Basement Bath Redo
I have been so excited to write this post for so many reasons but mostly because it means our basement bathroom project is finally finished! this project has been a long time coming - it was plain jane with a fiberglass molded shower insert, some ugly tile, and a lovely yellow and tan color palette. at first I thought we might just do a refresh like in the upstairs bathroom with paint, a little tile, and a new counter. but as i thought about it more, a full gut was the right way to go. here are all nitty gritty details on every part of the project so if you're here for the sources, scroll down to the bottom!
let's take a look back at the befores, shall we?
for some reason I thought it would be a good idea to add a bicycle shower curtain and purple towels! actually it was more like that's what we had hanging around but either way, it was ugly!
and now for the afters and my thought process! first here are the original design ideas.
AFTER!
strangely the jumping off point was the sconces! do you ever see something - a tile, a piece of furniture, a light fixture (!) and immediately envision a space coming together? these sconces are kind of unique because they don't actually exist in this finish combination. they're sold as white with chrome and black with brass so I bought 2 of each and swapped the shades to create white with brass. I love them and their price tag! (and if you're interested, the other pair of black with chrome is available here!)
the next thing to fall in place was the floor tile. I had been eyeing this tile for a while and it was the perfect spot for it since it's a little pricey but with a small bathroom, we didn't need very much. it's fireclay tile's mini star and cross in white gloss. there are a bunch of white options and this one is a soft white. their tile is so beautiful, both in terms of patterns and colors. I love that it's handmade and completely embrace the imperfection that comes along with that. it was a little like a puzzle to layout! the grout is tec grout in sterling. I chose both the tile and grout colors, even though they are white and gray, to be on the warm side of those shades.
next came the vanity selection. I knew I wanted a muted color that had some gray in it but didn't read as flat gray. I love colors with some depth and ambiguity. I found the vanity that we ultimately used (here) and loved it but wanted to do a custom version to adjust the size down a bit and add a slatted bottom shelf instead of solid. sadly the pricing for custom was out of the budget or the lead time was too long so in the end I went with the retail vanity and I'm totally pleased with it. it's a couple of inches wider than I wanted but it's really not a big deal. the color is called "ocean" and honestly it's exactly what I wanted.
one thing I did was change out the pulls on the drawers. they were not good - stainless and dated looking - but such an easy fix with these inexpensive pulls. the brass looks so great on the "ocean" finish. I searched high and low for baskets that would fit on the shelf - there is only 11" of height - and found these great baskets with leather handles at target!
I purposely chose a vanity that was the "base only" (i.e. doesn't come with a top) in order to select the stone for the counter. if you follow me on instagram, you may have seen that at first I thought i'd use white quartz but after selecting it, I realized that the bathroom would be too white and frankly a little boring. so I made a call to united marble, who graciously sponsored a portion of this project, and asked what marble remnants they had. luckily they had a beautiful piece of honed carrara that was large enough for the counter, shower pieces, and threshold. the slab itself was 3cm but I asked them to build up the thickness to 2" for an added detail. I love how the chunkier counter looks and did the same detail in our powder room. side note - to keep costs in check I used a remnant instead of purchasing an entire slab. with a small project like this one, it's a good way to save some dough! also mitering the edge to create the look of a thicker counter, rather than finding a 5cm slab, is also a great trick and savings. oh and I always have the backsplash planed down to 3/4"!
the next decision was the shower tile. while I would have loved to continue the star and cross into the shower floor, the gloss finish that I liked, plus the size of the tile, would be too slippery. simple white penny tile did the trick and was good for the budget! I used this glossy white penny but it's widely available at a lot of stores. I used the same grout color here as the bathroom floor to keep it cohesive. I decided on a round drain to stay in keeping with the round shower trim.
for the walls I used this 3x8 handmade-looking tile from lowes! no one believes me that's it's a lowes tile but it is and it's awesome. the slight movement in the tile adds the texture that I always crave and i'll definitely use it again. they don't make a bullnose or pencil to match which was fine with me as I used the slab material for our curb and jambs to create a nice clean look. I kept things simple with a white grout on the shower walls - the movement in the tile was enough interest for my eye and I prefer the clean look of white grout.
for the faucet and shower fittings I used my tried and true kohler purist in chrome. I love the cross handles and clean lines. polished nickel would have been a warmer finish over the chrome but for the sake of the budget I used chrome and it doesn't bother me. someone asked me why used brass for some areas and chrome in others and the answer is I love mixing metals! it's a lot more interesting to my eye and creates a more eclectic look rather than everything matching. using the same can sometimes be the right choice but in here, mixing felt right.
the niche was a great addition and framing it out in the same slab material (carrara) was a no brainer. the question was whether to line the back in penny tile or to continue the subway. I asked the question on instagram and it was definitely split but i'm glad I went for the simpler look with the subway. we designed the size of the niche based on the courses of tile so it really is seamless! as with all of the tile, the install by united marble was done so carefully which is a detail that I really appreciate.
one of the pieces that was actually difficult to find was the mirror. between the width of the sconces and the length of the vanity, I needed a fairly slim mirror. obviously I didn't want to sacrifice on style (duh!) so I ended up finding a medicine cabinet that fit the dimensions to a tee. we weren't planning on a medicine cabinet at the start but sometimes you have to be flexible! brass was my finish of choice and I always love the simple rounded corner rectangular shape. it feels modern and warm at the same time.
I used the kohler purist toilet paper holder and turned it vertically to fit the space. instead of hooks, I used the kohler archer towel bar. the bank of switches didn't leave a ton of wall space so this solution worked well. it did cause the shower door to have to open on the toilet side - the glass would have hit the towel bar and wouldn't have been able to open out very far.
during demo we found a nice surprise - the old shower was framed to the specific size of the insert but when we removed it, we found extra space behind that was completely open. we ended up being able to move the wall back and make the shower a little larger. but maybe even better than that, there was still an open cavity below the fan so we framed that out and created open shelving. I love this little touch and have to give credit to my mom for the idea. since the vanity doesn't have much closed storage, it's nice to have a few spots to hide more stuff!
last was paint - I chose one of my go-to whites, simply white from benajmin moore, for both the walls and trim. the walls are a washable matte and the trim is satin. simply white reads white but has warmth - so important to keep things from going too sterile.
and that's it! tell me if you have any questions!
SOURCES
vanity | pulls | sconces | mirror | round baskets | plant | floor tile | shower floor tile | shower wall tile faucet | shower fittings | shower drain | TP holder | towel bar | vanity baskets | open shelves baskets