Step into my friend Carmen’s bathroom anytime and I will smile from ear-to-ear. Okay, that might be dramatic, but you get what I mean. Her remodel is elegant without being over the top, luxurious but not pretentious, modern but not cold.
Walking into her bathroom made my own, well…feel like my own bathroom. Which is depressing considering I thought my bathroom wasn’t possible to outdepress. For years I’ve ignored my builder-basic bathroom because quite frankly, it sucks.
The pale beige paint colour paired with mushroom brown carpet were clearly the current favourites of the previous owners…and were probably last decade’s favourites too. Don’t get me started on my almond oak vanity that clashes with literally everything or the stained glass window mirror with brass detailing that is simultaneously too shiny and too tarnished to be attractive.
When I saw Carmen’s remodel though, I realised that she hadn’t done anything groundbreaking or overly expensive.
She made simple changes and picked thoughtful, mature (what a word to use for a bathroom, amirite?) options that signaled whoever lived there spent more than five minutes picking the fixtures. I got inspired and did some digging on what modern bathrooms actually look like and….I felt relieved. Yes, relieved.
It turns out a lot of the trends I’m seeing are subtle (nothing too Instagram worthy) and practical. They take into consideration how people actually live in their spaces rather than how they want their spaces to look on Pinterest. COLOUR.
Pale seafoam green, dusty rose, warm grays…there are so many beautiful neutral options out there now. The plain white bathroom that has been popular for…forever is out. And I’m not talking white either, I love white.
But that bland, icy hospital white is so over it. I’ve been loving all of the warm neutral hues. Millennial pink got a lot of hype a few years ago but I’m loving sage greens, dusty blush, warm grays, and earthy terracottas.
I tested out some paint swatches in my bathroom last weekend (yes, I may have become that person who harps on about undertones) and was blown away at how different each paint colour looked during different times of the day. One might look lovely at 3pm but shine a bathroom vanity light on you at night and suddenly you look jaundiced. I ended up going with a Sherwin Williams colour called “Balanced Beige.” It’s technically beige but has warmer undertones that make it an awesome warm grey.
It’s a pretty muted colour that won’t feel outdated in a few years but it’s warm enough that I won’t hate waking up in there. One trend that I know is OVER is chrome fixtures. Puh-lease.
Bring on the matte black taps, shower heads, you name it. I wasn’t totally sold on fully black fixtures until I went to Ferguson and actually touched some. The glare from chrome is much worse than the dreaded water spots you’ll get on black fixtures.
Black hardware just feels a lot more modern and sleek to me. I went with brushed brass hardware for my taps and shower because it’s warmer than chrome, doesn’t feel as trendy as the gold hardware that everyone got last year, and goes with every colour scheme. Jake actually installed brushed brass hardware in our kitchen two years ago and they still look great.
Me? I cannot keep my own taps shiny. I love subway tile.
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It’s classic and never goes out of style. What is out of style is that crisp, perfect white subway with bright white grout. I’ve seen bigger sizes (we’re talking 4×12 as opposed to the typical 3×6) and fun patterns to lay them in.
Think vertical stacks instead of horizontal, or laying them in a herringbone pattern. You can even stagger the rows of tile next to each other to create visual interest and movement without being busy. For my shower, I found these gorgeous 6×24 glossy marble-look porcelain tiles in a grey shade with just enough marbling to make them seem authentic.
I’m laying them in a vertical stack pattern to make the ceiling appear higher and using a slightly darker grout. Instead of pure white grout I went with a warm mushroom colour that won’t spotlight every drip of soap suds that makes its way down my shower wall. On the floor, I toyed with the idea of doing something crazy like 24×48 tile but worried it would make my small bathroom feel even tinier.
Turns out oversized tile is actually the hack for making a small space feel larger. Larger tiles = less grout = less clutter = more spacious. I found this large, textured concrete-looking tile that has enough texture to not be slippery but not too much that I’ll hate cleaning it.
Pro tip: Think about how you’ll maintain your surfaces before picking them. We had marble countertops in our old flat and while they looked so gorgeous, they drove me nuts whenever someone set a coffee mug down without a coaster. Even if you swear you’ll “be more careful,” you’ll never be careful enough for natural stone like marble and limestone.
Go with manmade stone like quartz that won’t stain if you accidentally leave your coffee cup out overnight. Speaking of vanities, I am ridiculously excited about mine. Instead of going with the ultra trendy floating vanities with no storage space, I found this gorgeous freestanding vanity with curvy wood details.
It actually has drawers and cabinet space. Revolutionary, I know. You can also see how the wood tone warms up the space and goes with the brass hardware.
It feels more like furniture than your typical “vanity.” My initial plan for lighting was to keep it simple. Overhead light plus maybe a nice fixture next to the mirror. WRONG.
Bath lighting is actually very complicated.
You need a combination of lights to create the perfect balance. I plan on having recessed lights on my ceiling for ambient lighting, sconces flanking the mirror for task lighting when I’m getting ready, and then a small pendant light over the tub (credit to Carmen on that idea).
I purchased these beautiful CB2 sconces with ribbed glass shades that are TO DIE FOR. The shade diffuses light so there are no dark shadows or weird angles. It’ll give everyone a warm glow that doesn’t make us look dreadful.
And the best part? They were WAY cheaper than I thought! The beautiful thing about all of these choices I’ve made is that they feel trendy enough to be current, but not so trendy that I’ll hate them in ten years.
Follow along as I dive into all the details of my bathroom remodel and who knows? You might just find yourself inspired enough to break down and remodel your own bathroom! I started dragging Jake to hardware stores last weekend so I can only imagine what renovation life is going to look like once we actually break ground.
Stay tuned!
