A reader has an outdated bathroom vanity. Can it be frugally redone?

The writer doesn't mention what material the bathroom vanity is made from. Is it the paint that's orange? If so, just a primer and new paint color is all that's necessary. If it's the porcelain in the sink that's orange, consider giving it a coat of tile paint, sold at most larger home improvement stores.

Don't forget to update the hardware such as drawer pulls and door handles too!

go to lowes see whats there and tour home part junk stores they may have vanitys there find one thats in a ok shap pant the body of it or hit the habbitat area maybe they have one halp priced and looks ok when we up dated the vanity we kept the sink just made a new top to it and get the very top to it and fixed the lights that was half the price what the handy man wanted which was 1000.00 we did it for about 600.00 dollars.

I would google what to do with it.  These days they have special paint for countertops, there is really pretty backing for walls, etc. 

Good luck, I certainly know the bug of needed to fix up without having the means!

try craigslist for freebies.  if yours is that old then even one that is used but more current would work .

Paint the sides in a neutral color, and see if you can scrounge up a new cabinet front or even a door from a salvage yard.  Or:  wallpaper and border it, then use two or three coats of satin finish acrylic on it, and dollar store spray acrylic should work fine for this.  New handles shouldn't be expensive, but new faucets might be a costly problem, since cheap faucet interior parts are plastic, fragile, and hard or impossible to replace.

Brandy:

A reader has an outdated bathroom vanity. Can it be frugally redone?

My bathroom vanity is orange. It is so outdated. How can I up date it? Frugally.
PM

If I were in their place, I would 1) look for a shower curtain with orange poppies on it, and either place an arrangement of silk poppies on the counter, or hang a picture of orange poppies in a dark brown frame on the wall.  A few dark brown towels to accent, & it looks like it belongs.

2) Depending on the shade of orange, could do the same thing with a glass bowl of oranges on the counter & a citrus-looking shower curtain, with green or white towels.  

Depends on what you have & what you like.  We lived with a bright yellow (think neon) counter top in one bathroom for 21 years, by just decorating that bath with sunflowers.  If you can't afford to replace it, you can definitely force it into the background with decorating.

 Which part is orange? Is it the cabinet or the countertop? If it's the cabinet, painting it should be pretty easy--just sand it a bit, prime, and paint. If it's the top, it's harder, but doable.  I had an ugly vanity in my bathroom too, and I painted it as follows:

1) masked off the sink and cabinet

2) scuffed up the laminate with sandpaper

3) applied a primer

4) gave it one coat of a basic acrylic paint and let that dry

5) sponge-painted over it in a second color to give it some texture

6) applied three coats of water-based polyurethane over that to protect the finish

For the most part, it has held up pretty well. It has sustained a little bit of water damage in the area right under the soap dish--water was left standing on it, and the paint underneath got sort of wrinkled. It doesn't show too badly, and I now take care to wipe up spilled water promptly.

However, if this sounds like too much work, replacing the top may not be too expensive. Check the prices at Lowe's or Home Depot (or at your local Habitat ReStore if you have one in your area). You may find you can simply replace the whole top for under $100. Or, you might be able to re-laminate it.