Master Bathroom: The Ideas

I learned something recently: I hate bathrooms. They just don't 'do' it for me. I've never walked into one and said 'ooooo, look at that tile' or 'man, I love that faucet'. So, when Brian practically forced me into our master bathroom remodel...I was not exactly happy. The goal was to spend very little money and attempt to make it look nice. Have you ever tried that with a bathroom? Yeah...it doesn' work.

The first we knew we wanted was beadboard wainscoting. My dream was to have our towels hanging on hooks like this:

 (via)

 

Sadly, very few tiles exists that actually look good with beadboard. Most of the Pinterest ideas showed hardwoods (which is what we have downstairs), but that wasn't an option for our heavily-trafficked master bathroom. And which tile looks amazing? The expensive one, of course. Check out this dreamboat of a bathroom:

 

(via)

 

You had me at 'marble hex tile'. There was no other tile that Brian and I both loved as much as this Carrera White Marble Hex. The small tile was so antique-ish, the grayish color gradient had so much depth and it looked like the beadboard and the floor were long lost lovers (okay, maybe a little over the top). This past weekend we stopped at Floor & Decor Warehouse and took home a 12x12 of this tile...just to 'see'. We just knew the second we put it on our floor and we decided that this could be one thing we actually splurge on in our home. (I mean, we have used couches for chrissakes).

 

So back to the beadboard. I want to go high on the wall and have some more 'upscale' details. Like an extra-tall baseboard:

 

 

A nice ledge on the top...like this:

 

(both from here)

 

 Here, my friends, is where the ideas end. We do know that we want to do chrome fixtures and keep and repaint our existing vanity. This weekend we are finishing up the demolition and I will certainly be back on Monday with some more updates.

 

Back on Track (and a finished coffee table)!

Yes, I know...I've been gone forever. I do have a good excuse: my little blog zip drive with all  my edited photos went missing. The sheer volume of organized photos and folders was enough to make a grown woman cry. Then life happened and our house-remolding-drive took a backseat for the summer.

 

As always, life comes along and gives you a kick in the ass. Some big changes are coming to Casa Murphy and we'll talk about them next week, but they involve switching out the guest room for a music room (what?!) and finishing up the long avoided bathrooms.

 

In the meantime, I am super happy to share our (finally) finished Goodwill coffee table. Remember him? We stripped it, sanded it and then finally stained it. We bought new knobs and new screws. Aside from the process taking 100 years...it was all fairly easy. One thing we learned - if you are going to insist on using wood filler (ahem) make sure it's compatible with your stain. Brian insisted on filling a few nail holes that the stripper had eaten away and once we stained over the wood filler...it was not looking good. He just ran the stain over those few spots several more times and then we decided we didn't really care. Here it is in your living room:

 

The 'styling' (or lack thereof) is only temporary - I really can't decide what I want to put on there and, to be honest, between the speakers, record player and 100+ records...it just seems crowded. So for now I grabbed a book on what else? Abandoned structures. I think I need a support group.