I tell you what. I am much more in my comfort zone when making decisions about what to do with a $5 yard sale find or picking a paint color for a bedroom.
This bathroom reno…it’s keeping me up at night.
I’ve never done a total big girl renovation – one that costs a LOT more than a $30 gallon of paint, and some spray painted lamps and frames.
I’ll be living with this bathroom probably for the rest of my life.
ME.
Miss ‘Change Things Up Every Other Month’ will need to be living with this FOREVER.
I’m totally out of my element here.
Every decision is major.
BECAUSE I’LL BE LIVING WITH THIS FOREVER.
Did you catch that yet?
I don’t want to get tired of it or choose something that’ll go out of style. You know, so that whoever lives here 50 years from now isn’t living with one pink toilet, and one yellow.
Sadly, I speak from experience.
What to choose, what to choose.
There are many old houses in our neighborhood – talking 1800’s and early 1900’s – and I have friends living in them. In fact, I lived in one in my single days, and all the bathrooms seem to have a recurring theme. White subway tile, pedestal sinks, hexagon tile, maybe marble thrown in there.
Basically, NO YELLOW TOILETS.
I’m thinking, if this is still in style today, it ain’t goin’ nowhere.
So classic and timeless it is.
I picked out white subway tile…
An accent strip of marble…
…Beadboard on the walls, nice molding, and an octagon tile…
You’ll notice nothing’s been grouted yet, there’s dirt all over the place, and these were taken with my phone camera. We are FAR from done (well, not that far- maybe couple more weeks). Plus, I don’t want to give TOO much away;) Just wanted to give you a teeny tiny peek at the progress.
I can always change up the paint color (you KNOW I will!), but I’m happy with all of these *major* (aka expensive/not-so-easy-to-change) decisions so far. If a bathroom from 1920 with the same look is still working today, I’m thinking I won’t tire of it anytime soon. And whoever owns this house many years from now will be happy with the decisions I made that July of 2014.
Hi there! I’m Liz, a former teacher-turned-stay-at-home mom to three kids, with a passion to create a warm and inviting home on a budget. This blog all started when I’d put the babies down for a nap, and squeeze in a project during those precious couple of hours! My hope is that you visit this page and feel inspired to do a little “naptime decorating” of your own. Thank you so much for stopping by! 
Basic white never goes out of style! Plus, you can easily repaint the walls, switch out shower curtains, towels, accessories, etc. fairly easily if the mood (or a good sale) hits you. We put the same octagonal subway tiles in one of our bathrooms with white grout. Looks beautiful—for about ten minutes, or until dirty/wet feet walk on it. *Just a warning.* I ended up putting some grout renew stuff from Lowe’s on the (miles and miles) of grout, and it helps quite a bit. Can’t wait to see the reveal!
thank you! We’re going with dark grey grout – partially for that very reason! 😉
You can’t go wrong with the classics!! Congratulations!!!
thanks, Lori!:)
Love all white!! Can’t wait to see the finished product.
Thanks, Alana!
I almost passed up on buying my first house because one bathroom had a blue toilet & tub and the other had an ugly green toilet/shower. I thought I would never be able to live with such a thing! I ended up getting new toilets (thank goodness) but never did anything else with the bathroom. Now we are in a different house and will be redoing the bathroom in the near future. It scares me to death to make those big choiced. I love the choices you have made so far! I’m definitely keeping your makeover in mind!
Thanks so much! I can SO relate – in addition to this yellow bathroom, our hall bathroom is PINK!!!! Replacing one nasty pink eyesore at a time – new white toilet is going in there (today in fact!). Figured since we don’t have the money to renovate two bathrooms any time soon, at least we can stop looking at the pink toilet;) One step in the right direction! ha! Good luck with your reno!