Do you remember what it feels like waiting outside of the bathroom while someone somewhere is conducting an orchestra of every tap imaginable? Yeah. Me too.
Welcome to my life. My eight-year-old tells me he’s “just brushing his teeth” …I’m pretty sure he’s training to be a seal diver. Turns out I’ve learned bathrooms should just be set up with the intention of flooding from day one.
When we moved into our house in Chorlton nearly three years ago, our boys’ bathroom looked something that could only be described as so fabulously developer-chic it actually was chic – and not in the good way. Beige.
Cheap beige.
And I’m pretty sure the person who designed children’s bathrooms has never come within ten feet of an actual toddler. The vanity was installed at the awkward height that works for no one; the counter top was some type of fake-marble that reflected light like sprinkler water; and please indulge me while I rant about the white grout. White grout in a kid’s bathroom is like buying white couches for a mud wrestling ring.
I knew at that point that we would need to gut the entire room – but what I didn’t realise was how hard it would be. Turns out designing a bathroom that can handle the wrath of daily destruction but also stylish enough that adults don’t immediately run for the hills is akin to coding computer software that is beautiful but also contains absolutely no bugs. Sure it can be done.
But you will make hundreds of mistakes along the way. Mistake number one? I thought painting everything in the bathroom white would be – you guessed it – bright and clean.
News flash. It is not. After about a week, lovely white grout lines started to look like a homicide scene.
I spent more time attempting to scrub up mysterious brown stains (WHAT ARE THESE STAINS?! Why are they hanging out with my boys and their army of orange markers?!) than I should care to admit. It was around this time that I realised I needed to completely overhaul my approach.
Kid-friendly design had me going wrong on the floors. Eventually landed on these big honking porcelain tiles in an off-grey colour with just enough texture to hide soap scum – but not enough texture that I feel like I need an archaeology degree when I wipe down the floor. And just like the counters, I went with dark grey/black grout.
LIFE. CHANGING. Yes, it still gets dirty…(Kids.
Todays baths = tomorrowsScience Lesson stain.) But it doesn’t scream EVERYTHING AT ME LIKE I NEVER CLEANED THIS!!!!! ! Storage was another battle area in which I had to improvise like crazy. The awful builder-grade mirrored medicine cabinets were hung too high for my kids to reach their belongings; which essentially made me their personal full-time bathroom butler.
And the cabinets were so dang skinny they didn’t even hold anything worthwhile. Ditched the cabinets for floating shelves. One shelf was hung low enough for my kids to reach their toothbrushes, cups, and ever-growing collection of bath toys that I’m sure spontaneously reproduce when my back is turned.
The upper shelf is where I keep my fancy hand soap, backups, and those fancy towels we only pull out when we have company. But the game changer was adding two separate 24 inch vanities with a skinny cabinet in between. Suddenly they each had their own territory.
Their own mirror to fight over, their own drawer to stash junk, and their own side to destroy without ruining their siblings bathroom fun. I honestly think the reduction in sibling warfare was enough to warrant the headache of installation. Show counters were where I almost cried.
Hours were spent pouring over sample upon sample of quartz trying to decide what I liked best. Reading reviews. Questioning every decision.
Quartz was obvious- nonporous, tough against stains, and looks fancy enough that people think you actually know what you’re doing. But once I started stressing out over edge detail because kids + sharp corners do not mix drove me absolutely bananas until I found this quartz that had slight rounded edges and just enough of a little speckled pattern to help hide water marks. It was more than I wanted to spend budget-wise; but let me tell you three years later it’s practically brand new in spite of the daily destruction.
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Paint colour was the one area we compromised. The kids fought me tooth and nail for “rainbow walls”, and I desperately tried to pick something that wouldn’t make me feel like I was living inside of a children’s cartoon. Finally settled on a soft sage-green for three walls with one accent wall of darker teal.
Fun enough for them to still feel like it’s theirs; but grown-up enough that I don’t cringe every time I step foot in there. And bonus?! Apparently sage-green has magical handprint deleting properties.
Who knew?! ? Mirror selection was where I almost lost my mind. Kids need tall enough mirrors to see themselves, but let’s be real bathroom mirrors get tortured.
Stumbled upon these circle mirrors with basic black frames – and I mounted one above each vanity. They have yet to fail me, whether it be from toothpaste eruptions or my youngest son’s phase of dropping EVERY.AVALIBLE.STICKER. inside of them. Bonus?
Round mirrors kind of take away the “formal” vibe most bathrooms get with traditional rectangle-shaped mirrors; and let’s be honest… no one needs more sharp corners that kids will TRY to run into when they’re having fun. Lighting was trickier than I expected as well. Those trendy vanity lighting fixtures you see EVERYWHERE that magazine editors just love looking at online create such harsh shadows that it actually makes it difficult for kids to see what they are doing.
Ended up going with basic wall-mounted sconces next to each mirror. Plus an overhead light fixture with a dimmer switch. Dimmer switches are KEY when it comes to bathrooms with kids.
Bright for when they actually need to see; and dimmed down for bedtime routines when you don’t want to blind them. As for the shower, this was probably where we went Hollywood. We left the existing tub/shower combo because honestly…. baths aren’t going anywhere.
But we ripped all of the shower “tile” out and replaced it with subway tile and – learning from my lessons – dark grout. We painted halfway up the walls white subway tile; then painted the rest. These built in corner shelves are working wonders compared to any of the hanging shower organizers we tried.
Speaking of fixtures – another thing I didn’t know until too late and MANY moments of frustration. Hardware does, in fact, matter when you have kids. Don’t cheap out on anything that your toddlers are going to touch on a daily basis.
Those cheap dollar-store-chrome towel rods I started with? Didn’t make it four months before my kids tossing their towels on ended snapped them right in half. Invest in good brass hardware with a brushed finish that hides fingerprints.
Make sure all mounting plates are attached to studs. Kids aren’t going to lay their towel gently on a hook; they rip it off the wall like they’re banging a bell. Towels.
Hooks. Ugh. Here’s a little tip no one tells you.
Hooks work way better with kids than towel rods.
Kids aren’t going to fold anything…or hang things neatly. They drop things where ever is easiest and if there isn’t a convenient place to hang their towel…they just drop it on the floor.
Towel hook quantity: do not bare ratio was something I stressed over. We installed six hooks throughout the bathroom – plus extra ones for wash cloths and whatever else they need to hang. All in all this bathroom renovation took me roughly seven weeks and definitely cost way more than I wanted to spend. (Hey!
Don’t we all!) But having peace of mind during the daily crazies was worth every penny. I don’t grimace when bath time gets loud in there. I don’t spend hours trying to scrub up who-knows-what stains off of “supposed to” be easy to clean surfaces.
Our bathroom works for our family – kids and all- and allows them to be as wonderfully messy as they need to be! Mum still thinks I’m crazy for spending so much time and money on “just a bathroom.” My dad quietly admitted the other day that it looks really professional. But hey.
When you go from wondering “what is THAT stain?” to questioning “why is there a toy dinosaur jammed down the drain AGAIN?” you know you’ve done it right.
