Remodeling the Bathroom in 5000 Steps or Less

World's Greatest Vintage
Bathroom Resource

For most of the 15 years that we lived in the Slice of Heaven," we intended to remodel the bathroom. Being the kind of person I am, I had to research the time period that the house was built and tried to learn everything I could about bathrooms built in 1930.  After reading the best resource on the face of the earth for someone working on an historic bathroom remodel, I learned that bathrooms in the late 20's to early 30's were often fantasies of beautiful tilework.

The bathroom in our home was inexpensively remodeled by the original owners during the 1980's.  The original pink tub and toilet remained, but the original sink had been replaced by a characterless marble top vanity and an unfortunate

single handled centerset faucet.  The lovely structural arches over the tub and toilet stall also remained, but the walls were covered with unremarkable white textured 4x4 ceramic tiles with a pink and blue pastel accent border.  The floor was inexpertly covered with 12x12 pink marble floor tiles.  The only other remaining hints of the original bathroom were the pink ceramic towel bar holders, although the original glass bars had been replaced with expanding plastic bars.  It was functional, but not beautiful. 

In 2008 we decided to correct these previous errors in remodeling judgment.  The old vanity was removed, the old floor and wall tiles were removed.  Unfortunately a new toilet couldn't be matched with the tub, so we decided to go with a new white (hi-tech but) old-fashioned looking toilet from Toto. 

The ugly molded marble top vanity was replaced with an authentically styled console sink with chrome legs from St. Thomas Creations.  A Hangrohe Limbo widespread cross handle faucet enhances the console.  In order to allow for sufficient storage space, a luxe quality white lacquer bath etagere was added from Williams-Sonoma Home.  Restoration Hardware light fixtures and Bistro bath fittings complete the retro look. 

Note the inset, arched shelf
in the tub area and the
wrap-around border.

The pièce de résistance of the bathroom remodel is the tilework.  High quality Daltile 3x6 subway-style semi-gloss tile, in shades of Ocean Blue and glossy Black, were custom bordered with iridescent and opalized Sonterra Glass tile in Verde and Black.  The floors were tiled with a traditional white Octagon and Dot with random black accents.

The overall effect is amazing.  Even two years after completing this project, it still makes me smile to enter this gem of a bathroom.