An "Outdated" Bathroom's Makeover Features a Funky $60 Accent Wall
ABOUT THIS BEFORE & AFTER
HOME TYPE: House
PROJECT TYPE: Bathroom
STYLE: Maximalist
SKILL LEVEL: DIY
RENTAL FRIENDLY: No
Once you tackle your first paint project or paint your first wall mural, you might find that you can’t just stop with one. As Nata Ibragimov (@nata3787) explains for her own home, “we are basically adding one mural at a time and loving it.”
Nata says she and her husband, Marco, are “always looking for ways to make [their] house unique on a tight budget,” and paint is often the answer. It certainly was for their “old and outdated” and “boring, white” bathroom.
“Plain white walls aren’t our thing, but neither is too much color,” Nata says. “So we stick to minimal colors but try to go for unique patterns.” Here’s how she and Marco created a pattern-filled bathroom with just a dash of color.
The project started with swapping the big stuff.
First, Nata and Marco changed the vanity, painted the walls, and changed the lighting in the bathroom. The new vanity is mid-century style with three drawers. “We bought a broken vanity with a shattered top from a local store, then we got a professional to replace the quartz top and install the new faucet,” Nata explains. (The black faucet is a major upgrade from the chrome one before.)
“We also got legs on Amazon and attached them to the vanity ourselves because we didn’t want to hang it from the wall,” Nata says. The whole vanity project cost around $400.
From there, the couple painted the walls a bright white (they added a little pop of color with an orange shower curtain), and added more contemporary touches like a floating shelf, circular mirror, and more modern vanity light.
A $60 accent wall livens up the bathroom.
The true star of the room, though, is the wall mural. Nata, a professional tattoo artist and illustrator, says she and Marco “stick to minimal colors but try to go for unique patterns.” The couple used black marker (and airbrush paint — more on that later) to make the space come to life.
“The actual painting didn’t take long at all, compared to the prep work,” Nata says, adding that prepping the walls so they were smooth enough to paint, by adding joint compound and sanding, took a while. Marco mostly made up the wavy black and white design as he went.
“Painting is easier and cheaper than buying custom wallpaper … No original painting is perfect, and that’s the beauty of it, so go for the improv aspect of it,” Nata says. “There is a level of planning that goes into such projects, but the magic happens when there is no plan.”
Nata’s favorite part of the bathroom is actually hidden behind the mirror — a silly little hairless cat airbrush that’s “a surprise only for those who find it,” she says. Nata estimates the materials cost about $60 for the statement wall.
In hindsight, she says she would flip the order of the project — starting with the mural and then hanging the mirror and light fixture — but she and Marco love their final result. “It finally has character that represents both of our styles,” she says.
Inspired? Submit your own project here.
