Bathroom Renovation Plans

One year ago, to the day, we closed on our first home in Brooklyn, NY! We were home owners, how exciting!!!! After months of failed research, we stumbled upon this two-family townhouse and fell in love. Or I should say, we had to fall in love with it….because the truth is, it was the only house that we could move into without having to do a gut renovation, which we could definitely not afford.

So we got the house, and for a whole year, I have been waiting patiently. I say I, because you see, my husband doesn’t share this obsession I have for renovations, designing and styling. The house is fine the way it is, as far as he is concerned.

After many discussions and let’s be frank, monologues (ah! ah!) we (I) have decided to renovate the only room that would survive a renovation when time finally comes. And this room is our downstairs bathroom.

A bit about the house configuration: We live on the parlor & ground floor of the townhouse and rent out the top floor to a lovely young couple. Our kitchen, living room, guest room/playroom and guest bathroom are on the parlor floor and we have two bedrooms, a bathroom and the laundry room on the garden floor.

Parlor Floor

Garden Level

As you can see in the pictures, the wall tiles in the bathroom are a generic beige and square.

The floor tiles are as basic/cheap as they come.

However, I have contemplated keeping the beige wall tiles for 3 reasons:

1. We have a small budget to work with. Ideally, nothing over $1500-$2000

2. When we are able to do our total renovation, this bathroom will become the rental’s bathroom, so we want to make it nice but not splurge.

3. Because I am the Queen of recup. I HATE wasting!

So with that in mind, for this post, we will take a look at 4 options using the beige tiles.

I have tried and tried to match colors with those tiles and came to the conclusion that I only like black or white. So here we go:

OPTION #1: MAROCCAN TILES (EQUAL AMOUNT OF BLACK & WHITE) & BLACK WALL

OPTION #2: DARK DIAMOND TILES & BLACK WALL

OPTION #3: DARK DIAMOND TILE & WHITE WALL

OPTION#4: WHITE HEXAGON TILES & BLACK WALL

I am pretty set on having black, matte hardware and either white and/or wood for the vanity & other accessories. So really, the options discussed here are the floor tiles and the color of the walls. You’ve probably noticed there are no windows in this bathroom and this is why I am terrified of going all black, even though option #2 is my favorite option.

For these 4 options, we are looking at a material cost of roughly $1000. We have to keep it as such because of labor cost on top of that. I can do the painting and the tile and cabinet removal myself to keep the cost down. So hopefully we can stay within budget.

What is your favorite option?

Can you think of an awesome color that would go well with the beige tile? Please share your ideas and inspo photos with me before I give in and go for a complete renovation. I already have a couple of other options lined up but will save that for another post.

xoxo
Carolina