My friend Dana passed me a link to ModWalls recently. I was looking through the tile pictures and saw this called “new leaf”. I really love it and it’s made me reconsider doing the bathroom in green instead of blue.
After chatting with MOM, I’m more convinced about the tile. I think I’ll do the blue tiles on the wall…
And then do a white tile on the floor like this:
I like the shiny white floor and I think it would go very well with the glass tile on the wall. I had thought about glass on the floor but I think it would be too much. This picture really convinced me. It’s an interesting bath, but I don’t really like the colored floor and with the blue walls I think it would be overwhelming.
So that’s the plan for now. Blue walls, shiny white floor. Then we’ll have white sink/toilet/bath, white walls above the tile, and white cabinets. I’ll still be looking for other tiles just in case I find something that I might like better.
I’m tentatively moving forward with initial plans for my possible spring bathroom renovation.
I’m thinking specifically about tiles. About a year ago I was watching one of those house selling shows on TLC or HGTV or something, and the couple featured had redone their bathroom floor and walls in this amazing purple-blue 1″ glass tile combination. I loved it and wanted their exact bathroom. However, I have no pictures of it to even share the idea. I also think doing something that bold wouldn’t be good if I ever decide to sell this house (don’t worry house - I love you and have no plans to sell you).
However, I think the glass tiles would be really great. I’m debating two things. First, do I do the floor and walls all the same OR do I put the glass tiles on the wall and do something different on the floor? I’m also considering color. I like color. Blue is particularly attractive. I can totally see my bathroom floor and walls in this tile:
But I also see the benefits of something more neutral. This iridescent white is interesting, but I think I’d get over it pretty quickly.
However, I don’t want to do just plain white tiles. Thus, I’m still looking around.
I am also considering how much of the walls to tile. Right now, they are tiled up to about 4 feet. I’d do the shower enclosure all the way to the ceiling. The bathroom is tiny so I could do the whole room up to the ceiling. However, that might feel too much like a weird tiled chamber so I’m leaning toward keeping the rest of the room at the current height. The rest of the walls would be white.
Do you think a blue bathroom in that first tile would be too bold? I know I would love it, and that’s probably enough to convince me despite what anyone says, but I’d be more encouraged if other house people wouldn’t be scared away by a bathroom in that tile.
First, on the bifold doors, I think I got the wrong term here. I do not mean a door that folds. I meant the kind that open out or in like french doors, but it’s the width of one door and split in the middle. I was looking at home depot and this looked like it, but now after your comments I realized that isn’t split in the middle, it folds in the middle. I definitely don’t want something that folds. I want it to be hinged on both sides so when you open the doors it only takes up half the depth of a regular door. What the heck would that be called?
However, the idea of having the door open into the hall isnt’ a bad one. I’ve considered this before and my only hesitation is that the bathroom door is at the end of the hall:
And that might be tight. (side note: that picture is from the inspection. thank god that carpet is gone, the floors are refinished, and the upstairs is painted.)
I love that sink T.E. posted. That would totally solve my problems with the counter space. I found this picture of it with a pedestal, and I think that it would look great.
Edited to add: The door is a standard 30″ door, and yes, I’m completely gutting the bathroom. The only thing that’s not being replaced is the new window that I replaced last month. I think we’ll even need new walls behind the tile in some places.
The one big renovation project left to do on the house is to renovate the upstairs bathroom. It’s teeny tiny. Seriously, you couldn’t get a smaller bathroom than this. If the girls come in, they can’t turn around in there; they need to back out.
Here’s a picture. The toilet is behind the door.
When the door swings past the sink, it comes within about half an inch of hitting it. Seriously. It’s really REALLY small.
There isn’t a lot I can do to reconfigure it. I want to keep a tub. I don’t want to redo any plumbing.
The tinyness has a few problems. The primary one is that there is no counter space. I have a little glass shelf over the sink (you can see it in that picture), but I still knock stuff over and don’t have a lot of places to put it.
Regardless of what I choose, I’m thinking about replacing the door with bifold doors. That will give me room to expand the space on the sink area a bit. My hesitation is that they might look odd? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a house with these doors on a room, so I don’t know. Thoughts anyone?
I am very broke at the moment, having sunk every available cent into my down payment this month. I’ve been trying not to spend much money, but there are things I really needed for us to function in this house.
On the expensive side, I got a rug for the living room. The girls were sliding all over the place, and I could tell they were becoming tentative about playing. They were spending time in the basement and den to be on carpet. So using my gift cards (thank you Gramma and Michelle/Tom/Kate/Emmy/Wrigley), I went to Pottery Barn after work today and got this rug. K is on it in this picture, but Pi has been the one sleeping on the rug all night.
You will see that after some prodding from Michelle, I replaced my big ol’ Ikea media center with the mission coffee table that my dad made. This is temporary until I have money for furniture.
And now for the praise. Who invented teflon tape? I need to give that guy a cookie. I moved my hand-held shower head with me (very necessary for washing golden retrievers), but when I installed it in place of the nasty old shower head upstairs, it leaked. So a trip to Home Depot and $1 later, I had a roll of teflon tape which totally fixed my problem. I’m amazed by the stuff.
Oh - and about that trip to Home Depot. I only spent $8!! Teflon tape and two sheets of MDF to makes shelves to fit in my bedroom closets. Yeah, dude. $8 at Home Depot. Marvel at either my willpower, or my acceptance of my financial state.
My new office furniture from World Market was delivered today. I got it all put together, unpacked my books, and made the room look finished. I don’t have anything hung on the walls yet, but here are pictures as it stands (with K).
I also cleaned up a bunch of other things, including vacuuming all the dead boxelder bugs out of the windows. My bathroom is unpacked and set but there is not much to show. Here it is. The only thing you can’t see is the toiled behind the door. Like I said, it’s a tiny bathroom.
Have I mentioned how small this house is? If we are generous and count all the hallways, it’s under 950 square feet. The basement is finished, so that adds a lot, but the main house is tiny. Perfect for me, but small.
The bathroom situation reflects that. The main house has one bathroom, upstairs. Man is it small. I dont’ even have any good pictures of it because it’s so small. Here is the layout (not to scale)
It’s not to scale because the real bathroom has way less space than this. When you open the door, it passes within an inch of the sink.
Of course, there really isn’t any way to make the bathroom much bigger without expanding the house. I do need to work on making it more functional, though. Thus, the bathroom project will have two phases.
Phase 1 (the Urgent Phase): I’m going to replace the medicine cabinet with something much much larger. I will also put a cabinet over the toilet. Michelle brilliantly suggested a glass shelf above the sink, under the cabinet, and hooks on the back of the door. I’m going to add a train rack in the shower if possible. Then, I might put a folding shelf on the wall so I have a little bit of work space when I’m getting ready in the morning. Finally, I don’t know if there is even an outlet in this bathroom. I assumed there was, but Michelle said there might not be and I don’t see one in the pictures. If that’s the case, I will have to add one.
Phase 2 (Renovation) - Again, I’d like to keep this bathroom authentic to the house. The floor tile, for example, is a very typical pattern for a cape cod of this period. Even if I keep it, there are some other major changes. Most important will be putting in a vanity in place of the pedistal sink. I could put one where it is, or I could reconfigure that room. We could make the door open from the opposite side (so it opens toward the wall instea of toward the toilet. Then, we could move the toilet to the wall where the sink is, and move the sink to the other wall. This would allow me to have the sink in a vanity on the corner with a longer cabinet area under the window. I don’t know about plumbing or how difficult this would be, but at least the water hookups are in the right place. Remodel Phase will also see new tile on the walls at least. I don’t dislike what’s there now except that it is cracked in spots and uneven. I need to think more, obviously, but this is not the first major project on my list to do. I have time.
Train racks are so cool, and these have hooks - even better! I don’t yet know what the space situation is like in my bathroom. I don’t remember it, but I’ll be able to measure and do photos this week when I get the inspection. I certainly want a train rack in the shower, and may also get one like this with hooks if there is room outside the shower.
