Retaining and refurbishing your existing materials is always the best option for saving money. But if you must swap out materials, inexpensive alternatives often can look amazingly like the real thing.

If your bathroom happens to have a wooden floor, you can always cover it over with a more moisture-hardy flooring, such as tile, sheet vinyl, or luxury vinyl plank. Or you can save time, energy, and money by keeping your wooden floor and painting it with protective enamel.

Consider total replacement of your bathtub to be your last possible option, at least from a cost-saving standpoint. Instead, try relining or refinishing. Bathtub and shower refinishing is a prime example of the dictum "Repair and retain rather than remove." If the problem is mainly cosmetic, such as a yellowed surface and some cracks and nicks, you can refinish your shower or bathtub.

One step down from refinishing the entire tub surface is a tub touch-up. When your bathtub has nicks, gouges, and peeling paint, but you are not keen on the idea of refinishing the entire surface, you can spot-fix the tub.

Buying and installing new bathroom cabinets can get expensive. A far easier and more affordable way to bring life to your existing cabinets is to strip out the old hardware and replace it with fun new hardware.

As with installing new hardware on cabinets, installing a new sink faucet is one trick designers and do-it-yourselfers alike use to make a sink sparkle without replacing the entire top or vanity.

The most expensive option for a new shower is to hire a pro to build a custom tile shower from scratch. While site-built tile showers and tubs can be gorgeous and unique, consider a prefabricated shower unit, which typically costs a lot less.

Plumbers are worth their weight in gold. But if you have the strength to carry a toilet, avoid calling in a plumber to switch out the old toilet. Instead, install your toilet by yourself. Toilet installation involves very few waterline hookups. The hardest part of installing a toilet is physically moving the toilet into place. For that, buy an inexpensive hand truck or enlist the services of a friend.

Bathroom vanities and tops practically come assembled for you. Because bathrooms are small, it is possible for you to buy nearly or fully assembled bathroom vanity units and vanity tops and have them in place within a couple of hours.

If you have two bathrooms and you remodel one of them, what should you do with all of those materials? Some homeowners have found that it is cost-effective to migrate materials from one bathroom to the other bathroom. Even materials as trivial as shower curtains, pipes, and picture frames can be moved to the next bathroom.

The design experts at Red Sea share 40 incredible bathroom renovations, remodels and makeovers with before and after photos that will leave you speechless.