Bathroom Planning, Designs and Resources

We are so very close to moving into our new home (just one more week!) and I'm sure you can imagine how excited we are.  There was a lot of planning involved while building and I thought today it would be fun to share a little of my bathroom planning and resources!

We have three bathrooms in our house and as I began selecting materials, my overall goal was to create three unique rooms that also complemented one another.  I wanted each room to have its own personality, yet if the three rooms were viewed at once, they would obviously belong together.  So I began to think of ways that I could incorporate different materials that would also fit together.

The floor tile was the first thing that I selected and it really set the tone for each room's design.  My goal with our entire house was to create something beautiful, timeless and thoughtful.  I didn't want anything in our house to feel too "new", modern or trendy, but really wanted to try and bring in some of those classic elements that bring so much character to a home and yet never go out of style.

 

 I spent hours (I wish I was joking) searching for retro tile that was within our budget.  So I thought I would share with you some of my favorite tiles that I found that are also under $5/square foot (all linked to below).  

1.  Black & White Porcelain Basketweave | 2. White Porcelain Hexagon | 3. Black & White Porcelain Hexagon | 4. Gray Porcelain Penny | 5. Black & White Porcelain Flower Hexagon | 6. Black & White Spiral | 7. Gray Porcelain Hexagon | 8. Gray & White Ceramic Octagon

Note: I found Floor & Decor to have the best pricing for porcelain tile, and therefore this is where all of our tile came from.  Home Depot has a great option for octagon mosaic tile, in either gray, white, or black dot (just search for octagon mosaic tile).  We used the white in our previous home!  Wayfair has some fun penny tile options and I love the different color choices. 

 The faucets and accessories were another decision that really set the tone for the overall direction I wanted to take.  These were fixtures I really wanted to select from the same collection so that it would bring a cohesive element to each bathroom.  Ironically, Pfister contacted me about their new product line, called Tisbury, and asked if it might be a good fit.  I had a very specific design in my head (cross handles! cross handles!) and when I opened up the video, I about fell out of my chair when I saw this drawing.  It was so exactly what I was looking for and hadn't been able to find anything quite like it.  The Tisbury collection at its heart is about evoking nostalgia around the grand age of travel - think grand hotels, trains and steamliners.  It's such a beautiful and thoughtful collection, from the faucets to the towel racks and really brings that timeless element that I was looking for. 

 

This collection is available in several finishes, but I chose brushed nickel for all bathrooms for the simple reason that it's my personal favorite bathroom finish (smile).  It's amazing how something as simple as a bathroom faucet can bring together the entire room.  We often hear that it's sometimes the accessories that make the outfit, and that's how I feel about bathroom faucets and accessories.  I loved the Pfister faucets in our previous house, and the quality of these are superb.  You'll see many of the faucet options in the design boards I share below.  (You can also find all the different options here.)  

 As you know or might have guessed, most of the rooms in the house are painted a shade of creamy white, so the bathrooms provided me with some space to bring in some different colors.  As I've now seen all these colors in person, I can vouch for how lovely they all are.  I can't tell you how many times I went to the Sherwin Williams paint store for paint samples... it was ridiculous!  :-)  Our contractor's wife was also a huge help to me in helping me narrow down paint colors based on her experience.  Several different colors, yet they all complement each other well.  

Alabaster is a popular color and for good reason... this creamy white is now my absolute favorite!  It works for walls, trim, cabinetry, you name it... I used it everywhere. Sea Salt is another popular color and it's very beautiful and calming... it can appear a little green, a little blue, a little gray, depending on the light.  I even used it in our guest room, so it's a beautiful color you could really use in any room, not just a bathroom.

Sconces: Pottery Barn | Faucets: Pfister Tisbury | Tile: Floor&Decor | Paint: Sherwin Williams

The girls and I begged and pleaded with my husband to let us paint their bathroom a light pink (haha) and he finally agreed... "if it's a VERY pale pink".  I selected a black and white hexagon tile and with the pink walls, it feels so feminine and pretty.  We squeezed in a double vanity so that they would each have their own sink... especially as they grow older (smile). 

Source

 This was my inspiration photo for their bathroom.  (Please tell me how I would have built a house without Pinterest!)  Having a room like this to see the pink walls with the black and white tile just clinched it for me.  This room will be so much fun to decorate! 

Faucets: Pfister Tisbury | Light Fixture: Pottery Barn | Tile: Floor&Decor | Paint: Sherwin Williams

The guest bathroom sits off the living room, so I particularly wanted this room to feel like an extension of the main rooms in the house.  Because of that, I insisted on painting the walls the same white and then brought in some color by having the cabinetry painted the same gray as our kitchen island.  I plan to add more subtle color with the shower curtain and decor. 

 If you've read my blog for a while, you may recognize many of those elements are similar to the bathroom in our previous house!  I did love how that bathroom turned out when we remodeled it and the colors just worked really well together. 

Source - Southern Living

 This was my main inspiration photo back when we remodeled our previous bathroom and I still love this bathroom design, so I immediately thought of it when planning our guest bathroom. 

However, this time around we used a dark grout with the white tile!  That was a lesson learned from our previous house... white grout is hard to maintain for obvious reasons (smile).   

Faucets: Pfister Tisbury | Sconces: Pottery Barn | Paint: Sherwin Williams | Floor Tile: Floor&Decor | Shower Tile: Home Depot

 The master bathroom was definitely the most fun to plan!  The bathroom is not large, but we have a huge walk in shower, which we are pretty excited about.  We used a really fun black and white basketweave tile in this room, which I was worried about looking too busy, but it turned out to be so perfect.  I'm glad we only used it in one bathroom, but I'm also glad it was ours because it has great personality.  

We used basic white subway tile in the shower with pewter grout.  (Note: Based on our experience, Home Depot has the best price for a basic white subway tile.) 

Source - Studio McGee

Source - Studio McGee

 This bathroom was the inspiration for ours... its walls are painted the same color we selected (Sea Salt) and I love the calming feelings that a color like this evokes.

You may have caught a few peeks as our bathrooms were evolving, but I'll wait to share how they turned out until we get moved in and settled!  It was a lot of fun planning them and even though I've walked through them hundreds of times now, I still enjoy each one for different reasons.  There are many of the same elements in each one (cabinetry style, faucets, accessories, cabinet hardware), and yet each has its own uniqueness because of the different tile, lights, and paint colors.  

There were several blog posts that helped me so much in our planning, so I hope one day this post might help even one of you as you make selections for a new bathroom or remodel!  This was a long one... thanks so much for reading along as I shared all that I've been working on (smile).

Have a wonderful holiday weekend!