Welcome to my new master bathroom – it’s modern with a (strangely) heavy dose of traditional, and a lot of fresh happiness. It took about 6 weeks from start to finish, with an original estimated time of 2 weeks (a few pieces dragged which put everything else behind) and cost way more than I’d like to admit. Of course now that its done I’ve kinda forgotten about the time/cost/emotional turmoil and instead I just bask in the freshness that only a brand new bathroom can give you.
I’m sure you are well aware at this point, but just in case you are new to the blog I would love to torture you with what I tortured myself with for a year and a half – the pre-renovated bathroom:
UGH.
For the love of God lets move on to the ‘afters’ shall we? Feast your eyes on these:
I get to do my 500 brush strokes through my hair every night in this bathroom now, and my life is better because of it.
I went over a lot in yesterday’s post, but a few things were still outstanding. I LOVE this vanity. It’s simple, modern, has amazing storage and even plug-in sockets inside the cupboards. The two sides are drawers and the middle two are cupboards. We struggled with the handle orientation, but not for long – I went with function and chose the orientation based on that.
The faucets pretty much speak for themselves – they are so simple, modern and that finish is perfect. I love them very much. We had a lot of choose from, but for this project these were the for sure winners.
The toilet is a “touchless” toilet which sounds creepy, but is pretty great. It has a button on top that you barely touch (I think you can wave your hand over it) and it flushes very fast and really quiet. I’ve never had a new toilet before, and generally it’s efficiency is impressive. As you can imagine Charlie loves the touch-less feature and we’ve had to talk a lot about the drought in our family.
As things were coming together I kept being struck with this thought – man, this bathroom went way more traditional than I expected. This is certainly not a bad thing, AT ALL, as I love classic, traditional design. But in trying to figure out why that was the case I came up with a few thoughts. I figured if you want to mix them modern/traditional look these could be good tips, but if you wanted to stay away from going too traditional then these are good things for you to avoid.
1. Tiling 1/2 of the wall is inherently more traditional and less ‘mid-century’ or contemporary. I loved the idea of the whole bathroom being tiled, but floor to ceiling on all walls seemed a little much. So we chose to do half of the wall. For a more modern look we could have done just the bathtub wall (and return) and behind the vanity with nothing on the other walls. Because of the 1/2 wall we had to add bullnose tile on top which makes it a bit more traditional as well.
2. We went for a shower curtain and rod versus a glass door. The quotes I received on glass doors were between $1200 – $2k. I like them in general but not enough to spend that on mine – well, not after the rest of the dough (somewhere between $15 – $18K . . . I’m in denial). I felt like the glass could a.) make the room feel more closed off, b.) make it annoying to bathe children (or myself when I want to take a bath) and c.) look too ‘contemporary’. That shower curtain rod was $120 from somewhere we found online and the curtain was $25 from Target. I figured if I ever wanted to add the glass enclosure (or even just a 1/2 of one, which is probably what I would do) I could, no problem, but I wasn’t motivated to do it then. The bathroom is so small that having a glass door to open/close and navigate around sounds annoying, and only having a 2 – 3′ glass panel by the faucet would be extremely hard to bathe Charlie in (and felt dangerous as he would have access to the hot water without it being easily accessible to me). Or, maybe I’m just cheap.
3. The mirror and the tub were both more antique/classic. It’s not like it was a claw foot tub, but it’s cast iron which gives it a more classic look. I guess I’m fairly drawn to this style, too, so while the faucets, vanity, toilet, etc. were also super modern, I wanted to bring in a bit of soul with those pieces. The mirror was something I found at a vintage store in the valley for $60. I’m not convinced its the mirror, and I had intentions of custom making a large round or square one with brass detailing, but I was behind on that task. When they were wrapping up the bathroom install I had this other mirror on hand and simply hung it up. I really like it, but will probably continue to keep an eye out for a more perfect one.
The best thing about the bathroom is how big and airy it feels for being so tiny. It has character (THAT TILE, those faucets!) but since they are fairly simple in color and pattern it keeps that open feeling. Everything is light, more tonal and clean which allows for the space itself to feel as open and wide as possible.
It’s a hot faucet, you know it is.
This space was so hard to shoot because it’s so small, but Jess managed to get some shots of all angles for some satisfying before and afters.
It’s quite the improvement, no? We recently put in another small bathroom in our guest room/old office and next up is the other bathroom. I learned some lessons – and one of them should have been JUST GET IT OVER WITH, but of course now that we have a newborn I’m wondering if/when our hall bathroom will ever get renovated. Stay tuned, friends and HAPPY FRIDAY. xx
Brass Sconces | Crystalized Glass Floor Tile | Wall Tile in Crater Lake | Towel Bar | Toilet | Vanity-top Bathroom Sink | Bathroom Cabinets | Towel Ring | Drawer Pull | Robe Hook | Toilet Paper Holder | Bath Tub | Sink Faucet | Shower and Bath Faucets | Faceted Gold Soap Dispenser | Marble Canister | Ring Dish | Soap Dish | Glass Canister | White Etched Tray | Blue Bath Mat | White Striped Towels | Abstract Wall Art |
*Photos by Jessica Isaac. For more of the master bathroom look here and here. And check out the bathroom feature in Elle Decor.
For more reveals from Emily’s Glendale Home: How To Add Style To A Neutral Living Room | Full House Tour | Family Room & Kitchen Styled to Sell | Elliot’s Room Styled to Sell | Charlie’s Room Styled to Sell | Living Room Styled to Sell | New Master Bedroom Styled to Sell | Office | Guest Bathroom | Master Bedroom | Elliot’s Blush & Green Nursery | Charlie’s Circus Themed Nursery | New Guest Bedroom Bed | Good Housekeeping House Tour | Guest Bedroom | Closet
