Half bath tile/vanity suggestions?

[Susie]

The paint job in our half bath was driving me crazy, so just to freshen it up I painted it SW Worldly Gray, which is the same color as most of the rest of our downstairs, including the kitchen and hall that the half bath is off of. 

  

It did give me a momentary... "ah, that's better."  I sanded down all the spots that they skipped the last time, painted them over, and it is for sure improved.  The before:



But now that the walls are in good shape, the tile and sink are moving up on the priority list.  There are a couple cracked tiles by the toilet, some crumbling grout by the door way, and the pink is just really dated and not my jam.



So the question is what to do?  The kitchen, hall, and laundry room have a 16" square vinyl tile, which will probably someday be upgraded to a large format porcelain tile in the future.  The rest of the downstairs is HW (office, DR, family room, foyer).  The kitchen has no upgrade timeline, and I can't wait that long to do the bathroom to match!  So I was thinking...

- small format floor tile would be best, so it looks intentionally different.  Maybe like 4"-6" hexes?  Basket weave?

- I want to replace the pink pedestal sink with a vanity.  It's totally unimaginative, but I'm thinking plain white sink top, because the laundry room and kitchen have different counters (at least at present) and introducing a 3rd in the same general area/line of sight is a bad idea.

- I like the look of wide spread faucets, but thinking of doing single handle for ease of use.

- I like to do either tile or wainscoting in a bathroom so the area behind the sink and toilet are easier to wipe down (whether it's higher gloss paint than the walls, or tile).  Thoughts?  I've already bought this tile for the kitchen backsplash:

 (2x9 subway)

But haven't installed yet.  It's pre-vetted to look good with this wall color.  I could do more of the same behind the sink/toilet?

I wasn't planning on doing this project right away, but here I am!

[simpsongal]

Does the slightly off white subway contrast enough w/the porcelain colors? Would that tile only be on the one wall? I also like the faux wainscotting look in a powder room. My only caution is not to rush through the project and end up w/something 'meh' or generic rather than something you've pinned and really love.

I don't think you need to worry too much about the floor tile coordinating w/anything else - just pick something you like - you know you liked the basektweave from your last home, so something like that would probably make you happy.

[hbomdiggity]

I wouldn’t worry about the floor matching other floors in house (same for counters etc). That may be somewhat typical today, but IMO that’s because builders limit options to keep costs down. As long as it’s not a connecting space, I wouldn’t think twice and pick what you like.

[Susie]

I wouldn't say it's a connecting space, but they are pretty nearby.

This is looking from the laundry room into the kitchen, the bathroom is on the left...


And this is the other direction, from the kitchen into the laundry room with the bathroom on the right.  


When the bathroom door is open, you can see two at a time (but never quite 3 at a time) of the kitchen counter (granite), the bathroom sink (TBD), and the laundry room counter (laminate).  Someday we'll probably redo the kitchen and the laundry room together, with matching floors, counters, and cabinets, but that time is a ways out.  In the meantime, I just don't want it to seem visually cluttered with too many finishes.  KWIM?

[Deleted]

I think that you should do what you love and not really worry about "matching" other areas. When we did our downstairs remodel, we had to skip the kitchen cabinets and counter because they were not in the budget. They are pretty fugly but hopefully getting replaced in the next 3 years. That said, I just went with what I loved for the nearby half bath and adjoining pantry and am super happy with my choices.

Also, we did wainscoting in our half bath. It was a last minute decision and I love it. So my vote is to do that

[simpsongal]

Hmm....seeing the pics, if you plan on doing new tile in the kitchen/hall etc. then I would keep the bathroom tile contiguous and matching with those spaces (so there isn't even a threshold. We did that in our mudroom and bathroom and it made the space seem bigger and more cohesive. I know it's not what you want to hear, but I'd live with the bathroom floor until you do the bigger reno.

[dr.girlfriend]

How high-use is that bathroom, and for what? Is it just for quick bathroom breaks or does any toothbrushing, getting ready in the morning, etc. happen in there?

At first I couldn't figure out why you cared about the flooring in the other rooms, but now I do see how prominent that threshold looks, and it would look better to have consistent flooring. That said, with no timeline for a larger renovation it's all about your patience for holding out and whether you'll be satisfied with smaller fixes. In my mind you can:

1. Deal with the pink for now and maybe even try to lean into it with some nice artwork with pinkish tones, etc.  Here's a few I had pinned although of course your tastes may vary:








I know it's not the same as choosing for yourself, but here's a bedroom with a similar grey/pink color scheme that I really love for inspiration:


2.  Do some cheap (maybe even DIY) renovations that you won't feel bad about ripping up in a few years -- maybe even tile decals if the room will withstand it, or cheap LVP.  It's too bad the sink is pink too, but maybe that's a good reason to just change the pedestal out for the vanity you want, and hopefully you'll be able to reuse it.

3.  Do some significant renovations and just consider it sunk cost -- put in a new tile you really like, change out the vanity, etc. and then when/if you redo the rest you can decide if it's worth it to pull everything up again in order to have continuous flooring

We pulled up carpet and put hardwood in one big room of our house.  About 10 years later we built an addition and redid the flooring on the whole lower level, and it's RIDICULOUS how much it bothered me that we threw away perfectly good flooring from that one room, even though we got 10 good years out of it and it's not like I would have NOT done it in retrospect.  I don't know, I guess I'm just saying it's hard, but I'm trying not to put off my current short-term satisfaction in favor of some future grand plans that may or may not occur (see my Organization Tips thread above!)

[Susie]

Decorating to work with the pink until we redo that entire almost-half of the downstairs had been my original plan, and we could still do that.  The cracked tiles that are starting to get loose, and the poor condition grout are giving me the most pause.  It could be 5 years, 10 years, I have no idea, until we do the kitchen & laundry.  The house needs a new water heater (next week), we're doing a whole house backup generator (spring), it needs new windows x16, a new front door, a new furnace & a/c, the backyard needs to be professionally graded, we want to finish the basement, and the list goes on, which will all be prioritized before the kitchen.  All of that pushes this pretty far into the future.  We can always try to wait for it though, and worst case scenario is that we don't make it.

In the 2019 listing photos for our house, the toilet was pink to match the sink.  Even though I don't like the pink, I think that was probably better.  It called less attention to the pink than seeing the pink sink right next to the white toilet.  I will assume there was some good reason for the replacement though.  That toilet is literally the only thing I can find in the entire house that is different from the 2019 sale listing to the 2021 sale listing.

If we want to stay with the pink for now, I could use some photos from our Grand Canyon trip a bunch of years back.





 

They would have some of the right colors, and might help it feel more like a warm earthy color than PINK.

[dr.girlfriend]

I forgot about the broken tiles...yeah, given that I would replace the flooring and vanity. I don't *think* that would cost too much? I think it's all about contractor availability these days, though.

[SusanBAnthony]

What do you think about doing a wall mounted vanity? That way you could redo the bathroom tile now with something "good enough", put in a new vanity and wall tile you like, and then in the future if you want to match the tile to the new hallway tile, all you'll have to do is pull the toilet.

Personally if it was my house I'd do what you originally said and put smaller tile and not plan to match it. And a vanity with whatever the hell countertop you want because no one will think every countertop in your house should match IMO. Just decorate it how you want it. The bathroom is a perfect room to go more wild because it is small and the door is often shut. It's the last room people expect to match with other rooms.

[sb]

If the kitchen could be 10 or 15 years, you might want to redo the floors again then anyway. I think it's worth the cost to do it now to make you happier with it for that long.

Based on the pictures of just the bathroom I was going to saw something classic black and white like hex with a pattern. But I do think you would want to have something that doesn't clash with the floor tile right outside the door. Based on that I might do a color instead of a neutral. If you want to do neutral maybe a warm gray/greige matte ceramic.

[ellipses84]

I agree with everything you are thinking, with the exception of the backsplash. I wouldn’t use subway tile. Unless it’s used frequently for teeth brushing, I don’t think you have to worry about a ton of clean up and can do a small backsplash around the vanity walls, made out of the same stone or solid surface as your white countertop (like 4 or 6 inches high). If you decide you want to do a backsplash my preference is a wainscot around all walls, or at least the wall/s with plumbing on them. If you want a tile backsplash, use something complementary to the floor tile, with the same concept of making it a different scale and unique compared to the rest of the house.