A mum has revealed how she transformed her bathroom for under £20 by challenging herself to reuse materials she already had lying around.

Briana Colangelo, 31, from New Hampshire, US, is a keen DIYer but after already renovating an upstairs bathroom, she needed to keep the refresh in the downstairs room on a budget.

In total, she spent just $26.92 (£19.64) but says even if she had bought everything brand new, it still would only have cost around $217(£158).

"We had spent so much on the other bathroom that I did not want to spend much on this one," she told Jam Press.

"I knew in order to achieve this I was going to “shop” my own house and use a lot of what I already had. I keep a lot of decor pieces in the event I can ever repurpose them.

"The vanity, floors, and faucet were all staying so I knew I needed to get creative to make a big change.

"I was really wanting to use that colour green somewhere. I figured this would give the bathroom a dramatic change without physically changing anything."

Briana loves taking on projects around her home which meant she already had most of what she needed.

She said: "I have always loved DIY since I was little.

"As I got older, I would often go with my dad to his construction sites and learn how to use tools, which carried into my adult life when I started to do projects on my own."

After buying her home in October 2020, she tackled two bedrooms, the outdoor living space and the upstairs bathroom.

When it came to the downstairs bathroom, she didn't have much of a plan but knew it needed to be as cheap as possible.

She started by prepping the space, filling in any dents, and removing everything to paint the walls.

She said: "I removed the towel bars and toilet roll to be able to paint the walls easily.

"There was an old medicine cabinet that was extraordinarily low and with my boyfriend being 6’5” it was something that definitely needed to be fixed.

"At this point, I wasn’t sure if we were going to put a cabinet back in or cover it with a mirror."

Next up, she painted the walls with some leftover paint from their other bathroom, and for the vanity cabinet, she used special paint that does not require any sanding, which she also had leftover from other projects.

Briana then added hardware pieces she had leftover but sprayed them gold. She also turned the faucet gold to give it a refresh.

She said: "I lightly scuff sanded the faucet, sprayed a primer for Metals by Rust-Oleum and then with a small paintbrush rubbed on the Rub N Buff.

"I sealed it with a clear satin by Rust-Oleum."

She transformed the window by painting the frame in black, for a more modern look.

She said: "I cleaned the window really well and then wiped with rubbing alcohol to remove any grease leftover.

"I taped off the window and used a can of Rustoleum spray paint in the color black satin.

"I had leftover window panes from another project. I added one strip vertically down the window."

With everything else complete, Briana had to decide what to do with the medicine cabinet she removed.

She said: "I was in the home stretch and the last major project in the bathroom was the medicine cabinet. In the beginning, I had removed it which left me with a rectangle hole in the wall.

"I decided I didn’t want to lose out on that storage but also didn’t want to put a medicine cabinet back in since the height was too low and it would cost more money.

"I found some scrap material and framed out the hole. I added a shelf as well.

"I found a mirror that was very large on Facebook Marketplace for free! I gave it a quick coat of black spray paint and added hinges to it and attached it to the wall.

"Now I was able to keep the storage and cover it at the same time and have a higher mirror for my boyfriend."

Briana added a few finishing touches and after two weeks, the renovation was complete.

She said: "The last step was to change out the light.

"There was nothing wrong with the current one and I could have given it a coat of spray paint but I had a light fixture from the previous home we never used so I switched them out.

"Lastly was decor - the fun part! The shower curtain, shelves and decor on the shelves were all from my previous home so no extra money was spent, which kept me in budget.

"I suggest if you are trying to renovate a room on a budget, use what you have.

"I loved how it turned out. It was better than I expected."

When it comes to advice for others taking on budget DIY projects, Briana said: 'My best is advice is repurpose and thrift! Sometimes a can of spray paint can completely change the look of something.

"I love to thrift for bargains and a lot of my decor is thrifted.

"Paint is your best friend. It is cheap and gives a room a quick dramatic change."

ENDS

COSTS BREAKDOWN

What she spent
Green paint- $16.99
Outlet covers- $3.00
1 can of spray paint- $6.93

Costs of items she already had
Green paint - $16.99 (Heirloom Traditions Paint)
Wall paint- $40.00(Sherwin Williams)
Outlet covers- $3.00 (Home Depot)
Light Fixture- $35.99 (Amazon)
Decor- $50 (Amazon/ Target)
Shelves- $19.99 (Amazon)
Shower Curtain- $17.99 (Amazon)
Spray paint- $15 (Rust-Oleum)
Rub N Buff- $8 (Amazon)
Cabinet pulls- $10 (Amazon)
Mirror- free (FB marketplace)

Total
$26.92 (what she spent)
$216.96 (If she had to buy it all)