Like most things in life, homesteading does not come without its expenses. While it doesn’t have to be expensive necessarily, even the most frugal of homesteaders will be shelling out money on items like seeds, soil, wood for projects, feed for animals and fencing. This often leaves very little wiggle room in the budget for home improvements, especially ones that could be deemed as unnecessary.
The home we moved into, while lovely, needed quite a bit of work. It had been neglected for many years and most of it was rather dated. One of the first things I wanted to change was the bathroom…
Can you blame me?
However there were many projects that needed tending to first that were a much higher priority than an “ugly” bathroom that functioned just fine. Fast forward to three years after move in date and I was still stuck with that bathroom vanity and hanging wall cabinet.
After my father’s uncle passed away we inherited his lovely vintage buffet and hutch. Before it arrived at our home we purchased some mineral/chalk paint from a shop local to us, but most major retailers now sell these products. The plan was to paint some or all of it, pulling out the grey from our wall colours. However, once my parents delivered it, we realized it was perfect just the way it was and looked great in the space.
Not wanting to return the chalk paint, we decided it was finally time to give the bathroom a much needed makeover!
What I loved about this product (other brands of mineral/chalk paint are similar) is that it requires very little prep work or added expenses. All we needed to do was wash the surface we were painting first to ensure it was free from grease, oily reside, dirt and dust. There was absolutely no:
- sanding
- prep coats of another product
- finish or top coats
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Mineral Paint Cost: $56.48 (for two containers)
Paint Brush: $2.50 (approximately)
The two containers were more than enough for all of the furniture pieces we had to cover.
- Vanity: Two coats on the outside – none on the inside
- Wall Cabinet: Two coats on the outside, one on the inside
- Dresser: One coat on the outside (we loved the distressed look)
We still have at least two thirds of the second container left, which means had we been very frugal, we could have completed this project with a single container of the mineral paint!!
And finally this older dresser that we use to store our extra toilet paper and laundry soap jugs. We decided to keep some of it with the original wood as an accent.
The Knobs
The one area that expenses could have gotten out of control with would have been new drawer knobs and pulls. Even basic drawer pulls/knobs would have set us back at least $35-40 before tax. Earlier in the winter we had a severe wind storm that downed some branches from an old apple tree out back. We decided to give the bathroom a rustic/nature inspired feel by creating knobs and pulls from those.
I think my husband did a fantastic job on these drawer pulls and knobs. He was able to utilize the old hardware from the previous knobs and pulls so this part of the project cost us nothing!
New Wall Art:
This was another aspect of the project that cost us basically no money. I have a free account with Pixabay which allows creators like me download royalty free photos to use on our blog posts and such. We found some black and white photos that we really liked and reused the existing frames in the bathroom. Stunning!
Final Thoughts
This project was not only frugal (under $60 CDN with tax), but a great way to discuss repurposing and reusing items with our son. The vanity and wall cabinet were very dated, in rough shape and slightly wonky in parts. All of this means there was a strong chance that they would have both ended up in the landfill. This project gave them new life and we are so very happy with the results.
What projects are you working on at your homestead/home?
With love,
Regular Readers/Watchers
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