Thursday, April 26, 2012

bathroom re-do : part 1

The thing about buying a new house is you go in with all these expectations. Things you want, things you don't want in a home. It's so personal. Then, if you're me, reality sets in and you quickly realize you can't have all the lovely things you want. I wanted a house that was pretty much ready to go. It didn't have to be big, didn't have to be fancy or new, but I didn't want to buy a fixer upper. Fast forward a few months and we've kinda bought ourselves a fixer upper. Yep, apparently I was looking for a challenge and just didn't know it!

The master bathroom is our first project and demo started the day after we closed. Because we were on such a tight timeline before move in it's all gone pretty fast. It's a really small space, but it's been a bit stressful for a newbie re-doer like me. All was going smoothly and looking good, until I made my first mistake. We picked a classic basket-weave tile for the floor. Easy enough and it looked amazing once they laid it all out. Then they asked me to pick a grout color. I reached for the gray, they reached for the white, I studied a second, they said use white, I said ok, and it was decision made. Except that once it was all grouted… I knew it was all wrong. I totally should have used gray. The white makes the basket-weave less pronounced and the whole reason I picked that tile was because I looooved that pattern. Well, hells-bells. The one time I didn't pick up the phone to ask my mom a question and this was it. Always listen to your instinct, not the contractors. They are not interior designers. Lesson learned loud and clear… it's all in the details. I'm just sure I'll make more mistakes, but c'est la vie. Still, this is going to be one good lookin' bathroom we can call our very own.

Here she is before - lovely orange walls & frosted windows into the living room
… and here's some of what we're working with. cross your fingers for me please bathroom-redo1

4 comments:

  1. Love this... it reminds me a lot of the boys' bathroom upstairs that I've yet to finish. But it's getting there. I used that tile on the floor and then 6x12 marble subway tiles on their tub walls. Can't go wrong with black and white.

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  2. Ummm... frosted windows into the living room. What?!?! Is that so Trevor can yell to you to bring him a beer? :)

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  3. don't feel bad, there are several things in our house that I think "dang, I should have trusted my gut feeling" oh well! live and learn right! looks like the bathroom will still look really good!

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  4. Love the tile work! Let's see a picture from the kitchen entrance showing the tile and the gorgeous peridot color wall. Beautiful combination! Good choices
    Basketweave Tiles

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