Please help with bathroom remodel Qs

[anamika]

I have been dreading this day but the time has finally come when we need to remodel our bathroom. I know there are people who relish the thought and have tons of ideas. I am not one of them!
But our 90 yr old plumbing is giving out and just replacing the faucet is $$$$. SO DH thinks we should just do the whole thing - like pulling out teeth. Plus our bathroom is pink so it does need some updating.
I have made some choices but need some help with others.

1. I have been reading a lot on Garden web and have finally decided on a Toto toilet - I need a fully skirted one because I hate the little crevice at bottom which gets grungy. I will pay $200 more just to never have to clean that again! But I cannot pin down a model. Any suggestions?
Any suggestions on places to buy a Toto toilet for a decent price? Overstock? HomeDepot? Other online place?

2. I was looking at vanities and medicine cabinets from IKEA. Specifically the Godmorgon series. Does anyone have these? How do they stand up? I did see that people on GW are using these so they must not be so bad. Would love to hear some first hand experiences with IKEA fixtures in the bathroom. Or recommendations for other inexpensive brands for fixtures.

3. Tiles - I am hopeless with color choices (and they stress me out terribly) so I just want to take the easy way out and do a white bathroom. I was thinking of doing a black or blue border. I actually fell in love with the black and white tiles for the floor like in these pics - is this color combo very dated/not in?

http://www.hgtv.com/bathrooms/the-art-of-refinishing-bathroom-fixtures/index.html

http://americanolean.com/series.cfm?series=91

4. We will not be staying in this house forever (plan to sell in the next 5 years or so hopefully) so resale value is quite important. Given that, what colors would you suggest for a bathroom?? Paint, tiles etc.


Please share any other low cost updates that you have found useful in your bathroom!!
Thanks!

[crl]

I think black and white tile is pretty classic. If selling is five or so years down the road, I would just pick the paint color you like. That's easy enough to change if necessary when you put your house on the market. I have had two black and white bathrooms. One we painted a soft lavender and one a very, very pale pink. I liked both.

Catherine

[anamika]

Thanks Catherine. That's good to know.
Can you share your paint colors?

[BeachBum]

I have that black and while tile from home depot in my kids bath. It's fine and unremarkable.
I wish that the previous owners would have dressed it up with a border. It would have made it look far more high end.

[Giantbear]

Think about putting in a shower head and hand held with separate flow controls. It is a little $$ but will help for resale. Also, make sure you have enough outlets by the vanity, i hate when a bathroom does not have enough outlets. Also, depending on the type of shower you have, regular doors over sliding doors are the thing now, but in either case, a shower door is a big plus for me. We just went with earth tones for our bathroom

[crl]

Thanks Catherine. That's good to know.
Can you share your paint colors?

Sorry, no, the lavender was chosen from the Ralph Lauren paint collection about ten years ago and I doubt they would even have the shade anymore. The pink was a Benjamin Moore color and I vaguely think it might have been called cameo or something like that. I basically went to the whites and choose a pink white. That one was a tiny powder room with no window so I felt it needed a very light and flattering paint color.

Catherine

[twowhat?]

Is this the master bathroom? How big is it? What style is the rest of the house?

I personally love the tile that you linked to but unless your house is of that style, I would actually recommend something more modern/neutral like travertine (or a travertine look-a-like) in the large tiles (not the standared 12 by 12 inch tile - the larger size). Maybe laid in a diamond pattern if the bathroom is large enough.

Paint - keep it neutral. We used SW Kilim beige and it goes with virtually everything. It's a nice color too - we kind of wished we'd used it sooner rather than waiting until we were staging the house because we would have been happy living with the color! I'd add punches of color with accessories.

eta: I said it was benjamin moore and I was wrong - it's sherwin williams kilim beige. Sorry!

[anamika]

thank you for the ideas. Our house is 90 yrs old and the rest of it looks old in a good way. It is tiny so actually we won't even be seeing much of the floor!
DH feels the black and white tile won't match the rest of the house but I cannot think of anything else neutral enough.
any ideas? Would love links or pics.
giantbear, can you tell me more about the hand held - we have a shower with a removable head so it can become a handheld. I'm assuming this is better? Do you have a link?
My head is going to explode from looking at too many bathrooms!

[Giantbear]

It is two separate lines feeding the two items. a link is the best way to describe it

what i am talking about is a separation of the two, one line feeds the shower head and another feeds the hand held. You can use them together or separately

[anamika]

thanks. Haha - I meant a link to a website.
my brain is tired from reading too much about tiles and toilets.

[crl]

So it is a 1920s house? What style? In general, I think black and white tile is period appropriate for a 1920s era house. Here are the google images for that search.

http://www.google.com/search?q=1920s+bathroom&hl=en&client=safari&tbo=u&prmd=ivns&tbm=isch&source=univ&sa=X&ei=genBTt3WF6rTiAK1j9HcCw&ved=0CDwQsAQ&biw=1024&bih=690&sei=h-nBTqPeGaTZiALr2qjmCw

Catherine

[anamika]

Thank you for the link, Catherine. I will have to look to see if I can pinpoint something that looks like our house.
Yes, it is a 1920s house. The bathroom is pink! Hmmmm, I do not know the style.....it has a lot of wood paneling, wooden doors (original to the house), curved walls and an arch or two. Native New Englanders who come to the house all exclaim over it. Sadly, it is lost on us!

[*myfoursons]

If you're planning on selling, I would go basic with the tile. White 12x12 or 18x18 on the floor, white subway tile for bath with an accent border. I wouldn't do color in the border, unless it's something really neutral. Like lots of other people, we did a white subway with a 1 inch Carrara mosaic border. I think it's lovely and neutral.

For paint, we did a light gray with bluish/greenish cast, polished limestone by gladden or tinsmith by sherwin Williams are both lovely. If you're drawn to grays, they're tricky, and usually don't look like much on a paint chip, but can show very differently on the walls.

Have fun! I love picking all this stuff, I wish I could remodel every year :)

[anamika]

If you're planning on selling, I would go basic with the tile. White 12x12 or 18x18 on the floor, white subway tile for bath with an accent border. I wouldn't do color in the border, unless it's something really neutral. Like lots of other people, we did a white subway with a 1 inch Carrara mosaic border. I think it's lovely and neutral.

For paint, we did a light gray with bluish/greenish cast, polished limestone by gladden or tinsmith by sherwin Williams are both lovely. If you're drawn to grays, they're tricky, and usually don't look like much on a paint chip, but can show very differently on the walls.

Have fun! I love picking all this stuff, I wish I could remodel every year :)

Thanks - do you have some pics of the Carrara tile? So do you think black in the border is not neutral enough? What color would you recommend?
I will check out the paint colors next time I'm in the store.
Hey, if you live in New England you are welcome to come over and remodel my bathroom ;) For me it is like a nightmare of decisions to be made!

[BDKmom]

You can see the type of separate shower head that, I think, Giantbear is taking about in the top pictures on this site:

http://http://www.danielskitchenbath.com/bathroomphotos.html

You have a regular shower head with its water control and a separate handheld shower head with a separate water control. So you can have both on, just the regular shower head, or just the handheld. We installed this type when we did our remodel, based on the rec of the contractor. I am SO glad we did. It comes in super handy, especially for cleaning.

[maylips]

If you struggle with colors, visit this site:
http://www.mariakillam.com/

I've learned so much from her about undertones and the "why" behind the this-doesn't-look-right-together-but-I-can't-put-my-finger-on-it problems you see in many remodels.

(found her through brittone, so thanks again to this board!)

BTW, this lady also advocates white kitchens and bathrooms as classic, so I would agree about not adding another color in something permanent, like tile. Stick with subway or at most, a penny tile of black and white, since that goes with the era of your house.

[anamika]

You can see the type of separate shower head that, I think, Giantbear is taking about in the top pictures on this site:

http://http://www.danielskitchenbath.com/bathroomphotos.html

You have a regular shower head with its water control and a separate handheld shower head with a separate water control. So you can have both on, just the regular shower head, or just the handheld. We installed this type when we did our remodel, based on the rec of the contractor. I am SO glad we did. It comes in super handy, especially for cleaning.

Thanks - that link was helpful. Off to look up prices!

[twowhat?]

So it is a 1920s house? What style? In general, I think black and white tile is period appropriate for a 1920s era house. Here are the google images for that search.

http://www.google.com/search?q=1920s+bathroom&hl=en&client=safari&tbo=u&prmd=ivns&tbm=isch&source=univ&sa=X&ei=genBTt3WF6rTiAK1j9HcCw&ved=0CDwQsAQ&biw=1024&bih=690&sei=h-nBTqPeGaTZiALr2qjmCw

Catherine

In a house that old, and with a bathroom that small, I will agree that the B&W tile would be appropriate. I wouldn't do a border or anything though -that will make a small bathroom appear even smaller. The house we just sold was built in the 1980s and it had that exact style of tile but in a turquoise/indigo (for the small tile) and white. I really loved it even though it didn't exactly fit the more modern updates in the rest of the house. And no one complained about it in feedback during showings.

One thing to think about - be careful in choosing grout color. White grout may be hard to keep pristine for 5 years. In our old house's bathroom, the grout color was sort of a light sand, which was awesome and never looked "dirty".

I found a pic - it's not the best because you can only see a little bit of the floor but hope it will help. And BTW that paint color is SW Kilim Beige.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3527/5816131776_3bc29ab4b4.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/34241305@N00/5816131776/)

[anamika]

If you struggle with colors, visit this site:
http://www.mariakillam.com/

I've learned so much from her about undertones and the "why" behind the this-doesn't-look-right-together-but-I-can't-put-my-finger-on-it problems you see in many remodels.

(found her through brittone, so thanks again to this board!)

BTW, this lady also advocates white kitchens and bathrooms as classic, so I would agree about not adding another color in something permanent, like tile. Stick with subway or at most, a penny tile of black and white, since that goes with the era of your house.


Oooohhh thanks for the link. I am happy to learn more about colors since I am so challenged!
What is penny tile?

[anamika]

In a house that old, and with a bathroom that small, I will agree that the B&W tile would be appropriate. I wouldn't do a border or anything though -that will make a small bathroom appear even smaller. The house we just sold was built in the 1980s and it had that exact style of tile but in a turquoise/indigo (for the small tile) and white. I really loved it even though it didn't exactly fit the more modern updates in the rest of the house. And no one complained about it in feedback during showings.

One thing to think about - be careful in choosing grout color. White grout may be hard to keep pristine for 5 years. In our old house's bathroom, the grout color was sort of a light sand, which was awesome and never looked "dirty".

I found a pic - it's not the best because you can only see a little bit of the floor but hope it will help. And BTW that paint color is SW Kilim Beige.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3527/5816131776_3bc29ab4b4.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/34241305@N00/5816131776/)

Nice bathroom. Ours is too small for a double vanity :( I miss all the modern conveniences I had in my house in CA - but not much else!

I love that paint color. It looks so much better than white but so understated.
Would that work if everything else is white - tub, vanity, tile etc?

I had not even thought about grout. Light sand it is then!

[Giantbear]

http://www.homedepot.com/catalog/productImages/300/36/362d6911-3b95-4efe-9db8-2442ca7124de_300.jpghttp://www.homedepot.com/catalog/productImages/300/36/362d6911-3b95-4efe-9db8-2442ca7124de_300.jpg

Like this but without the body sprayers.

[twowhat?]

Nice bathroom. Ours is too small for a double vanity :( I miss all the modern conveniences I had in my house in CA - but not much else!

I love that paint color. It looks so much better than white but so understated.
Would that work if everything else is white - tub, vanity, tile etc?

I had not even thought about grout. Light sand it is then!

Haha - that was actually our guest bathroom. It was a great guest bathroom. Everything else in that bathroom was white - white tub, white marble vanity. I thought it looked fresh and clean that way. While you're living there, add color with a cool shower curtain/towels/accessories on the counter. For staging when you are ready to sell, replace with fluffy white towels and silver or teak wood accessories and a more neutral shower curtain (even white in a cotton waffle weave!) for a spa-like feel. We did this for both bathrooms when selling and it worked out really well. The paint color worked well because it was just dark enough to let the white molding pop but it's really a light color so it helped make rooms feel more airy and bright. We used that color in several rooms when staging and it really brightened up all the spaces.

[maylips]

What is penny tile?

Here's a photo with a decorative flower inserted in it. Basically the tiles are the size of a penny and were popular in that era (and the 40's)

http://www.mosaictilesupplies.com/images/media/ChalifouxBath.500.JPG

[anamika]

twowhat - thanks for the tips. That makes a lot of sense. I like the idea of adding colorful shower curtains etc. Love the tips for staging too!

Giantbear - thanks for the pic!

maylips - I love that flower motif but I think DH would nix it!

It is really hard for me to visualize these things so I appreciate all the tips and feedback.