Bathroom design inspiration

When we started this project, we had a general idea of the style that we were going for - clean, modern but not cold, timeless, natural materials, and simple lines. We started to term our desired style as Nordic modern farmhouse. But translating a general idea into specific material choices proved to be a challenge that required much time searching the internet for specific pictures of design inspiration.

I knew going in that we wanted natural materials, light colored wood, and a light filled room with neutral tile colors. But specifically, I had no idea. Looking for photos helped us to narrow down our choices.

These photos were the ones that resonated with us most, and from which we drew specific material selections.

I started to notice that I was collecting a lot of pictures of long, skinny tile that was stacked horizontally, like in this shower. I also liked the brightness of the white tile.


Chad responded to the pendant lights in front of the mirror in this bathroom. The large mirror behind the sinks makes the room look bigger and is very clean and simple. (But - we're not huge fans of the vanity - which is one of the challenges of inspiration pictures. You have to pick and choose what you like, and ignore the rest. Often I would find a picture I liked, and then ask myself, what is it that I like?)


Although this is a kitchen, this photo is the one we thought of most when selecting tile. We liked the white, horizontally stacked tile contrasted with the mid-tone gray tile floors, and the light wood flat panel cabinets.

This photo shows a similar wall tile, but (I think) in a carrera marble tile:

None of these photos illustrates exactly our new bathroom, but I think you'll start to get a sense of where we're headed.

We're excited.

Remodeling phase 1: bedroom and bath

Our remodeling project has begun. Let the craziness begin!

Phase 1 is tackling a bedroom and bathroom upstairs. Phase 2 will include the entire first floor, including a new kitchen. And then phase 3 is back upstairs, to add a master bath and rip out our nasty duplex kitchen and make the upstairs into bedrooms. But I am getting ahead of myself. This is going to take YEARS.

For now, we focus on just two rooms upstairs.

The plans

Here is the before layout. A big problem with this bath is that since the roof it pitched, the shower is only about four feet high. The dotted line between the bed and bath represents where that roof pitch starts.


Here is the after plan. The room placement similar, except we steal some room for the bathroom from the bedroom:

Before photos

The bath looks OK in this photo, but the big problems are hard to see: the pitched low roof, junky vinyl floor, dog eaten woodwork, broken window covered with flaky lead paint, discount vanity sink, and leaky toilet.


Here you can see why a shower would not be a possibility for anyone over 5 feet. You can also see one of the many, many cracks in the ceiling:

Here is the bedroom before, which we were sleeping in. It was actually the nicest bedroom in the house, but we were having ice dam problems due to the lack of insulation in that pitched roof, and also the windows were not entirely operational.


The rooms now

What have we done? Um, tore it all out. Here's the old bathroom.


Former bedroom:


Another view of the bathroom:


And one minor accident (restaged here) along the way... whoops! Everyone's ok!


The chaos has begun! Lord help us.

Work in progress

Chad is kicking ass on this project so that we have a working bathroom up and running soon. He is taking time off from working at the furniture shop, which is his winter job, so that this project gets done before landscaping starts off.

Bringing in the new tub:


The new tub resting on it's legs:



The new built in shelves behind the tub for shampoo, etc. You can also see the new glass block window. Can you believe that Chad did all this so fast?

Framing in the tub:


After a long day of drywalling.
The cut out for the medicine cabinet:
The built in shelves all drywalled:
The built in tub:
The view from the hallway:

Whew! That was a lot of work!

But Emily, you have a one bathroom house. What are you doing while you remodel the bathroom?

Luckily, the original residents of our house installed very makeshift plumbing facilities in the unfinished basement. We think that a teenager lived in the basement at one point. We never had any reason to use said facilities until the day we accidentily began remodeling the bathroom. All it took was about $30 worth of plumbing to get it up and running.

It is not pretty. And it is cold. But if we didn't have it, I would be living with my parents while Chad could just step out into the backyard. Entertaining at our house is now limited to events where minimal beverages are served, and which last two hours or less. See what I mean?




Another hazard of remodeling is that you might kick your foot on a toolbox that is accidentily left in the hallway, and then have to hobble around and bail out on cross country skiing because your toe hurts. Right third toe, the bruise is halfway down my foot: