This weekend we finally got around to the last of our punch list on the boys’ bathroom. The final items—a new shower curtain, caulking and swapping an outlet—bring to a close our largest project to date.
We are thrilled with the result!
In an earlier post about the bathroom plan, I shared the general direction for the space and the materials we had selected.
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The most striking element of the bathroom is definitely the floor tile. When our materials arrived, we really second guessed the design and, for a moment, almost went with a field of black penny rounds with a white penny round border. Ultimately, we decided that in a space this small, with classic materials, we could take a risk on pattern. I am so glad that we did.
Here’s the part where I reveal that I’m a total control freak: I cut all the penny round sheets into properly sized strips and reboxed and labeled them in groups of the same width. I also drew out a tile plan for our installer because my request was rather complicated. Not only was he a good sport, he did an amazing job executing my vision.
The stripes are really like nothing I’ve seen before and bring whimsy to the space without being childish. Because tile is such a permanent finish we wanted something that will carry the bathroom from a kids’ space to one that serves tweens, teens and guests. That’s right, like sands through an hourglass, so are the days of our bathroom.
With longevity in mind, we kept the pricey, fixed elements black and white. The pops of teal (or is it turquoise?) found on the towels and the shower-curtain pom-poms provide just enough interest without making things too busy. And, real talk: Who isn’t a sucker for a good pom-pom?
In the future, we can paint the space a color other than white and swap in different art if we want to change direction. What other colors do I recommend with black and white? Thanks for asking! Cobalt blue, kelly green, blush pink and various yellows are all winners with black and white.
And because our boys use this bathroom, durability was paramount. The idea to continue the tile around the lower half of all walls and use black grout throughout makes for easy cleaning and will serve us well down the road.
The subway tile and chair rail detail turned out more beautiful than expected and I am really pleased with our decision to carry the chair rail through the shower. You really don’t need to use expensive tiles to get a polished look.
There are some other additions to the bathroom that weren’t part of our initial plan, such as the niche and marble threshold in the doorway. I tend to prefer shower niches with minimal contrast from the other tile in the space, but our shower tile was way too large to put in the back of the niche. A scaled down, herringbone mosaic of a similar finish did the trick nicely.
I had initially thought to use the buffalo check fabric as my roman shade and the ladder stripe fabric on the shower curtain. However, when I got the samples and saw the scale of the check, I knew it would look much better as the shower curtain. Plus, the Sunbrella treatment on the canvas makes the fabric pretty stiff, which could have resulted in a bulky roman shade. Ordering swatches or seeing fabric in person is always a good idea.
The mirror we ended up going with was not part of our initial plan, but I’ll get into that a bit more in a future post about handling curveballs (stay tuned, *wink*). Needless to say, the mirror we have in there now is simple and really complements the light. It was also a total steal at only $40 from Target.
Pop quiz time: Did you notice the mixing of metals? This bathroom has both a polished and modern-look chrome and an old-timey oil-rubbed bronze. I think if we had gone all oil-rubbed bronze or all chrome it would have been pretty boring and expected. Mixing metals is a great trick used by high-end interior designers to add interest to a space and ensure the hardware doesn’t fade into the background. Mixing it up helps a room’s “jewelry” stand out.
One tip for pulling it off is to group the similar finishes together. Here, the light and mirror match and are in close proximity, while the faucet and vanity pulls are on the same structure and also match. As an example, something I’m seeing a lot in kitchens is all oil-rubbed bronze hardware on an island, but brass hardware on all surrounding upper/lower cabinetry, as well as brass light fixtures and faucets.
Of course, the bathroom is also scattered with some crafty DIYs. I made the roman shade, the shower curtain and the otomi-inspired cut out art. Let me know with a comment here, or on Instagram or Facebook if you’d be interested in a future how-to post on any of those projects.
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