We’re back with another installation of Bathroom Reno 101, where we’re taking you all on an in-depth journey while we renovate our daughters’ bathroom. Today I wanted to share how we came up with a design plan or “mood board” for the room. This was my first time designing a bathroom and there was a lot to consider, i.e.; mixing metal finishes, how everything will fit together in this tiny room, making sure it functioned for little children to adults (our guests will also be using this bathroom), two sinks or one. Of course, this was all after we had the general layout figured out and the plumbing moved.
The first thing I like to do is to find that one thing (or few things in this case) that serve as a jumping point to inspire the rest of the room. In the bathroom’s case, it was this shower head. A handheld shower is so nice to have for little kids, so I knew we wanted that, and I loved this one from Delta Faucet that has a strong magnet that holds it in place as a stationary shower, too. Not to mention, their Champagne Bronze color felt fresh, warm and soft. I searched around their site and found a tub spout, valve trim, and faucet in the same color that worked well together (linked at the bottom of the post). I loved the repeating X shape in the valve trim and faucet and the soft curves in the collection that felt traditional, but modern.
I wanted to bring in a fun, timeless pattern for the floor, and keep the walls a little more subdued, and found this plaid cement tile from Cle. It wasn’t cheap, but we only needed 40 sq feet and decided the impact was worth the splurge. It went on our 1st draft along with this mask print that I’ve been eyeing forever that I thought would add the perfect girly touch to the walls.
Obviously, faucets, floor tile and a small art print do not a bathroom make, but together they gave us some direction and I got to work filling in the gaps. As you could tell from Friday’s post, I spent too much time hunting for a vanity. I could not decide between a single sink or double sink, since both are readily available in the 60″ of space that we had. We read through each of your comments (thank you!!) and Chris assured me, there is no wrong answer here. You had so many insights I hadn’t thought of and I finally felt confident that a double sink vanity was the right choice for us–which narrowed our options down to several hundred. Ha!
I’ll spare you the hours of narrowing down I went through before I fell for this one and its solid wood construction, inset drawers, straight lines with some curves, included sinks and real marble countertop, with plenty of storage, for a very reasonable price! This one also had a cabinet (with shelves!) under the sinks, instead of a faux drawer which leaves more room for storage and allows all the drawers to function as they are meant to. Note: It doesn’t come with the faucets pictured and we have plans to swap out the hardware, too.
The next step was figuring out how the rest of this wall was going to function. We needed mirrors! And lighting! And hardware? And for all of the metals to mix effortlessly. The pro for mixed metals is everything feels a lot more layered and collected and it gives you an out when you order things from a bunch of different places (no two sources are going to have the same aged brass). The con is…it has to look effortless and no two sources’ brass can be by each other or they’ll likely clash.
I measured the vanity, wall and ceiling dimensions (since those were everything I had for sure at this time) and sized them proportionately on my computer. I use Illustrator for this, because I’m comfortable with it and can pull up virtual rulers to keep everything scaled correctly. I started sourcing mirrors and plugging in their dimensions with shapes only at first. In the past, it’s been very difficult to pick things out online and see how everything is going to fit together, but this method has really helped me visualize.
It was about this time when I realized that the Champagne Bronze colored faucets from Delta might not work. There were too many other metals coming into place right next to each other with the faucet, hardware, mirror and lighting. Since Delta doesn’t sell cabinet hardware in the same color, the hardware and faucet needed to be different finishes. The same thing went for the faucet and mirrors. Since polished nickel has warm undertones like brass, (chrome has cool undertones) I knew that they would work well together and decided the faucet would be the perfect, natural place to bring that metal in. This inspiration photo gave me the confidence it was a good choice.
After what felt like a lot of moving around puzzle pieces, the final mood board looks like this! :
Tub spout | Shower Head | Shower Curtain | Sink Faucet | Shower Valve | Mask Print | Beaded Mirror | Wall Sconce | Striped Shades | Floor Tile | Vanity | Cabinet Pulls | Drawer Knobs
With a design nailed down, I always feel like the hard part is over. And with most everything ordered and headed this way, we can barely wait to see it come together in real life. Stay tuned!
Read more about this Bathroom Renovation right here.
Have you ordered your shower curtain from Urban yet? I’ve been eyeing that one up for a while to bring some color to my bathroom however the reviews make me nervous that it won’t be the blush color the picture portrays. Curious if you are aware of this or an alternative you were considering?
I really love this blog, a clean and well designed bathroom always gives an attractive look & feel and with some nice creativity, it will look amazing. Thanks for sharing the blog and sharing some bathroom ideas that we can apply during renovation.
I looooove that the sconce shades have stripes!. They really stand out when you compare the one on the mood board to the mock-up.
I HATE our polished nickel soooo much. I loved the warm glow of it, which is why I chose it, but if you don’t wipe it down after every use, it looks cloudy, watermarked, and filthy.
What is the point of having that gorgeous warm shiny glow if you can never see it? I regret getting it so much and wish I had chosen something more low maintenance that might have a less beautiful baseline, but look nicer on a day-to-day basis.
I can’t advise against polished nickel in a bathroom more strongly!
This is going to be amazing! And we’ll be mask print twins. ????