This is the 30th week of my pregnancy, and I think it’s pretty safe to say that I’ve hit the nesting phase of this pregnancy. I’ve been running around trying to take care of small projects around the house, and my dad is coming down in a couple of weeks to help with a few things that we’re not able to do on our own. Prepare yourselves for a few more home-related posts over the next couple of weeks: it’s all I can think about! And there are a couple of big projects that I can’t seem to shake from my mind. The one that I’m most anxious to check off the list is the renovation of our main bathroom. As I mentioned here – the bathroom really needs to be completely gutted, which is kind of overwhelming for a first time homeowner. So while we figure out how to tackle this project, I thought I’d share some of the inspiration that I’ve gathered so far!
Photo by Brittany Ambridge via Domino from Ali Cayne’s Home Tour
Whatever we decide to do, I want to stay true to the traditional feel of our older home. Our current bathroom (and the only full bathroom in the entire house) is dark and unwelcoming, with modern touches that feel out of keeping with our 1920s rowhouse. The walls are painted a dark teal and paired with dark slate tile around the bathtub and dark finishings, all of which make the room feel very small – but aside from all that, the slate tile is literally flaking away and leaking everywhere. I can’t wait to rip the entire thing out! We decided pretty early on that we’d replace the tile around the bath and shower with bright white subway tile, which makes a regular appearance on my Pinterest page. Ahhhh…. like a breath of fresh air!
Riesco & Lapres via Desire to Inspire
But the other walls? I’m not sure. Continue tile around the room? Another treatment like wainscoting or beadboard? The room is really small and we have shelving running along the wall behind the toilet to provide some much-needed storage, so there probably isn’t enough available wall space to justify wallpaper (as much as I love the idea) but I think I’d like to do something to help break up the rest of the wall space. And a light paint color on the rest of the wall to help the room feel bigger.
via La Dolce Vita by Paloma Contreras
Unknown (left) // Rue (right)
I’ve been loving the look of black and white bathrooms for a couple of years now. Our bathroom doesn’t currently receive any natural light, so I don’t think it could handle a lot of black (and I don’t want to just replicate the dark and unwelcoming feeling of our current bathroom), but we do have the option of opening up an existing skylight box in the ceiling. If we did that, maybe we could pull off a black ceiling or a darker feature wall behind the shelves?
Christopher Sturman via Desire to Inspire
Other than that, I’m pretty sure that we’ll need to replace the floor tile since it’s unlikely to survive the removal of the bathtub and surrounding tile – and we’ve always loved the idea of using classic black and white hex floor tile. I also love the idea of incorporating brass touches in the fixtures, some wire and straw baskets for texture (and pretty storage), and a couple of new accessories. But we have to get through the big stuff first before I can start thinking about accessories!
1. Ashley Capp via Style Me Pretty Living; 2. Brass shower rod from Signature Hardware; 3. Hex tile from Home Depot; 4. Bathroom shelving + storage; 5. Bathtub caddy from Anthro; 6. Wire storage basket from West Elm; 7. Shower curtain from Anthro; 8. Ogee countertop edge detail by Grant K Gibson Interior Design via Granite Gurus
Have any of you gone through a full bathroom renovation? Any advice for this first-time renovator/home owner with a new baby on the way?
