MASTER BATHROOM RENO: How To Update A SMALL Master Bath

Happy Monday, everyone! WHEW. It’s been a weekend, let me tell you. We FINALLY finished flipping our master bathroom. Now, we have a really small master bath. The floor space is only 23 square feet, but we knew if we could make a few tweaks – it would look and feel a lot more luxury than it actually is. Our original plan was to also replace the shower (which may still happen down the road) but for now, we kept the shower and just replaced the shower curtain to match the new colors/decor. We ended up painting, replacing the floors, and redecorating to update the space. Let’s dive into this.

MASTER BATHROOM RENO: How To Update A SMALL Master Bath

BEFORE:

I didn’t great a great “before” of the floor BUT – it was like stick-on linoleum in a marble pattern. None of the corners or edges lined up, they were peeling and the white/grey was dingy. 

AFTER:

Paint:

We used Behr Mission White for the bathrooms and I LOVED IT. The walls were originally this grey-blue color (not our cup of tea) and we wanted an off-white color to open up the space, brighten it up and go cohesively with our master bedroom color (Behr Dolphin Fin). We ended up needing two FULL coats and 3 in some spots where the blue was being stubborn. I used a roller and an angled brush to get the walls and for our 23sqft bathroom, it took me 3 days painting every night for a couple hours. In the end, it looked SO good against the fresh white trim.

SHOP PAINTING SUPPLIES:

Decor:

We purchased this pretty shower curtain from Target to replace the one we’d had since we got married. It’s really pretty and pulls all the beige and grey tones into the room together! 

The over-the-toilet stand was another Target find. It screws into the wall and I love that I can organize my skincare and hand towels without taking up any space on the counter (there is none anyways). 

This mirror is from Kirklands and was a STEAL for less than $50!!! I am OBSESSED with how much it modernized the space. The original mirror was this giant rectangle slab and was not cute at all. I don’t think it’s still on sale but you can get 20% off if you sign up for their email list which brings the price to $48!

I grabbed this towel ring at Home Depot for like $7. It’s an oil-rubbed bronze finish like the rest of the bathroom and made a huge difference. 

This bathmat is from IKEA but I actually found the exact mat at Target for only $8 instead of $12!

These towels are another Target find and super inexpensive. They feel WAY more pricey than they actually are. I think the big shower towels are $7 / piece and the hand towels are like $4. Score! We also got these for the guest bathroom.

The little lightbulb wall art is something Adam and I bought from a little thrift store the first year we got married. It was the first piece of decor we bought together for our home together. I will probably always keep it in our bathroom. I planned the bathroom around the colors in the art!

SHOP BATHROOM DECOR:

Floors:

We had a little bit of trouble with these floors in our small master bath to begin with. We went with Luxury Vinyl Planks for the bathroom because they look beautiful, they have a “grouted” effect, and supposedly they were really easy to install for first-time installers. Our master bathroom is really small, the floorspace is only 23 square feet, so we bought two boxes of these floors. The floor company we purchased the floors from assured us, utility knife and a straight edge is all you need to cut the floors and get them the right size. When we pulled the instructions out of the box for the floors, they said the exact same thing. We watched about a dozen YouTube videos and read a lot of blogs on the installation as well. They ALL said the same thing: score with a utility knife + snap it to get it to the right size. SO we bought a LVP knife, and got to work. 

Except. If you watch my instagram stories – you’ll know this didn’t work for us. We could not, even with all of Adam’s strength, get it to score deep enough to snap easily. And on top of that, you absolutely cannot get it in a perfectly straight line. SO. After a full night of arguing and frustration over the stupid floors, we called my dad to come help us out. He brought over his table saw and jigsaw and we ended up cutting the planks that way. It worked beautifully and once we got everything the right shape and size, they looked PHENOMENAL. 

So. All of this to say: if you are considering Luxury Vinyl Planks (which honestly, are beautiful, waterproof and look way more expensive than they are) – skip the utility knife. Don’t even bother. Grab a table saw and jig saw and just start off cutting that way. The cuts are a million times more precise and the work goes by so much faster. We had the bathroom floor installed in about 2 hours once my dad and Adam got the hang of everything. My dad did the measuring, cutting and installing of the floors, Adam caulked the baseboards and removed and replaced the toilet, and I did all the painting, cleaning and decorating. Basically we are the dream team. LOL.

PIN THIS FOR LATER:

I hope you enjoyed our master bath reveal!! I have been talking about it FOREVER on my IG stories so I know quite a few of you have been waiting for me to do an official reveal. I wanted to have the floors done a lot sooner but because of just life and also not being super knowledgable in this kind of floor install, we just really ended up needing help learning how to do it. Now that we do, though, we think we are going to use this type of flooring when we get ready to flip up the basement and our guest bathroom. Don’t forget to check out our other home decor project HERE and stay tuned for more to come!

Did you love the flip?! What are your thoughts!? Let me know in the comments below!!