I’ve had a few people lately say, “Oh, I can’t wait to see the progress on the bathroom!” Well, here’s the progress…
Yep. That’s right. No change. It’s exactly the same as it was two weeks ago when the guys packed up their tools and left.
I promise that I’m trying. I really am. And I’m driving myself absolutely bonkers with indecision, too many options, more indecision, plans and changes of plans.
I just can’t seem to settle my mind on one decision. Instead, I have options constantly swirling through my head. So here are the options that have been torturing me for the last two weeks.
First of all, I came across a picture of a shower with the wall tile installed in horizontal stripes, and it stopped me in my tracks. I absolutely LOVED it. LOVED it. I mean, if you’ve been around here for any amount of time, you know how much I love stripes. I’d stripe every room in my whole house if I thought I could make it work. (Don’t worry, I know I can’t. ? ) I have since lost that original picture, but I found this very similar one on Houzz…
I love that so much!! That one is my favorite, but here’s one more…
There are numerous pictures of showers with really bold stripes, but I absolutely love these soft stripes using white and gray. So that’s what I want to do in my shower, and because I must have symmetry, the walls in the toilet area would be striped as well.
As far as tile options go, it’s been a little difficult because I do NOT want natural stone since all of the natural stone tile seems to be marble. Marble etches very easily, and I don’t want the maintenance hassle. So I want something that is a light gray, perhaps that looks like marble, but is actually porcelain.
I’ve found two options. The first one is the penny tile that I showed y’all a few days ago…
Of course, you have to imagine it with white grout. There would be no dark shadows between the tiles.
I really like that option. I could use four rows of penny tiles, or cut it down to two rows for narrower gray stripes. My main issue with this tile is that it’s thinner than the white. This penny tile is thinner than ALL of the other tiles, and it’s really annoying. So while I like it, installing it would be a real hassle trying to get the face of that penny tile flush with the thicker white tiles. I don’t know if I want that hassle.
The other option would be to use the same tile that I plan to use on the floor of the shower. You can see it in the bottom right corner of the picture above, but here’s how it would look as a stripe. Again, you have to imagine a lighter look with white grout.
It doesn’t look like it in the picture, but those tiles are the same thickness. But I didn’t want to cut the sheet of small tiles, so I just have the large rectangle tiles lying on top of the sheet of smaller tiles.
I think I really love that look. I definitely love that I would have my stripes, but they would also be very subtle. Those stripes would be even way more subtle than the gray and white stripes that are in the two inspiration pictures. There’s nothing there to overwhelm and distract from the wallpaper mural.
One more (probably crazy) option that I considered is using brushed brass Schluter strips as decorative accents between rows of tiles. So I could do two rows of the large rectangle tiles, and then a Schluter strip. Two more rows of tiles, and another Schluter strip. I came across a designer on Instagram several months ago who uses Schluter strips in very creative ways, and it looked amazing. Unfortunately, I didn’t save it, so now I can’t find it. But this option would be very subtle, and would look something like this…
So those are the shower/toilet wall options I’ve been thinking through.
And then there’s the floor. Ugh. The floor.
I’m definitely going to use the small 2″ tile pictured above on the shower floor and the toilet area floor. But how I’m going to transition from that to the main bathroom floor, where I’ll be using the large 12″ x 24″ tiles, has been the issue.
Of course, I could just stop right at the entrance to the shower and toilet area with the large tile, and do an abrutp transition to the small tile. Nothing fancy, nothing complicated. Just one tile butted up against another. And since they’re literally the same tile (just different sizes), and I’ll be using white grout, the transition wouldn’t be jarring at all. I think it would be pretty subtle, actually.
Or, I could do something that seems a little more intentional and “designer”, like using the mosaic on the floor in the shower and toilet area, and then continuing that mosaic into the main area of the bathroom as a border around the wall, then using some sort of transition (perhaps the brushed brass Schluter strip), and then doing the large tile in the center of the main bathroom floor. But if I do that, would I put the small tile under the tub like this?
I’ve looked at a ton of inspiration pictures of bathrooms that have tile borders around the wall, and then a different tile in the middle. Many of them just keep the border tile to the edge of the floor, and many of them extend the border tile under freestanding tubs. And I honestly can’t tell if I have a preference. But it almost seems like extending it under the tub would give it a more intentional look.
So those are the decisions that I’m torturing myself with right now. I’m going to do my absolute best to make a decision this weekend, but in the meantime, I can at least get the walls and ceiling primed, the ceiling painted, and maybe even start on the Venetian plaster walls. Maybe if I get out of my own way, and just start working and seeing some forward momentum in the room, some of these decisions will fall into place in my mind.
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
I hope you’ll join me on my DIY and decorating journey! If you want to follow my projects and progress, you can subscribe below and have each new post delivered to your email inbox. That way you’ll never miss a thing!
