My friend's simple but big kids' bathroom makeover

My friend's simple but big kids' bathroom makeover

• 11.23.2025

My sweet friend has a very nice but somewhat builder basic home from the early 2000s and I’ve been helping her lately make it a little bit more personal to her style. They did some nice updates to their bathrooms when they moved in, like replacing the square tile countertops with solid surface, but her kids' upstairs bathroom was still feeling kind of plain. We made a few simple updates over the course of about two weekends to totally refresh it!

Simple Budget Bathroom Makeover

Here's the before!

My absolute number one thing to change in a bathroom like this is the mirror! We took down the frameless builder mirror and replaced it with this really fun rattan edge scallop one. It’s still plenty big, but defines the focal point and sink area so much better and gives room for pretty things on the side like florals.

My friend likes a very light, clean, fresh style, and she has little kids so the white and light palette is a great background for brightly colored toothbrushes and towels (not pictured, haha).

Important update #2 in this kind of bathroom is replacing the light fixture! I probably would’ve gotten with a linear one, but she really doesn’t like the look of them so we did this three-light fixture and to avoid it overlapping the mirror, hung it upside down and replaced the glass with shades. This fixture was super affordable and came with a set of towel bars and hooks.

#3 is the plumbing fixtures! The faucet they had in here before didn’t even work that well for them/splashed water around, and how pretty is this polished nickel one! Classic.

We also replaced the hardware on the vanity with polished nickel. Such a simple update.

This sheer fluffy shower curtain is fun and still so neutral and blends so well.

Final touch was replacing the slated window blind with a pretty fabric Roman shade. I have been loving patterned and woven bamboo type Roman shades lately and this one from Twopages is a lovely subtle light green stripe that will go with plant accents and other pretty colors she wants to add in the art. We went with a corded shade here instead of cordless because this window is very narrow and the corded can be made very narrow (though here's the cordless version which I have in both my main bathrooms!). Twopages is having their black Friday sale right now, and you can use my code SUZANNAHSTANLEY to get 27% off. Replacing builder blinds with something special and custom is a fabulous way to update a room!

The walls also got a fresh coat of paint, Snowbound by Sherwin Williams, and we hung some new art. I love mixing metal colors like these gold frames against the polished nickel fixtures.

All of these updates were super simple to do, and what a difference!

I have a couple other projects planned for my friend's home, can’t wait to share more with you.

Remember to use my code SUZANNAHSTANLEY to get 27% off at Twopages!