Small-Bath Spruce-Up

Change the look of a small bathroom using ready-made discounted items.

The bathroom can be a costly room to make over if everything in it was purchased as a set. But it doesn’t have to cost a fortune to jazz up a bathroom. To produce an eclectic look, you can redecorate with discounted store merchandise, all in coordinating earth tones and purchased from several departments in the store.

On a small telephone stand from the housewares department, you can place an interesting trivet along with a burnished plate and stand from the same department. To hold cotton balls and swabs, add glass jars purchased from the kitchen department and place handmade soaps on a glass plate laid on the trivet. Spruce up the floor by adding a sisal rug, found in the store’s garden department, which serves as a wonderful under-layer rug for a plush pile runner from the housewares department. A washable woven-cotton throw rug can serve as the bath mat.

Further Suggestions:

• Hang two shower curtains and liners instead of one, to get a richer, more full effect.

• Fashion shower-curtain rings from drapery-department rings by tying twine to the loops and securing the shower curtain/liner to the twine ties.

• Scour the house for potential items for bath decor, a grapevine wreath with a clock hung in the center, for example.

• For towel displays, try a hall tree with towels hanging from the branches, or cinch a typical rack of towels with a belt or a scarf.

• Tip: The key to eclectic decorating throughout the bathroom is to maintain a color scheme and vary the textures.