Wednesday, October 2, 2013

first floor bathroom

| |
I have been pondering how to spruce up the first floor bathroom since before we even closed on the house, and I keep having some great ideas, but none have really resonated with me the way that I've wanted them to. I really wanted something relatively inexpensive in the budget department, but transformative. And everything I wanted to do in there was either too grandiose or not quite right... until recently. 

Inspiration finally hit when I saw a dark chevron pattern the other day (was it at a restaurant? I can't quite remember.) and I knew that is what I wanted! I've wanted to create a dark, moody bathroom (just take a look at my bathroom pinterest board!), and I always thought that it would eventually be the upstairs bathroom to be the dark one. But now my mind is completely changed! Dark bathroom downstairs, bright white bathroom upstairs, it's settled! So I played around a bit with the photoshops to fully visualize all of the elements together, and I think I'm pretty much there in terms of planning.

Let's consider the before, shall we?


This is pretty much the way it has looked since we moved in last year, khaki tan walls, mismatched chrome and bronze fixtures and a pedestal sink and matching toilet that are a bit too grecian in style for my taste but am however very thankful to have, versus the standard Home Depot cabinet sink that could have easily come with it instead! So they will do for now. We've since added this nice moroccan (?) hooked rug that we inherited, and I really like the warmth it gives the space, so I think we'll keep that. And the mirror, again, is not my favorite, but has a medicine cabinet behind it that would be a pain to replace, because of the unusual shape, so I think we'll keep that for now too. The medicine cabinet is the only storage space in the room! But please ignore the little wallpaper samples that have been taped up, as those were originally being considered along with a thousand other ideas, but are no longer in the running, haha! 

Okay, here is what I'm after:


1) the walls will be similar to these colors (which I found via a nice little tutorial from fromrentingtoremodeling.com), two warmer dark greys in a bold chevron pattern, like I spotted out in the world. Please ignore my haphazard photoshop job, I all I needed was to patch together the image so it fit into all the nooks and crannies, but it will look much better IRL, I promise. 

2) my parents recently offered to buy us a gift for our Birthdays, as they had not gotten around to that, and wanted it to be something for the house that we would not be able to get for ourselves right away. I knew immediately that I wanted a light fixture from Barn Light Electric, as I have been coveting them for ages. And it would be perfect to have it be for the first floor bathroom, so that my parents could see it every time they come over, and be reminded that they bought it for us! The light I chose was the Industrial Double Wire Guard pendant in black finish. Though we will be installing it horizontally on the wall, versus from the ceiling. 

3) I plan to spray finish the existing towel bar black to match, but am having a hard time deciding what to do with the remaining chrome fixtures. Do I leave them as is, or will that still be too mismatched and gaudy in comparison, or should I attempt a little extra elbow grease and take them out, spray them too, and reinstall them? Getting new fixtures is out of the question at the moment, but might be a possibility further down the line. There is also a standing chrome toilet paper holder, not pictured. Thoughts?

4) Then I'll swap out the old hand towels in lieu of some beautiful black and white Turkish hand towels that we picked up on our trip to Istanbul this summer! I'm excited to finally put them to good use, where everyone can get use out of them.

5) You can't see the ceiling in this picture, but I also want to install a beadboard ceiling with moulding around the edges, similar to the bathroom in this picture. It would be quick and easy to install, since the bathroom is so small. I think it would add just a bit more original charm to the space. I would love to also install it in the kitchen someday, though that will be a much larger undertaking!

What do you guys think? Any thoughts on the fixtures or have any additional advice that I should consider? 




 
Instagram VSCO Pinterest Twitter Flickr Follow me on Bloglovin