20 Ways to Update Your Bathroom

Are you planning a bathroom renovation this summer? Before you move too quickly, read through Real Simple's list of 20 Easy Ways to Upgrade your Bathroom:

1. Old wooden crates make smart holders for extra toilet paper and rolled bath towels.
2. Turn an unused nightstand into storage for small towels, makeup, hair tools, and toiletries.
3. A sink skirt hides a multitude of sins. You can easily make a no-sew one from a pretty bedsheet.
4. When your tub lacks wide ledges where you can store bath products, hang a multilevel fruit basket for additional space.
5. A shelf rack with hooks is a great answer to the storage problems posed by smaller spaces.
6. Separate cosmetics by category--lip colors, shadows, blushes, etc.--and store them in small drawer organizers that you can easily rearrange.
7. Make a long soak in the tub even more luxurious with bath salts, lush towels, and aromatic candles within easy reach.
8. Think of an unused sugar bowl as a decorative container, perfect for cotton balls and Q-tips.
9. Something as simple as an over-the-tub wire rack devoted to bathroom goods adds a nice touch, along with extra convenience.
10. Unused, mismatched serving pieces act as great countertop organization to keep toiletries looking neat.
11. A woven basket holds an ample supply of toilet paper, eliminating the need to hunt when you're down to the end of the roll.
12. Another approach: repurpose a tall cylindrical vase to hold extra rolls of TP.
13. A retractable mirror is a practical solution on walls that won't allow for a conventional mirror.
14. A bouquet of flowers in a bathroom feels unexpected and fresh. Even a small vase of yard-cut greens adds freshness to the room.
15. A perfumed tablet of preserved cranberries and orange slices adds a delicious note when slipped into a vanity drawer.
16. A calming color on the walls, like a rich blue-green, gives the room a sense of tranquility.
17. One lower cost solution to old bathroom tiles: blunt the behind-the-times feeling by painting the walls a complimentary color for a cheerful scheme.
18. One attractive option for window treatments is faux-wooden blinds, which offer all the elegance of real wood and none of the worries of water damage or warping.
19. On the other hand, you can let the sun stream into your bath through an oversized picture window - especially if you've got a view to show off.
20. Towel bars have been replaced by hooks next to the shower, eliminating the need for folding and just-so draping. An extra hook allows a space for the bath mat to dry.

Read all the tips from Real Simple here.