Cape Cod Reno: Deciding on the Design for 3 Bathrooms
February 17th, 2015
At the cape cod reno (see the floor plans here), my focus lately has been on the bathrooms.
I would say that first step to planning a bathroom renovation (big or small) is deciding what want your bathroom to look like. You need to create a new board on Pinterest or Houzz and start adding the rooms that appeal to you. After an hour or so you will look at your board and get a good idea of what you want. Once you have that decided you can work within your budget to achieve that same look. You can get very creative with vanities and tiles that look like they would blow your budget but don’t come close.
I have looked through so many rooms online and on Pinterest… I can definitely say that I have found so many that I don’t like for this project but all that research has paid off because we have an idea of where we are going with the bathrooms. To see all of the bathrooms that I pinned for the cape cod project have a look at my pinterest board.
You can definitely have fun with a kids bathroom but since this is a flip we can’t pick a design or colour scheme assuming the age or gender of the kids. So we can pick something that is gender neutral, timeless and the parents can change the feel of it by adding different wall art or changing the accessories! One of my favourite bathrooms is one designed by Sarah Richardson in season 4 of Sarah’s House. This will be my inspiration for the kid’s bathroom.
My envision changed a bit when I lose the vote for a single vanity. Now we are looking at a double vanity so I’m looking at two mirrors and no sconces. If you have seen any cool lights over two mirrors please let me know!!
I’m currently sourcing out a double vanity. I found this allen + roth vanity at Lowes. It is the top contender so far.
I’m sticking with a neutral palette for the master bath – creamy beige’s, greyish white with a dark wood vanity and marble counter. This is my inspiration for the master bathroom, a classic ensuite from Sarah 101.
This room is 3 x 6 so we don’t have much room to work with. With 3 feet of space, we aren’t adding sconces at the side of the mirror which make me sad but I will find a way to make this work. Here are two great powder rooms that I will use when designing this bathroom.
On the left, I love the look of this vanity with the towels at the side. We used a similar vanity in our powder room and I still love it. And finding a cool decorative mirror will be a must for this room. On the right, I love the idea of adding a chair rail around the room to add more interest by adding a different paint colour or wallpaper above it. I do love the pedestal sink as it is timeless and is perfect for a powder room.
One more tip: Numbers are important
For all 3 bathrooms we were constantly referring to the floor plans to see what would work. It doesn’t matter if you love the look of a walk-in shower with a freestanding tub if you don’t have room for it. We definitely had some trouble with the master ensuite because we were looking at 34″ in freestanding tubs but realized we didn’t have much room between the tub and the vanity, so we went with a 30″ tub because every inch counts in smaller spaces. Also, in an older home, plumbing can be a problem. You have to consider what is below and behind the walls/flooring. The freestanding tub is going where a fireplace used to be so we couldn’t have a faucet in the centre of the tub because of concrete so this limited our choices. We did find the Maax Optik freestanding tub, which fit all of our requirements, YAY! Home Deport and Lowe’s had some fabulous options though.
In the kids room, I just assumed we would only have room for a 48″ single vanity but once we looked at the numbers, there was an option for a double vanity so we went with that.
In the powder room, I always love the look of sconces on either side but looking at the width, there wasn’t room to do that or else we would have to get a really small mirror.
I found this handy guide online to help you… be sure to check out “64 Important Numbers Every Homeowner Should Know”
Stay tuned for more updates! 🙂
Can’t wait to see the master bath!