The bathroom renovation roundup

A big thank you to everyone who took the time to share their thoughts on my This or That series the past few weeks. Your feedback helped a lot! At this point, almost all the decisions have been made, most of the items have been bought, and the building permit is attached to our front door. Why we need to let everyone know we’re doing a bathroom reno, I have no idea. Anyway, here’s a roundup of what’s going on in the bathroom…

Fixtures

MAAX Ambrosia F freestanding tub with air jets and chromatherapy lights. Can’t wait for a relaxing soak in this baby!

Toto Aquia wall-mounted toilet. I hope it stays firmly attached to the wall!

Two American Standard Studio sinks. We have these in our current vanity – I love the combination of linear & curvy.

Faucets

I’ve loved the Virage series from Brizo for a long time. So I’m so thrilled that Brizo very generously provided the Virage vanity, tub, and shower faucets & jets. THANK YOU BRIZO! Click here to read more about these gorgeous Virage faucets, and click here to learn more about some of Brizo’s other super-sexy faucets.

Tiles

This was by far the toughest decision to make. I had my heart set on blue moonstone floor tiles, but so many factors came into play that moved me away from moonstone and over to these Midgley & West 12” x 24” Volcano “Nero” porcelain tiles.

Bianco Carrara marble mosaic accent tile to break up the dark floor.

The winning layout, and it’s Squirt-approved too :-)

On the other hand, I knew I wanted these “Wave” tiles from Ceragres for the shower walls as soon as I saw them!

I literally anguished over the accent & niche tiles before finally settling on these pretty small blue mosaics, also from Ceragres.

 

Countertop and shower trim

This Super White quartzite is absolutely stunning. Thanks to Steph at The Granite Gurus for the inspiration! If you’re looking for an alternative to Bianca Carrara marble, this is one of Steph’s recommendations.

Vanity

Hubby is going to build a double vanity in this style. I’ll  be painting it with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Paris Grey and Old White, just like this table that I painted a few weeks ago. I’m still on the hunt for ring pulls…

Image via Houzz | Design by Artistic Designs for Living, Tineke Triggs

Lighting

Right from the start, I knew I wanted a bubble-style chandelier. Two of these Modern 4-Light Rain Tear Drops Crystal Chandeliers by Evrasvet will hang in the center of the room.

Vanity lighting

It was a tough decision, but wall sconces win! After chatting a bit with Kelly Berg at Arte Styling, I realized that hanging pendants would be overkill with the two chandeliers – like Kelly said, it could look a bit like stalactites hanging on a cave!

Images via Pinterest and Houzz {I can’t find the original sources}

Shower bench

Teak bench wins! It was a tough call, but in the end, the warmth of the wood and the versatility of a free-standing bench won out. Hubby is also going to make the bench… eventually!

Images via Houzz | Designs by The Wood Shop of Avon and Andrea Schumacher

We still haven’t settled on the vanity mirror(s), but that’s something that can be decided at the end of the reno. And the niches on the wall behind the tub are still up in the air – that decision needs to to be made soon!

Our bathroom reno plan has been in the works since June, and hubby is FINALLY just about ready to start the demo. He’s finishing up relocating heating ducts in the basement ceiling first – now that it’s getting down to 0 degrees at night, it would be really nice to have some heat in the house! Once that’s done, it’ll be full steam ahead with the bathroom. CAN’T WAIT!

Fit to be tiled

It’s amazing how many tile choices are out there. It’s also annoying how many tile choices are out there – how do you choose?! I’ve picked up about 20 different samples for our bathroom makeover from Ceragres and Saltillo Imports, and now I need to narrow them down to a few. One thing for sure – moonstone tiles are going on the floor:

Image via HGTV & Sarah 101

And I’d like to do a floor similar to this one in the shower using moonstone and Carrara marble tiles.

Image via Sarah’s House 1

And then things get complicated – I need to choose tiles for the shower surround and the niche behind the tub and the vanity backsplash. I’d also love to do Carrara marble wainscoting, but that’s a lot of tile, and it isn't cheap. So we’ll have to see on that one.

Here are the tiles I’ve narrowed the choices down to. I use the term “narrowed the choices” loosely! I love this wavy tile, and think it would look great as the shower surround. But I also like the idea of Carrara marble… oi!

Here’s the wavy tile with some of the possible accent tiles. I’m seriously in love with this striped tile. It’s 6” x 24”, so there wouldn’t be a lot of grout lines, which is great for the shower – the less grout, the easier it is to keep clean!

These are moonstone & thassos “sunflower” tiles. They’d be a nice hit of pattern without being too in-your-face.

I love the sparkle of glass tile. These are two colourways – the one on the bottom would bring a little bit of goldy-green into the bathroom, which might be nice. The same goldy-green is in some of the moonstone tiles, so this glass tile would tie in nicely with the moonstone even though it’s a completely different material.

These white square mosaic tiles are so pretty – you can’t see it too well in the picture, but they literally sparkle. They also come in a large format (10” x 20”, I think), so could be used as the main tile in the shower.

 

Then there’s these sweet little blue mosaic tiles. The colour is a great match to the blue in the moonstone, and I love how the tiles look like square drops of water.

There are two different mosaics that include moonstone. This stacked layout:

And this circle layout.

I really like them both, but I don’t know if I want to introduce tan into the  room. If I do, then I may have to re-think the Super White quartzite for the vanity countertop, which I’m pretty  much set on.

Do you see my problem? So many beautiful tiles, so many possible combinations – I don’t know how I’m ever going to choose! Maybe if I can settle on which of these showers I like best, it’ll help me decide. I like the two vertical stripes in this shower. I think the glass tiles would be the best choice for this application.

Image via Decorpad

Going back to the Sarah Richardson bathroom, I could do something similar to this shower and niche with the sunflower tiles.

Images via HGTV & Sarah 101

I like how the accent tile in this shower wraps around the bench. I’m thinking I could do the same thing, but carry it along the floor and up the opposite wall which will have the faucet & shower head. The small blue mosaic tiles could work well here. They have a lot of grout lines, so they’d provide good traction on the shower floor.

Image via Houzz | Design by T.R. Construction, Inc.

Hmmmmm…. but now I’ve eliminated the striped tile, which I love and just HAVE to use! OMG, this is TOO HARD! Maybe it would work in the niche. Or niches. One big one or two small ones?

Images via Trends Ideas | Deisgn by Candice Olson and via Houzz | Design by Michael Tauber Architecture

OK, onto the wainscoting. This one is particularly beautiful – but I’d do it in reverse, with light main tiles and dark accent tiles.

Image via Decorpad | Source: The Tile Shop

I like how the wainscoting in this bathroom is carried right into the shower. If we do Carrara marble wainscoting, the top part of the shower wall could be done in moonstone to replicate this look.

Image via Decorpad

I’m also drawn to the simple tile wainscoting in these two bathrooms.

Images via Decorpad | Source: Graham Moss and via Houzz

And then there’s the backsplash. I love how my friend & former blog partner Victoria carried the backsplash tile right up to the ceiling in this bathroom that she designed. She used the same tile for the accent stripes in the shower.

 Images via DesignTies | Design by Victoria Lambert, Edin’s House

And this is a tiled wall I recommended for a friend & client of mine.

Image via DesignTies | Design by Kelly James, JAX Decor & Design

I’ve seen a lot of bathrooms with a low backsplash , or no backsplash at all.

Images via Houzz| Design by Gast Architects and via Trends Ideas | Design by Candice Olson

I have a feeling that deciding what tiles to use and how/where to use them is going to be the biggest dilemma of this whole project. What tiles and layouts do you like best?