UPDATING THE Bathroom

One of the rooms that has bothered me the most, is the bathroom. It’s a room where clearly someone tried to update it for resale, but only succeeded in wasting money on finishes that are harder to deal with than what (I assume) their predecessors were.

Poorly installed, cheap tiles, are not a good investment and only make me angry. (Richard doesn’t seem to understand what the tiles and tub surround “have done to offend” me, but they do.)

wouldn’t one of these floor tiles be amazing? (left // centre // right)

But what to do? I mean, this isn’t our forever home, so replacing the tiles isn’t an option. (As much as I would love to have some marble mosaic floors and white subway tiles.)

Do we paint the tiles? I have seen plenty of tile paints on the market, but I’m not convinced that they will work the way they say – I don’t want to have to replace it anyway because I make a mess of what’s already there.

I’m debating it though… so we’ll have to see.

the bathroom walls are now, painted with a lightened version of Valspar’s Ghost Story

So far, we have painted the bathroom and added a couple shelves above the toilet. We painted all the trim and ceiling Farrow + Ball’s All White (of course) and then painted the walls Valspar’s Ghost Story at 50% intensity. Rather than using the usual matte wall paint that we used in all the other rooms, we used Valspar’s kitchen and bath, which is supposed to resist stain and mold (a major concern for our bathroom as it gets very steamy with the shortest of showers).

sorry for the grainy photo – I took this with the lights off to show the accurate color

Now, about that 50% intensity… we had brought home a little sample pot of Ghost Story after trying to find a light blue-grey. Valspar didn’t have any lighter paint chips to test, and once we got it home, it just felt a bit too dark. We did love the color, so Richard went into our local B&Q and asked if they could simply give it to us at a lighter intensity. Sure enough, they were able to give it to us 50% lighter!

Once we got the whole room painted, I sort of wish we had picked 60-70% intensity. It’s just a bit too light to see the color against the beige tiles. (Richard swore he couldn’t tell the difference between the white ceiling at first). But – our main goal was to keep the walls very light and shift the tone from yellow to blue. Goal accomplished!

I love our brass shelves!

Now, I think the color will be perfect if we paint the wall tiles white – it’ll contrast with the paint just that bit more, to bring out the blue. (Am I saying a bit too much?) If I were to paint the floor as well, it would be grey most likely, but I am trying to convince Richard to go darker. Would a black or dark grey floor be too much in the space?

After painting the floor, tiles, and walls, all we would need to do is update the pedestal sink and add a few accessories! My dream would be to convert an antique dresser into a vanity, with a basin sink (perhaps even a vintage Belfast sink?!) to increase our storage.

I love the contrast of the more modern-looking sink on an old vanity (via Jenna Sue Design)

Since our new bathroom shelf brackets are brass, we need to add the material in at least one other place. I’m thinking it could be nice to get a brass mirror above the sink to tie the two ends of the room together. Perhaps this or this IKEA mirror, sprayed to look like brass?

brass mirror inspiration via

Finally, we desperately need to change out the toilet roll and towel holders in here. Whoever had this bathroom before us, thought that plastic seashell bathroom accessories were a great idea. WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?! I’d been looking around, and having a hard time finding something unique, but also classic enough to blend in with our Victorian flat. I finally bit the bullet and purchased a few items out of this set from Victoria Plum. Now we just have to install them (I am beyond excited to have proper towel rods!).

Altogether, our bathroom could look amazing – and I gotta admit, I’m feeling pretty excited about it…

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