The After World: Master Bathroom

Have you ever paid attention to the color and design of shampoo bottles? I haven't...at least until last night, when I found myself wondering which shampoo brand would better match the tiles in my new bathroom. Clearly, this neon-green Garnier Fructis bottle has got to go. Neutrogena would look classy, with its clear, square bottle, and Tresemme might be OK because it's black (and inexpensive). I'll have to shop around.

When you start buying shampoo to match the bathroom tiles, you've crossed the line into the land of the home- obsessed. I crossed over months ago whilst shopping for kitchen counters, and I'm here to say it's not a bad place to be. In fact, I highly recommend it. It's fun to fuss over these kinds of things.

Though we moved into the house last week, it'll be months before everything is in order, and this is OK because A: we have no money left and B: I want to take my time on the finishing details, such as light fixtures for hallways and the kitchen, and tile for the stovetop backsplash. We've also got to landscape the yard, build a patio and plant a garden. I'm really looking forward to this, because I have a green thumb ... and a new tub to soak in after a long day in the yard. Here's the tub:

 

Other than the clashing bottle in the tile niche, the master bathroom turned out really well. I went with carerra marble for two reasons: it was used often in houses from the 1920s, and it's the most affordable natural stone. I had a hard time finding a paint color that went well with dark-stained cabinets and grey-ish white tiles, but I think BM's "Blue Veil" works well. The faucets are Kohler "Bancroft;" the tub is a 6-foot soaker (ie: no jets), and the spray nozzle belongs in a horror film. The Bancroft nozzle was especially awful--at 12 inches, it looked like a mutant sunflower cast in shiny chrome. My plumber found a replacement that's a few inches smaller, but it reminds me of something from a hospital labor-delivery room. (Why do you even need a spray nozzle in a bathtub? I regret putting in this feature.)

On a brighter note, the pinwheel pattern on the tile floor worked out well, the tub is huge, the cabinets are fantastic, water pressure is decent and hot water lasts for at least a few baths.

Here's the vanity. I went with dark knobs and pulls on the vanity because I felt chrome knobs would stand out too much against the wood's dark stain.

The shower. Note the "robe hooks". I'm trying to use hooks for towels instead of towel bars in both of the bathrooms, since no one in my family ever hangs his or her towel on a towel bar:

For the shower walls and tub surround, we used 6x6 marble subway tiles; actually, we started with 12x12s, which the installer sliced in half for the subway affect. The shower floor is 1x1 mosaic tiles, which we carried over to the bathroom floor's pinwheel pattern made from 12x12s and 1x1 mosaics:

Comments

[Kathy from NJ]

WOW! It's beautiful. You might be happy with that nozzle thing when you go to clean the tub, makes rinsing very easy. The vanity is beautiful, love the hardware. I can't wait to see more pics. Oh, almost forgot, why not just buy your favorite shampoo and transfer it to a pretty container?

[Rox]

It's BEAUTIFUL! I can't wait to see more pics! Hooray for the fixed-up house and for you all!

[Cheryl from MN]

It's gorgeous! You must all feel like royalty moving into such lush quarters, especially after having more or less lived like gypsies the last year or so!

[Jennifer]

Beautiful! We don't use towel racks either... maybe hooks is the way to go.

[adrienne]

the best part of the bathroom is that there's an outlet in the deep medicine cabinet, which is inset into the wall next to one of the sinks....so my hair dryer never has to be unplugged!
adrienne

[Kate]

Uh-oh. Should I get rid of my towel racks when we redo the bathroom next year? Hmmmm.

[adrienne]

kate,
in my opine towel bars are more decorative than functional. do you like folding wet towels and hanging them on the bar? or is the towel bar only for clean towels on display? like i said, we are not a family of tidy people, so wet towels often wind up on the floor in front of someone's closet, or hanging over the door or shower rod, or on the wet bathroom floor...so instead of towel bars (which are not cheap!!!) i had a small linen closet built in one bathroom (also not cheap!!!) and a linen cabinet installed in the other bathroom (ditto!). the clean, folded towels are in the cabinet/closet and the hooks are for the wet ones. so far, so good!

[remodeling Minneapolis]

True, that your green shampoo bottle clashes with the style of your marble tiles, but it's only a minor issue. Other than that, I liked how the bathtub is placed near the window, letting the natural light enter the room.

-Lawrence Cooks

[Chase Conely]

I don't mind the color of the shampoo bottle that much, but I really like your vanity; it looks really classy and vintage. On the discussion about towel rack, I would think that a hook would suffice; it's space-saving and easily blends well with almost any wall fixtures.

[Filipe]

Bathroom looks amazing. Love the tile work.