10 ways to upgrade your bathroom in an hour or less

With its blah beige tile and sliding rain glass shower door mired in the early aughts, my Colorado bathroom is about as far from a transcendent spalike experience as it gets. And yet as a frazzled working parent, revamping it is the barnacle stuck at the bottom of my never-ending to-do list. And I know I’m not alone. To find quick upgrades that can make a difference in anyone’s ho-hum bathroom — and fast — I reached out to the pros, all of whom offered transformative options that can be accomplished in a zip.

Although it’s objectively hideous, I’m in no rush to rip up and replace my flooring — and yet I’ve wanted radiant underfloor heating since our wintertime trip to Iceland. Nashville designer Christine Carney of Blackberry Farm Design found a quick fix for warmth underfoot: a plug-in heated mat under the rug. “It actually is life changing,” says Carney, who rolls hers up for storage in warmer months. “I just found a mat on Amazon and put it under a washable soft shag rug, and it worked beautifully. It was so luxurious!” One important detail: Hers lies close to an existing outlet. “That’s not the most elegant part, but hopefully you can [accept it], in just the same way a lamp cord is not super elegant.”

“If you already have electrical near your toilet, it’s like a five-minute thing to install a washlet seat,” says New York designer Eddie Lee, adding that these de facto bidets — which often have illuminated touchpads to control everything from the water temperature to the air drier — typically hook up to your toilet’s water supply for ease of use, and can be installed with a screwdriver and a wrench. “It used to be just Toto made them, but now Kohler and a lot of different brands make them.” The washlet, Lee says, “basically gives you a little bit of a spa experience. They’re not cheap, but all my clients love them.”

Many of us know the havoc that bad lighting can wreak on our appearance and with it, our mood. Most of us prefer soft, warmer lighting in the bathroom, which can work magic like a real-life Instagram filter. “In my mind, [any lightbulb] over 3000k looks like the hospital,” Lee says. “[2700k] is like the old school soft white bulbs that people used to get before they bought LED.” Carney also recommends employing 2700k bulbs, which is close to the appearance of a 60-watt bulb. “I think it’s just what we look best in and it’s the most comfortable temperature for the eye,” she says.

“Switching out the shower head is one of the simplest and [most] inexpensive changes you can make to a shower or a bathroom and make a huge impact,” says Atlanta designer Theresa Butler, who often opts for a rain shower with a polished nickel finish. “Shower heads these days are more sophisticated, sleeker looking, and you can really customize it around the type of metals that you’re using in your space.” The process takes about five minutes, Butler says. “You simply unscrew your existing shower head, clean that off, dry it really well, and put a little plumber’s tape around the threading to [create a watertight seal and] keep your water from leaking through where it is screwed on. After you wrap that on, you simply screw on the new shower head, and you are done.”

For a fast glow-up, Los Angeles designer Kishani Perera advises trotting in a fresh mirror — but not just any mirror. “I think for a big impact, change to something that’s really overscaled in the room,” she says. “When you use a few overscaled pieces, it makes the bathroom read much larger to the eye, and with a mirror, you have the added extra that it’s going to bring more light into the room.” Plus, gigantic mirrors have a superpower: They bounce light around. “If you have even a small window, an over-scaled mirror illuminates everything.”

In the middle of the expansive Chicago double vanity she shares with her husband, designer Laura Tribbet added a shallow, sleek acrylic tray. “Between my husband and I, there’s a lot of different products that are going to be on the countertop, and it’s just a parking spot,” she says. “It’s a signifier to us both that ‘this is where the toothpaste goes.’” With two young children, “anything that can be seen as intentional is a luxury.”

Tracy Morris, a designer in McLean, Va., employs a trio of Crate & Barrel glass canisters for spalike storage. “It’s a nice way to make your bathroom look special for guests coming: You throw cotton balls, makeup pads and Q-tips in those jars and have it look more visually appealing.” And it pays to get creative: Nashville designer Laura Lubin of Ellerslie Interiors uses an inherited crystal finger bowl to hold her rings when she’s removing them at the sink. “Even just a small thing that can be super impactful, and it doesn’t have to be meant for the bathroom,” she says.

I’m not going to hang fine art in my bathroom because I’m a steam shower addict. But lesser pieces, like my Facebook Marketplace finds? Lubin says they may provide some much-needed eye candy. So, too, can raiding what already exists around the house. “I’m a big believer in rotating my artwork,” Lubin says. “People just get in such a habit of finding these pieces they love and then when they hang it on a wall, they’re like, ‘It must die here until I move.’” But it could be worth pulling a painting from elsewhere in your home to try in your bath, especially if it’s a water closet or space that won’t get drenched in moisture. “I think people will be really surprised if they actually went and just took something from their kitchen and put it in their bathroom, how much it can impact a space,” Lubin says.

When Kishani bought her home, the hardware in the primary bathroom was lackluster. “The house I bought was actually a spec house, so it was very vanilla,” Kishani recalls, noting that developers often don’t invest much in details such as millwork and cabinet knobs. To make it coordinate with the ocean views out the windows, she painted her vanity Benjamin Moore’s Graphite, an inky blue black, and installed new polished nickel hardware from Rejuvenation. “It looked really, really expensive and heavy and chunky and handmade, and really made a difference.”

Pierce also prefers nickel for a clean, fresh look in the bath, and says replacing your pulls and knobs is likely to take 15 minutes or less. “It’s such a quick way to elevate what you have, and typically all you need is a screwdriver,” she says.

I can’t stand it when my crisp white towels begin to go gray and often treat myself to new ones, but Laura Pierce of Boston’s Keeler & Co. takes it a step further: ordering those with colorful embroidery and/or monogramming, but a white base, so “I can put my bleach pen on them if I need to.” Scallops and a monogram: the towel detail I never knew I needed.

Many people feel that their bathroom sconce shades should be glass, but that’s not necessarily the case, Pierce says. “As long as you have decent ventilation, you can have whatever you want.” She adds that the bathroom sconces in her Maine house have scalloped grass cloth shades on them. “There are options out there that are really easy to pick up and pop on,” Pierce says. “Imagine matching your sconce shade to your trim on your towel.”

“The use of plants in bathrooms is very underrated and very underused in general,” says Lubin, who recommends pothos, snake plants, monstera and calathea, all of which tend to thrive in humid, lowlight spaces. “I kill everything and I’ve managed to keep all of my bathroom plants alive,” she says. Tribbet adds that a bud vase with cut flowers can have a similar effect. “We call it mojo: moment of joy for others.” And yourself.

Kathryn O’Shea-Evans is a design and travel writer in Colorado.