11 ways to take your bathroom from blah to beautiful without remodeling

Sharon DellaPiazza plans to sell her Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, home in a year or two and move to a one-level, forever home where she can age in place. So she doesn’t want to make any

expensive changes to her current house’s dated decor, including her half bathroom. Instead, she focused on smaller, cheaper changes. She added artwork and collectibles, replaced the light

fixture, changed the hardware and hung a new mirror to refresh the look of her fairyland-themed bathroom. “It’s ongoing, but I haven’t made any dramatic changes,” says DellaPiazza, 54.

“There’s still carpeting. I’ll live with it.” Remodeling a bathroom can be pricey. The cost generally ranges from $6,000 to $18,000, according to data from Angi, with a national average of

$12,000. But you can transform the space for a fraction of the cost simply by redecorating. That’s key for older adults, many of whom need to decide at some point whether to age in place or

downsize. Although most Americans 50 and older (77 percent according to AARP’s Home and Community Preferences Survey) want to remain in their home, it can still take time to make sure that’s

the best decision and figure out how and where money should be spent. But instead of getting into a decorating rut while you decide, you can make minor, but still noticeable, changes — and

bathrooms are a great place to start. Since bathrooms typically are small, it’s not expensive to add or update certain features, such as by repainting, installing crown molding or hanging a

new shower curtain, says Oscar Bravo, a “budget-friendly interior decorator” in the San Diego area. “Spring is about awakening,” says interior designer Bob Richter, owner of Richter Design

in Lambertville, New Jersey. “Changing one little thing can make you feel so much better.” Here are 11 ways to beautify your bathroom without the expense of remodeling. Getty

Images/iStockphoto SPIN THE COLOR WHEEL “Color is probably the easiest way to change a space or make a space look cohesive,” says Bravo, owner of Oscar Bravo Home. And, he adds, the way to

make various items “speak to each other throughout a room is a cohesive color scheme.”Another reason to add color is to brighten dull or neutral tones in a room. Reds and greens  are popular

choices, according to Bravo, and pastels are also hot among some designers. One easy and inexpensive way to introduce more color into your bathroom is to repaint the walls. Go light or go

bold with a bright shade. For small bathrooms, Bravo likes darker, moodier tones like violet, chocolate brown or navy blue. Another option: Paint the vanity and the walls the same color, a

technique called color drenching, or stain the wood darker than the current shade to change the look, Bravo suggests. Prices for stain start at $13 a quart and semigloss paint starts at

around $15 a gallon. Getty Images SWAP LINENS Replacing the linens — from towels and window coverings to the shower curtain and floor mat — can completely change the look of a bathroom.

Richter especially likes to change linens seasonally to create a “completely different feel” without repainting. Suzy Ahrens, 59, of St. Paul, Minnesota, plans to age in place and hopes to

remodel her main bathroom soon. But in the meantime, she recently added a white shower curtain to lighten the beige room and green and orange towels for some color pops. “We feel the small

updates we made helped to freshen and brighten our small bathroom and made it a more comfortable and inviting space,” she says.