Beginning the Bathroom Designs

Seven years ago, when we purchased BHH, it took a little more than 90 days to close. It was so stressful. We had to be out of our rental on our closing date, and we had no real plan B. After a lot of uncertainty, everything eventually fell into place, but with that experience still fresh on my mind, I expected refinancing to take a similar amount of time. I was so surprised to learn that it’s a much quicker process.

As I am writing this, I realize that I did not previously disclose how we are paying for repairs. We are doing a cash-out refi, which I will tell you more about at another time.

Once I learned how quickly this would all happen, I got on the phone with the contractor I want to use. He came over the same day, and he’s preparing a bid. There is a sense of urgency to design these bathrooms that I did not expect. We could be tearing things up as early as late September or early October!

I have carte blanche for finishes in some ways since we are pretty sure BHH did not have “modern” indoor bathrooms when it was built circa 1885. All signs point to the early turn of the century for the primary bathroom and the 1920s to 1930s for the guest bath. So, my main goal is to use mostly timeless finishes, but I’d like to exercise some creativity too. Why not?

Inspiration

Since I don’t want to go to copyright jail, I’ll link most of my favorites rather than offer a photo. I am keeping a Pinterest board of ideas if you’d like to follow along.

Before I start sharing, here are some of my firm(ish) ideas:

• No white grout in either
• No wallpaper in the primary bathroom. (There is already wallpaper in the small bathroom)
• In the primary bathroom, I plan to keep the wainscoting unpainted.
• I really want a vanity in the primary bathroom.
• If I never see another subway tile it will be too soon but, subway tile is super classic so…

I am a huge fan of Heidi Callier’s work for design inspiration, specifically this bathroom. For some reason, I can’t stop looking at penny tile for everything.

Source: The Home Depot

However, I am equally drawn to historic repro mosaic floors too.

Source: Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville

Since there is marble elsewhere in BHH, it would be appropriate to add marble back into the primary bathroom at least.

Source: The Builder Depot

I know it’s a terrible thing to say, but new marble feels somewhat soulless to me. I guess I don’t feel at home until I’ve stained it with coffee or we’ve chipped a piece somewhere. Maybe I feel too much pressure when things are too perfect?

This bathroom in Architectural Digest definitely fuels my light-colored floor dreams.

Mostly, I like the bathrooms we already have, but we need and want to modernize some things to work for family life. So, that’s where we are right now. Feel free to offer your opinion. What kinds of finishes do you like? Is there something you think would look terrific in BHH? How do you feel about subway tiles?