The best bathroom upgrades for renters cost under $50 and come down in ten minutes, and the one that changed my bathroom most was a $40 plug-in wall sconce mounted beside the mirror on adhesive strips, with the overhead light switched off for good. My bathroom is 5 by 7, has one overhead fixture in the middle of the ceiling that lights the top of my head and puts my face in shadow, and no outlet within reach of the mirror; the sconce runs to the outlet by the door through a cord channel, and the mirror went from a place I avoided to the best-lit spot in the apartment. This post is the sconce and where it goes, the cord and the outlet problem, the bulb and why 3000K here, the other $40 upgrades ranked, the shower curtain and the rod, the bath mat and the towels, the mirror itself, the shelf that isn't a shelf, the things that look like upgrades and aren't, the landlord questions, the ten-minute move-out, mistakes, and the whole bathroom's cost.
The $40: a plug-in sconce beside the mirror
A plug-in bathroom sconce, 3000K, 450 lumens, with a frosted shade, mounted at 63 inches to center on the wall beside the mirror, 6 inches from its edge, on two adhesive strips rated for twice its weight. It lights my face from the side at eye level, which is where a face is lit in every good mirror everywhere, and the overhead light, which lights the crown of my head and nothing else, is off. One sconce, on the side the outlet is on; two if there's a second outlet or a rechargeable for the other side. The whole thing is thirty minutes including the strips' hour of pressure, and it's the boutique hotel post's first step.
The cord and the outlet problem
Most rental bathrooms have one outlet, by the door or in the vanity, and it's never beside the mirror; the cord runs from the sconce down the wall in a paintable adhesive channel, along the top of the baseboard, and to the outlet, which in my bathroom is 4 feet. A GFCI outlet, which any bathroom outlet is, is fine for a plug-in sconce; a rechargeable sconce, if the outlet is too far or the cord can't be hidden, is the other answer and charges on the kitchen counter once a month. The plug-in sconce guide is the channel and the strips.
The bulb: 3000K, not 2700K
The bathroom is the one room where 2700K is wrong, because a face under 2700K is a face with a tan it doesn't have, and makeup done under it is makeup for a different room; 3000K is warm enough to be kind and neutral enough to be true, and 450 lumens is enough for a face at 2 feet. A CRI of 90 or above, which the box says, and which is the difference between skin and the color of skin. Not dimmable, because the bathroom light is on or off, and a dimmer in a bathroom is a light left at 20 percent by a guest.
The other $40 upgrades, ranked
A tension curtain rod, curved, $22, which adds 8 inches of elbow room to a 30-inch tub without a screw. A weighted fabric shower curtain with a liner, $35, which is the biggest visual change after the light. A bath mat in a real wool or cotton, $30, which is the floor. A peel-and-stick hook strip for towels, $12. A second mirror, small, on the wall opposite, on strips, $18, which doubles the sconce. A plant, a pothos, on the tank, $12. In that order after the sconce, and all of it comes down in ten minutes with no trace.
The shower curtain and the rod
A curtain hung high, with the rod at 78 inches instead of the 66 the tub's tile ends at, makes the ceiling look higher and the tub look like a shower; a curved tension rod, which needs no screws and holds by pressure, adds room and stays. A fabric curtain in white or oatmeal with a separate liner, weighted at the hem so it doesn't cling, and hooks that are metal and not plastic. $57 for the two, and it's the change a guest sees first, because the curtain is the largest object in a 5-by-7 bathroom.
The bath mat and the towels
A mat in a color, not white, because a white bath mat in a rental is a white bath mat for a week; a dark grey or a rust, in cotton, washed monthly. Towels in one color, three of them, on a hook strip and not a bar, because a hook strip on strips holds and a bar on strips doesn't. Towels matching is the cheapest way a bathroom reads as decided, and it's $40 for three at a discount store, which is the $40 upgrade that's actually towels.
The mirror
The landlord's mirror is usually a medicine cabinet with a mirrored door, and it's fine; a frame around it is the upgrade, a peel-and-stick mirror frame kit, $25, that turns a cabinet into a mirror. If the mirror is bad, a round mirror on strips beside it at face height, 20 inches, $30, and the sconce beside that one instead. The mirror isn't the problem in most rental bathrooms; the light on it is, and the sconce fixes the mirror without touching it.
The shelf that isn't a shelf
A shower caddy that hangs from the shower head, $15, which is the only storage in a tub with no ledge. A tray on the tank for the things that were on the sink. A small basket on the floor by the tub for the spare rolls. And a suction-cup corner shelf, which fails, replaced by a tension corner pole, $28, which doesn't. The rule is nothing screwed, everything hung or standing, and the bathroom stores three times what it did with nothing on the walls but two hook strips.
Things that look like upgrades and aren't
Peel-and-stick tile on the floor, which peels in a bathroom and takes the landlord's finish with it. A new faucet, which is plumbing and a security deposit. Peel-and-stick wallpaper in a room that steams, which is a wet wall by spring. A bidet attachment, which is plumbing again and which a landlord will ask about. And a new toilet seat, which is the one plumbing-free swap that's fine and which nobody counts as decor. The upgrades that last are the ones that don't touch water, and the sconce is on the wall opposite the tub.
The landlord questions
The sconce is on strips and plugs into the outlet; the curtain rod is tension; the hook strips are adhesive; the mat lies on the floor. Nothing is screwed, glued permanently or plumbed, and the bathroom at move-out is the bathroom at move-in with the strips pulled and the tabs' spots wiped. The one question a landlord asked in four apartments was about the cord channel, and the answer was that it's paintable adhesive and comes off with a hairdryer. The renter rules post is the list.
The ten-minute move-out
Pull the sconce's strips straight down, the channel off with a hairdryer, the hook strips the same, the rod out with a twist, the curtain and the mat and the caddy into a bag. Ten minutes, a wipe with rubbing alcohol where the strips were, and the bathroom is the landlord's. The sconce has done three bathrooms and is on its second set of strips, and it's the single upgrade I'd carry out of a burning building, which in a bathroom is a strange thing to say.
Where the sconce goes if the mirror is over the sink and the wall is tile
Adhesive strips hold on glazed tile better than on paint, and the sconce goes on the tile beside the mirror the same way, with the strips cleaned onto the tile with alcohol and pressed for a minute; the cord channel runs down the grout line, which hides it. If the wall beside the mirror is 4 inches of tile before the shower, the sconce goes above the mirror instead, centered, at 72 inches, which is second-best but lights a face from the front. A rechargeable sconce with a magnetic mount is the option for a wall that won't take strips, and it charges by USB.
The bathroom at night
The sconce on for the teeth and off after, and a rechargeable puck under the sink's edge on a motion sensor, 2200K, $14, for the 3 am trip, which is the light that means the overhead never comes on at night. A guest finds the bathroom by the puck and doesn't blind themselves with the switch. The puck is the sixth thing on the list and the one most people don't know exists, and it's the cheapest.
The bathroom with no window
Mine has none, and a windowless bathroom is a bathroom where the light is the whole room; the sconce at 3000K makes it feel like a room with a window on a grey day, which for a 5-by-7 box with a fan is the target. A second small mirror on the opposite wall on strips doubles the sconce and gives the room a second "window." A white curtain, a pale mat and a plant that can live on nothing, a pothos or a snake plant, and the room reads as lit rather than switched on. The overhead in a windowless bathroom is the worst light in the apartment, and the sconce is the one that replaces it entirely.
Sharing it, and the guest towel
A guest's towel on its own hook, rolled, in the third color, and a small tray by the sink with the things a guest needs and won't ask for; the sconce on when a guest arrives, because it's the light they'll see themselves in. A friend staying four nights called the bathroom the best-lit room in Brooklyn and asked about the sconce, and it's the reason this post exists. The bathroom is the one room a guest is alone in, and it's the room where the upgrade is most noticed and least expected.
The order to do it in, over a month
Week one, the sconce, because the mirror is the thing used twice a day. Week two, the rod and the curtain, because it's the biggest object. Week three, the mat, the towels and the hook strip, because they're the color. Week four, the caddy, the plant and the puck, because they're the details. A month and $232 in four Saturdays of twenty minutes, or one afternoon if it's all bought at once, and the bathroom is done for as long as the lease runs and packed in a bag when it ends.
Mistakes
The sconce at 70 inches, above my face, for a month. A 2700K bulb, and a week of a face I didn't recognize. A towel bar on strips, on the floor by morning. Suction shelves, three of them, in the tub. A white bath mat. And two years in the first apartment with the overhead light and a mirror I stood sideways to, which is what the $40 fixed.
In one paragraph
A plug-in sconce at 63 inches beside the mirror on strips, 3000K, cord in a channel to the outlet, overhead light off. Then a curved tension rod with the curtain hung high, a colored mat, matching towels on a hook strip, a caddy on the shower head, a plant on the tank and a motion puck under the sink. Nothing screwed, nothing plumbed, everything out in ten minutes, and a bathroom that reads as designed for less than the cost of a faucet.
What the whole bathroom cost
The sconce, $40, and its strips and channel, $12. The rod, $22, and the curtain and liner, $35. The mat, $30. Three towels, $40. The hook strips, $12. The caddy, $15. The plant, $12. The puck, $14. About $232 for a bathroom that went from the worst room in the apartment to the one guests photograph, and $52 of it, the sconce and its mounting, is the part that made the mirror a mirror.
Shop this post: bathroom sconces and vanity mirror lights, the $40 that fixes the mirror
