It’s no longer necessary to choose gloss in a bathroom to combat moisture, ask the paint shop to add an additive to matte paint to keep it from mildewing.

Don’t just paint the walls — purchase an eggshell or semi-gloss paint and paint the cabinets, too.

Lighting Fixture Replacement

There’s a great variety of affordable lighting fixtures available. Replace outdated lighting fixtures with new ones from your home improvement store. Electrical projects are best left to professionals, but with some guidance, switching out lighting fixtures shouldn’t be difficult for a DIY-er.

Be original when upgrading lighting. Bathroom lighting trends include hanging pendants and light bars that diffuse light in a room. Select LED lighting fixtures since they’re the most energy efficient and don’t heat your bathroom up.

Bathroom Works of Art

There’s no need to stare at unadorned walls in your bathroom. Treated canvas prints are water resistant and affordable. Go for oversized proportions for the best visual impact. For a unique look, have a local printer blow up a favorite photo into customized wall art. Nowadays, custom printers can create canvas prints and even laminate them for water resistance.

When thinking of bathroom decorating ideas for art, think beyond a canvas print. A wall gallery of favorite objects like starfish or baskets can be another way to decorate your bathroom walls.

Redecorate existing tile

If your tile is boring and there’s not much you can do about it, try removable adhesive tiles like the ones shown above. They’re easy to cut and install, look like the real deal and can be removed without damaging the surface behind it.

Hardware upgrade, and we’re not talking laptops

A quick and easy bathroom decorating idea involves changing out your bathroom’s hardware like drawer pulls, towel bars and the toilet paper holder. Especially if you’re bathroom is “adorned” with gold brass circa 1978.

Replacement is as simple as unscrewing or popping off the old hardware and adding a new one. To keep this project quick and easy, be sure you are replacing old hardware with similarly sized screw hole spacing, especially on bar style drawer pulls that require to screws. It’ll mean less holes to make (and hide) in the cabinets and walls.

From the Ground Up

There are DIY-friendly flooring options today that are modern and easy to work with. Affordable, resilient vinyl floor planks are available at most home improvement stores and come in a variety of wood species and patterns. They’re realistic looking (white washed oak shown above) and include texture and imperfections on the surface, much like a real wood floor or stone tile would. Installing is as easy as scoring with a blade, peeling and sticking. The best part is that they’re waterproof and come with long warranties against wear and tear.

The addition of a woven vinyl floor rug by Chilewich is another option. The rugs are industrial strength, can be ordered in custom sizes and have a rubber backing that adds padding and comfort to your bathroom floor.

Maximize Storage

Decluttering the bathroom will give it a freshly updated look. If you’re space challenged, look at how you can improve on existing storage. Adding pull-out drawers (that sort items easier) into a cabinet is an easy weekend upgrade. Standard sizes of pull-out drawers are available at most home improvement stores.

Other ways to maximize storage include:

–Floating wall shelves
–Wall mounted baskets
–Adding a small furniture-style cabinet to the room

Collect this idea

Upgrade Your Textiles

You’re now on your final bathroom decorating stages. This part’s like adding a giant bow to a present. Donate or throw away your old, mismatched towels and add new soft goods to your bathroom. An accent color or pattern would be a modern design touch. Add the following new textiles to your bathroom:

–Towels
–Floor mat
–Shower curtain. If you have a color you’re working with for your towels and floor mat, choose a patterned or printed shower curtain that contains some of that color to add pop to your bathroom

Accessorize

Your bathroom should have an updated look now. It’s time to add personality. Some bathroom decorating ideas that add the finishing touches to your bathroom include:

–A wastebasket and bathroom soap dish or soap pump
–A silk floral or live plant if there’s natural light available. Orchids are a great bathroom plant — they love the humidity in a bright  bathroom
–Elements like a candle or room diffuser that add a nice scent to the room