Bathroom ideas come from a lot of places. Whether you're looking at the latest home catalog (great bathroom reading), visiting someone's home, watching HGTV or daydreaming while stuck in your bathroom at home, you're likely have bathroom ideas to improve your home.
The challenge for most homeowners is turning your bathroom ideas into reality. Sadly, many homeowners delay any type of remodeling project for years, as they don't know how to get started, set a reasonable budget or manage the project.
This article outlines the steps for turning your bathroom ideas into reality, so you can get started with confidence.
Prioritizing Your Bathroom Ideas
A common approach to remodeling has been to collect photos of all the things you like, and Pinterest (check out my bathroom idea board) makes this even easier. Once you've collected your ideas, you've got to sort through them and pick your favorites but how do you know what you can afford?
Before you get overwhelmed, follow these steps and turn your list into a manageable collection of bathroom features and don't expect to stuff them all into what is most often, the smallest room(s) in your house.
- Go through your photos and list all out the features you like, i.e. tile floor, glass enclosed shower, etc.
- Review your bathroom ideas and assign each feature a priority – high, medium or low.
- Pick your favorite feature from the items you've designated “high priority”. Will this feature be the focal point for your new bathroom?
Determine How Many Bathroom Ideas Fit Your Budget
Depending on your budget, you'll need to make trade-offs with which bathroom features you include in your remodeling project. You started with lots of bathroom ideas, prioritized them and picked the most important one. Now let's look at the cost factors you need to consider to fit your project to your bathroom remodeling project.
Most of your big expenses aren't where you think. You can easily see the difference in price between a $300 bathroom vanity or a $1500 custom bathroom cabinet. What is tougher for the average homeowner to estimate is the cost of moving walls, plumbing or electrical service. With bathrooms it's also wise to set aside contingency for any hidden water damage that might be discovered as walls and floors are removed.
- Do any bathroom features require moving any walls, i.e. where you'll have to demo, frame out new walls and finish them?
- Are you adding or moving fixtures like the bathtub, that may require additional reinforcement in the flooring?
- Do your bathroom ideas involve moving fixtures with plumbing or electrical?
- How many labor intensive features do you want to include – tile flooring or walls, wallpaper, custom trim like wainscoting, or crown molding?
Wait, you're wondering if your budget is realistic? You realize that ultimately you'll sell this house and want to understand if your bathroom ideas are consistent with how others value today's bathrooms? While there are never any guarantees, you should research the bathroom ideas you're planning to include in your remodeling project.
Remodeling 2012 Cost vs Value survey, showed that mid-range (5 x 7 ft) bathroom remodels should allow you to recover 64% of your investment. Their upscale bathroom remodel is projected to recoup 57% of cost and that reminds me, don't forget to check out Latest Bathroom Trends to Relax & Enjoy.
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