How to Make Your Bathroom Look Luxurious with Paint
Find out how to make a master bathroom look expensive with a simple coat of paint.
This post may contain affiliate links. Please see my full disclosure policy for more details.
This month I’m teaming up with a group of very talented bloggers to bring you some awesome ideas on how to update your home with paint! Be sure to hop on over to the link below and show them some love when you’re done checking out this post.
I’ve also rounded up some of my favorite DIY paint ideas to give you a little inspiration.
There’s really nothing at all wrong with our master bathroom design. Except for the fact that it doesn’t quite fit my champagne taste on a beer budget style. The layout’s great and there’s plenty of room to do what you gotta do.
But, I’ve just never been able to get over the low quality builder grade materials that were installed in this awesome space. So I was determined to come up with some ideas to get a luxury bathroom look for less in this room.
Because let’s face it, bathroom remodels can get super expensive, and this design junkie momma’s on a budget.
Bathroom remodels on a budget
The cheapest way to update any space on a dime is with my close personal bff….paint.
This whole project started out because we had a major leak coming down into our kitchen ceiling from our master shower area. (Yay! Looking forward to repairing ceilings later…. full of sarcasm).
So re-caulking our shower and tub, led to repairing our broken tile grout, which of course led to painting said grout, because clearly you can’t have mismatched grout lines. But also because it was super dirty and stained over the years. Gross.
So….. new floors!
Well, kinda…. but anyway, back to the paint project.
After all the caulking and repairing cracked walls, ceilings and nail pops we were primed to paint FINALLY! I feel like I spent an entire day prepping the wall surfaces for paint, but it’s a necessary evil to get a smooth finished surface.
How to make an old bathroom look new
After we wrapped up our powder room renovation last fall I fell in love with white paint. So much so that I went into crazy detail about why it’s the new go to neutral paint color in my last post.
So naturally I was inspired to try my new favorite white paint out in our master bathroom. Benjamin Moore’s Simply White is the prettiest shade of creamy white paint that I’ve come across.
It’s definitely not stark white and it’s soft enough to compliment any color in a room as a neutral backdrop.
And given that I was trying to coordinate paint colors with beige tiles on the floor and shower/ tub surround I needed something neutral.
I’m not gonna lie, I had a minor freak out moment when I started painting the walls white. I mean I had zero reservations about this color in my tiny windowless powder room, but on a larger scale master bathroom it was A LOT of white.
To make matters worse I tried to be efficient (ahem, lazy) about painting. I didn’t feel much like taping off the trim to do the walls in a different paint sheen so I thought I could get away with using the same satin paint sheen on both the walls and the trim.
Yeah, I definitely ended up painting over it. The very sweet paint clerk at Lowe’s assured me there’s very little difference between the two sheens when I went to exchange a gallon. Ummm NO. My OCD brain picks out the subtlest differences. What can I say, I’m detailed.
PRO TIP:
The best paint sheen combination I’ve found is to use a satin finish on the doors and trim and an eggshell finish on the walls.
Semi-gloss, at least for me, always ends up looking streaky and way too shiny while showing every little imperfection in the surface. Satin on the other hand is still durable and scrub able with a hint of shine that appears more like a soft glow and less glossy.
I’m always amazed at how a fresh coat of paint can make any room feel like a whole new space again.
Classic paint colors that instantly make your home look more expensive
I’ve totally gone down the rabbit hole of design with our Master Bathroom. It was just meant to be a quick and easy update with white painted walls, but well.
One coat led to another and now we have these amazingly gorgeous black doors that I could literally sit and stare at all day long.
The perfect shade of black (in my opinion) to complement any room. But what really got me was how they instantly made the space feel more refined aka expensive. All that’s missing is some gorgeous gold hardware. See, down that rabbit hole again.
The black paint color I chose was called “Cheating Heart” by Benjamin Moore. It has a dark bluish gray hue to it in the can and goes on like a dark gray, but once it’s dry it has a soft moody black tint to it.
My husband even noted that it had a blue tint to it when it was dried. Such a proud wife moment. I trained him well in the matters of interior design.
But in all seriousness, if you’re looking for a go-to color that will instantly make your home feel luxurious then black is the way to go.
And pairing it as an accent to the creamy white walls makes it stand out even more.
I’m jumping all in to the black door trend and plan to paint the rest of the doors in our house with this same paint color.
It’s gonna be a long year.
Luxury bathroom vanity ideas
I love this paint color so much that I decided to try to tackle painting this builder grade vanity in the same shade of black.
It’s going to tie the whole room together and help camouflage our boring beige tile. Although I don’t mind the tile as much now that we have the walls and doors painted.
I hope this post helped to give you some ideas on how to update your own bathroom with paint. It’s all about working with what you’ve got and choosing the right shades of paint to compliment your existing space.
If you’ve been following this budget bathroom Reno journey on Instagram, then THANK YOU! And if you haven’t, you totally should!
I get real about my mistakes, lessons learned and some awesome ideas to upgrade your home for less. And I’m pretty pumped to move on to phase 2 of this project next week so stay tuned!
P.S.
Make sure to sign up for my weekly newsletter below where I stay in touch to help you with your home and share some of my best design tips and advice you won’t find anywhere on the blog. This is my exclusive little community and I’d love for you to be a part of it!
Looks amazing! What finish did you use? Looks satin?? Also, where is the chandelier from 😍
Thanks Autumn! Eggshell on the walls, satin on the doors and trim. The light is from here:https://rstyle.me/+rAhj0Xx7eWeMvPHOnTWnrg
I would love to see your bathroom vanity makeover. How did the paint do on the builder grade cabinets? Did you have extra steps or special products you had to use to get the paint to adhere to the cabinets well? Thanks in advance!
Hi Amy! I’ll be publishing a post later this week on the cabinet painting. Feel free to check back or sign up to the e-mail list to be added. Thanks for reading!
What a stunning makeover! I’m always amazed at how paint changes everything. And I LOVE your bathroom! So spacious!
Thanks so much Marty! (love the name btw – it’s my nickname). I can’t get over what a difference paint colors can make.
Love the black doors against the white! I’m considering starting to cover my gray walls with white and an accent wall. This is motivating!
Thanks so much Pamela! I know exactly how you feel! I want to repaint over all the grey now 🙂
Wow! What a difference! Thank you for all the suggestions, tips and tricks. It looks like a whole new bathroom.
You’re so welcome Meegan! I can’t wait to show the painted bathroom vanity next!
This turned out great! It really brightened things up!
Thanks so much Cherrly! I agree 🙂
I have really been wanting to paint my doors black and yours are beautiful. I am thinking since we are all supposed to stay indoors because of the virus, I should start now. You have motivated me.
Thank you Sherry! I’m glad you like them. I say go for it! Can’t wait to see how yours turn out!
Your bathroom paint makeover turned out stunning! I love those dark doors.
It has been fun doing these projects as part of a challenge.
Happy Weekend,
Kippi
Thanks so much Kippi! I’m still amazed at the transformation