When Rachel Valente, a Phoenix-based content creator, and her husband bought their home in 2022, the bathroom was among a number of spaces they wanted to renovate. “I planned to gut it and had a lot of ideas for it, but things came up in our personal life, and our original plan wasn’t possible anymore,” she recalls. Despite a number of unexpected circumstances altering her budget and availability, that didn’t stop her from seeing the potential in the room. Deep down, Valente knew that with creativity and ambition, a version of her original vision was still within grasp if she took the DIY route. “I call these in-between projects because they may not be permanent or the full end goal,” she explains. “But I think that just because you can’t do a full renovation in the present doesn’t mean you should just hate your space and just deal with it.”
For her bathroom, Valente conceptualized a number of minimal but powerful changes that took the room from bland builder-grade to a cozy, organic, and modern. “I looked at the practical things that I could switch up that weren’t super expensive, but they make the space a happier part of the home,” she says. Here, Valente shares how she planned the space, maximized her budget, and finds confidence to DIY.
Architectural Digest: Did you have a budget?
Valente: I wanted to aim between $500 and $600, so I went a little over, but stayed mostly in that range.
How did you put your budget to use?
I always start with a mood board, and that helps me to look around at different shops to get a sense of how much similar items cost and see what I can find within a certain budget.
Then, I think about what parts of the space are dated or are weighing the room down, and usually prioritize spending for those area. In the bathroom, the priority was definitely that main vanity area, so the cabinets, the big builder-grade mirror, the faucets that were mismatching, and an outdated light fixture that had the bolts falling out of it. So I really wanted to tackle that area first.
I also knew that the vanity section would cost more, so I tried to pick those things first and then let the rest of the budget flow into the other parts of the space. This is also where the mood board come in handy. At the beginning, I’m just pulling inspiration from from Pinterest or other sources online to the get the general vibe, and from there I can look at dupes, more affordable retailers, or second-hand for other parts of the room. That’s my typical process. It’s structured in the beginning, but there’s definitely flexibility as you go.
Knowing the vanity was your priority area, how did you tackle it?