Careful with storage options above the toilet. These can often make the room feel quite small. If possible use the depth of the wall cavity and keep the projection of the cabinets off the finished wall down around 8"-10".

My wife and I had the same concerns with tile selection for our three daughter's bathroom. In the end we choose a White Hex Tile for the floor and a subway tile for the tub surround.

Good Luck

John Whipple
North Vancouver

Girls need lots of storage. Please keep that in mind.

agree--girls need a ton of storage. And even more important, in my experience (I have three daughters), storage on the deck of the sink is even more important. The kids are just completely uninterested in putting things away. They want things accessible right on the counter. If you do a pedestal, you won't have that. I really recommend a vanity. You can eliminate the bulk of the vanity by putting it on legs or having it wall hung. The space you create underneath by doing that will really open up the space. One thing you should think about is the height of the vanity. My advice would be to make the vanity the height at which your daughter and whoever else comes along :-) comfortable with the height when full-grown. If you build a vanity with legs or that is wall-hung, you can put a step in front--I have seen some people use an upside down drawer so it pulls out. The step can be removed when the kids grow big enough not to need it anymore.

A pedestal is definitely not my first choice, but both of the bathrooms for our kids (one boy, one girl) are small and the current vanities take up soooo much space. Our kids are only 4 and 5 so the messiness hasn't begun, but I know it's coming.

nycbluedevil - I am not sure what you mean by putting a vanity on legs or having it wall hung. I can't visualize this or how it would be less bulky. Can you direct me to some pictures as I would much rather have storage - in both bathrooms! I'm intrigued.

My son has a good-sized closet in his bathroom and my daughter will have a linen closet just outside hers. In addition, she has a beautiful built-in vanity, complete with granite top, mirror, lighting above, and built-in shelving. I hope that will take care of some storage issues if we end up with a pedestal sink. Both bathrooms have ugly recessed medicine cabinets, which I will replace with updated nice-looking ones. A little more storage there.

Just google "wall mounted bathroom vanity" and you will see jillions of them. One brand you can take a look at is Robern and another is Duravit but the idea is the same. As far as the feet go, that is what you would use for a non-wall mounted vanity. I don't have a photo since I don't know how to post them, but imagine the typical vanity that sits on the floor. Now imagine taking the bottom six or so inches away and replacing with metal or wood furniture legs. There you have a regular vanity on legs.

The wall mount will give you less storage but will provide the most open look. I opted not to do that because I wanted the storage so my vanities are lower to the ground but the legs are about 6" high so they are much less bulky than a standard vanity that sits on the floor. If you go with a wall mount, you need to make sure that your wall is prepared to support the unit. Also, don't forget to allow for the sink because the bowl and the p-trap take up room. If your vanity is say, 30" and you do an undermount sink, you don't have a lot of room left for storage.

I just finished a very small bathroom for my teen daughter. I wanted to make the space feel bigger, so I really wished I could use a pedestal sink- but I knew she needed WAY more storage than that.

The bathroom had an over-the-toilet cabinet previously, and I agree with John- it made the room feel SO much bigger when we removed it!!! I highly recommend finding other storage options. A recessed medicine cabinet type of thing over the toilet would be great. In fact, try to utilize any wall space this way. It is a great way to get extra storage without making the room feel teeny.

For the sink, we modified an antique dresser. Two things about this help make the room feel bigger: one is that it is on legs, rather than going all the way to the floor like a traditional bathroom vanity. I know it doesn't seem like it, but simply seeing the floor space underneath makes you feel like the room is much bigger. Also, the dresser is narrower than a standard bathroom vanity. (If you look hard enough you can find narrow pre-made vanities. Some of Ikea's for instance are narrow- and also on legs!!)

Having all those drawers in the vanity is AWESOME for storage!!! So much better than the standard vanities with just a couple of cabinet doors. Drawers allow you to organize all the little bits and stuff that bathrooms contain.

It will also help the room feel bigger if you choose a recessed rather than surface-mount vanity.

Timeless materials, in my opinion, are white subway tiles (or similar- we used 4x4s in a brick pattern to save money), chrome fixtures (not ORB!), white hexagonal floor tile, neutral colors (add color with easily changeable accessories, art, towels.)

I'd also recommend adding niches in the shower for all the shamppos and stuff, as well as using a showerhead on a slider bar so you can adjust the height as she grows :)

At the bottom of this post is a link to my post about my daughter's bathroom, if you want to see more. Here are a couple pics:

and here are some pics of between-the-studs storage, both homemade and store-bought:
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Here is a link that might be useful: staceyneil's daughter's bathroom budget DIY

We are currently building a house, and storage was my biggest concern when designing my 8 year old daughter's bath. I actually did a normal sized white painted maple vanity with drawers, and then did a drop down area with knee space for her future "make-up" needs! I am a firm believer in no clutter on the counters, and I thought this would give her the best option for keeping it pretty.
We did white subway on the walls in her bath/shower combo, and 12 x 12 white tiles on the floor (which I do not love, but our tiler was going to charge an extra $1000 to do a mosaic on her floor (it is a pretty big bath, it is also a J&J with the guest room, so a lot of tile.) Dh put his foot down, lol. But it looks ok, and definitely classic. We also did a niche in her tub. Oh, and she is getting a chandelier and crystal knobs on her vanity.

Staceyneil... That niche for the toilet brush, etc is sooo cool! (It's amazing what I find exciting these days!) Was that a prefab purchase or did you come up with it on your own? Can you post a link to your source? Thanks!!

I didn't do that toilet brush niche--- just found a pic on the web. I can't recall where, but it is a prefab unit...

Nooooo!!!!!! Don't do it!

I just tore out my pedestal sinks (2 in master bath). There's no where for a toothbrush, let alone a dozen pony tail holders, a hairbrush, a hand mirror, a handful of sparkly butterfly barrettes, or anything my 4yo uses regularly. And assuming a teen will be using the grown up versions of these + makeup, etc, there is just not enough room. Even the tiniest of vanities is better.

For a powder room, a pedestal is great. If nothing else will fit, a pedestal is fine. But for the long-term and a growing girl, I think it's a choice you'd regret.