Here are my ideas for the bathroom! The only caveat is the wallpaper, since you don’t have a window in there. Do you have an exhaust fan? How damp does it get? I’m picturing the wallpaper on the wall to the left of the toilet, where there are no tiles. The remaining walls could then be painted a very soft pink to match the background of the wallpaper.
This plan gives you more storage space in the white cabinet so you won’t have all the clutter, and a little shelf to go under the mirror to display a few pretty little things. White towels (to be hung on rods!) for bathing, and a cute little fancy yellow hand towel to hang on a knob next to the sink.
For the floor, I’d go with plain, white, 2″ squares. I think they cost about 50 cents per square foot at Home Depot (or some other insanely low price). Even if you can’t change out the floor right away, doing the rest of these things would be a vast improvement. The most important moves are to get rid of the clutter, cut down on the number of towels (right now I see SIX towels and a washcloth!) so you can hang them all up, and get rid of the matchy-matchy flower-themed stuff. You don’t need to rely on matched sets, you’re more stylish than that! 🙂
Oh, and here’s some good advice (see the comments) for taking down the shower doors!
FERM Orchid wallpaper / $94.50
IKEA ASPUDDEN wall cabinet / $39.99
IKEA BAREN glass shelf, knobs, and towel rail / $3.99 – 12.99
IKEA HULINGEN pedal bin / $14.99
CB2 canvas shower curtain / $39.95
CB2 resin bath accessories / $7.95 – $14.95
CB2 cirrus rug (ash grey) / $19.95
Oooh, look how pretty mint green tiles look with white!
http://www.designspongeonline.com/2008/07/blake-wright.html
I would worry about cleaning issues having the wallpaper located near that particular fixture…
Um. Anonymous, do you mean near the toilet? Because unless you’re 5 years old, I can’t imagine this being an issue. But that’s just me.
That said, most contemporary wallpapers are washable (within reason). I don’t think it would be a problem.
The only issue I can see would be with the adhesive, which could loosen over time if the bathroom is too damp.
I like some of those ideas. I really have no interest in keeping the current tile in there, the photographs have made everything about the bathroom look more appealing. I would like to keep the current tub, sink and toilet and just change the fixtures. I would like the whole tub surround to be white subway tiles, and the floor hexagonal white tiles. After that I am open to a wall color. I need advice on a new toilet sink and shower and sink fixtures. I also need a new medicine cabinet and lights. I love the shower curtain, dispensers and garbage can, as well as the shelf and the wall cabinet! They are totally what I picture in there!
Oh wow, I didn’t realize you were planning to do something that extensive! That’s great.
I also didn’t realize that the green tiles don’t extend into the tub area until I looked at the enlarged photos on Flickr. What’s inside the tub? Is it a fiberglass surround?
As you’ve probably noticed, the standard white hex and subway tiles (American Olean or another brand like that) are really inexpensive. I also saw recently at Lowe’s that they have white pennyrounds for less than $5/SF, which is comparable to the price of hex, just something to keep in mind.
p.s. Cute sink faucet!
http://www.vintagetub.com/asp/product_detail.asp?item_no=AS2555.201.002
Are faucets really that expensive?? That is probably cheap too!
That’s on the low-mid range, there are definitely less expensive ones out there. Make sure you get one that’s good quality, though, or else you’ll be having to do repairs in a year.
At least your sink is new enough that it’s a standard size, so there are lots of options! I am limited to a verrrry small selection of expensive faucets (that I don’t even really like) for my sink. 🙁
Anna:
What do you think of this toilet seat? (That is a question I never imagined asking online.)
http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId;=144750-1597-744CH000&lpage;=none
Looks good to me, you can’t go wrong with basic white! I prefer this kind with the metal hinges rather than the ones with plastic hinge covers.
I think I have the exact same toilet in my downstairs bathroom. Is it ’50s American Standard (just called “Standard” back then)? We’re getting rid of it when we renovated because of ecological reasons (water conservation), but I will miss it. Old toilets are so much nicer looking than new ones.
I love the shape of this toilet, but am torn about the water conservation part. My mom thinks I should buy a new one, but I don’t like a lot of them either. I love the detail on the tank of mine. I don’t know what kind it is, it has a date stamped in the porcelain of June 28, 1961 and a stamp that says Mansfield plumbing fixtures. I was thinking I would just replace everything inside the tank with new plumbing.
Would that actually make any difference in terms of the water usage? If you can find out anything about this, let me know. I’d love to keep my old toilet, but I feel guilty.
My new toilet for upstairs (Toto Eco-Drake) is so boring.
It is more of an issue of history I guess for me. We had boys who never sat down in our family and I hate cleaning the bathroom. If it was up to me I’d like to make the whole room waterproof and have a sanitize switch on the outside 😉
I found your blog though Anna’s and the comments regarding toilets reminded me of an article I read recently in a local magazine.
http://www.atlantamagazine.com/uploadedFiles/Atlanta/101_Guides/Water_service.pdf
If you look at the section on bathrooms they have several suggestions for replacement handles and tank banks to lower the amount of water used by your older toilet should you decide not to replace it.
Tonia:
Thanks for the article! I’m going to research it a little more and see if any of it can make my toilet more efficient. Lately I am starting to feel that a smaller toilet might give me a little more bathroom space, so I might decide to replace it after all.