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Designing a Moody Small Bathroom with Heidi Callier Vibes (On a Much Smaller Budget)

Designing a Moody Small Bathroom with Heidi Callier Vibes (On a Much Smaller Budget)

In the past 5 years I’ve made a design 180 – initially craving clean, modern and minimalist vibes, and now loving warm, layered and traditional styles. My recent design inspirations have come from designers like Heidi Callier and Jessica Helgerston. Unfortunately, while I (and many others) share a love of their design, I do not share the budget required for their projects.

When renovating these days, labor costs are always the biggest chunk of the budget. It brings many of us so close to our max budget that we absolutely have to save money on the materials end. But how can you save money in materials without ending end up with a basic looking bathroom? Here is my bathroom rendition (thanks chat GPT), and below is how I sources my materials for less.

The tips:

  1. Scour Facebook Marketplace/ Craigslist daily. For this project I bought my Moroccan 4×4 glazed terracotta tile from Marketplace for $5 per sqft (instead of $20 per sqft!). This saved me $1500 plus shipping on my 100 sqft. But I also look for things like art or vintage mirrors.
  2. Wait for big holiday sales. I typically try to purchase during black friday sales (or memorial day, if I can’t wait). This saved me 20% plus shipping on my floor tiles.
  3. Search eBay for the plumbing fixtures. I will never again buy full price plumbing fixtures. I regularly get 75-90% off of beautiful, like new plumbing fixtures. You do need to do a fair amount of research to make sure you’re getting the right valves or other parts, but its worth it! This saved me easily over $1000 this project.
  4. Add low cost but high impact items. This means adding wainscoting, color and wallpaper. The supplies for this are relatively inexpensive, and its a very doable DIY.
  5. Use Etsy for sourcing light fixtures. I’m not sure if I’m adding a sconce to this bathroom, but if I do, it’ll most likely be from Etsy. They have so much variety and many customization options for very reasonable prices. Its my go-to for light fixtures in any area of the home.

More updates to come in the next few months! This is my first more “layered” bathroom renovation, and fingers crossed it actually turns out as hoped for and stays on budget!