To say that we're spending a lot of time decorating our future bathroom would be an understatement. This is not our first bathroom rodeo, so we're hoping some of what we learned upstairs will apply to the new room. Because of that, we know 1) don't trust the contractor when you say you want gray tiles and he insists that the tiles you think are beige will "read gray" (they won't--I always look at that room and think "this is greige at best--why did I agree to this?") and 2) don't spend lots of money on a custom vanity that isn't much better than a pre-fab one. There's also 3) don't skimp on faucets and shower heads - get the ones with metal parts is something that our upstairs bathroom contractor taught us, and we are forever grateful. The fourth thing we learned--don't skimp on the bathtub--doesn't really apply since we have a shower.
So tile. There are SO many choices. This time, we have a bigger budget than in 2012, but it's not infinite. We're trying to stay with $8/sq. foot, so of course my favorite tile, which we saw in-person when some family remodeled their house, appears to cost about $28/sq foot. Oops.
Fortunately, we have lots of others that we like too. This one highlights some of the star elements from the above tiles (similar styles can also be found that is white stars against a black background):
This subway tile has really cool varied patterns:
I really love this
tile along the back wall, and like how it's using three different tiles to create the whole scene, but I have no idea what it is (and, let's face it, it's probably out of our price range):
We're also still trying to decide how to integrate different tiles into our space. Personally, I look at a tile and immediately judge whether it makes sense for floor or wall, though I couldn't actually say why I think that. So we figure we'll choose one busier tile and one simpler tile and whichever space gets which (floor vs. wall) will depend on the tile itself.
Right now, this is our current
favorite:
While pictures show it as going anywhere, to me, it definitely screams "floor." I like it because D mostly sees three dimensional cubes and I mostly see flowers. Meanwhile the actual tile is a hex shape. There's a black and white version too, which D prefers, but I want my gray bathroom (and the black and white reminds me too much of our existing
1950s bathroom).
If did that floor, we'd probably want a simpler wall (though I *really* like the patterned subway tiles and I'd be sad to lose them). And to keep the room feeling big, probably in a light color. Here's a porcelain "marble-like"
tile that we think has a good amount (i.e. not a lot) of veins that is pretty simple (and cheap, yay!). It also comes in different sizes, which I feel like would be good so we could use bigger tiles for the shower seat. I think? We really feel confused about what would look good where. I keep wondering whether it would make sense to use only the "marble" for the shower (including the floor) or use the hex tiles for the floor even in the shower. Suggestions welcome!
Finally (maybe? unless you see a missed opportunity to integrate even more different tiles?), I think we'd like to do something more colorful/whimsical for our shampoo/conditioner cut-out in the shower. What do you think of these
blue scallops?
Why blue? Well it's one of our favorite colors to decorate with and also, we're seriously considering a blue vanity and want to choose another color element to compliment it. Here's an idea of what we're thinking as our
vanity:
Obviously wherever we can, we'll want to order samples so we can see how all these elements match in real life. We're also nervous to order a prefab vanity from Wayfair, though we're trying to use pictures of the insides of the drawers to choose ones that appear to use wood elements and dovetail construction, instead of just plastic/MDF:
We're also considering some beautiful pieces like
this, which obviously will add to the cost but will let us pick out our own sinks (all the Wayfair vanities we're looking at are undermount sinks, and that's fine but it would be nice to at least consider others) and top:
D like midcentury modern so much more than I do. I like some good trim (apparently I like "Shaker" cabinet doors). Also--and I know this seems strange, the wood ones remind me of the cheap "wood" vanities I've had in almost every apartment I've ever lived in, so they end up feeling cheaper than the painted ones.
Whatever vanity we get, we know we want it on legs (but not floating--we like legs) and we want the whole floor tiled, so it wouldn't be the end of the world if we replaced it at some point, say if we get the cheaper Wayfair ones and realize we made an error a few years later.
Ok, you'll note that this already very long post hasn't touched on the powder room at all. Well that's because most of the decisions we make here will apply to that room too. We want the floor to match, and we plan to use our simple wall tiles as the baseboard (no other wall tile needed there). We haven't really looked into sinks because we know we want a very simple, small design and don't much care beyond that. The one thing that will class up the powder closet is...the toilet!
We haven't actually figured out exactly what model we want, but we know (ok, *I* know--D doesn't really care) that we want a
Toto Washlet, which has a warm water bidet and (maybe? probably?) a heated seat. It doesn't need to play music or whatever the top end of the line includes, but it will not be cheap. It also includes making sure that we have electricity running to the toilet. This will probably need to be its own post but at least putting it here for a placeholder.
Please tell me your thoughts. I feel like I'm dreaming bathroom designs these days...and this doesn't even address light fixtures and other things we'll need!
