I would try painting the room in a grey that blended with the current tiles and do all the color in towels and accessories. Maybe a small red rug and some red hand towels would do it. Keep the floor for right now.
(If you got a lot of negative feedback on it, then think about changing it)

Could you take the shower door down, put a little white epoxy in the screw holes and put up a shower rod?

I would get grout paint to cover the white grout. Maybe use a dark gray. Then I would definitely remove the shower door enclosure and clean up the area around it, get a pressure rod and put up a curtain.

Hate to say it, but the ubiquitous spa blue would work, too. Who doesn't love a spa blue bathroom?

Overdone? yeah, probably. But, I have to admit, I just painted my master bath blue...again! :-) Same shade as the last spa blue bathroom. Oh well...so much for originality.

I think tan and gray are going to be tricky to get right. Tough colors to coordinate...one of those "don't try this at home" combos.

Good to hear feedback on keeping the tile! According to my husband, he can actually re-grout the tiles. We were trying to decide between re-grouting or re-tiling. The gray tile is matte, not shiny, and always looks dingy to me.

Notice that the trim tile around the tub runs on either side of the glass door. Surely I don't want to open that can of worms! Not sure there's even room for a curtain now that I really look at it. Huh.

We never use this tub, so we're leaning to just updating the fixtures, and possibly re-glazing the tub. There are some lines in it that I could never clean, my husband told me today that they're so you don't slip, I think it looks dirty. Go figure, 8 years later we discuss it, heh. If anyone else has heard of this, please let me know.

I guess it might help to know that this room is right behind the front door, and opens into the LR. The LR is currently painted dark orange, but will probably change to a camel-y tan. It leads into the red DR, also pictured on the link. These rooms have hardwood floors, white trim and casement windows.

I had considered gray paint. The kitchen (also on this floor) has very pale gray and tan ceramic floor tiles (unless we change them), white ceramic back-splash and counters with oak trim, oak cabinets, and tan wallpaper with dark red stars. We need to replace a window and possibly the stove, so nothing else is probably going to change.

amysrq~I would love to see the spa blue bathroom. That could be just the ticket for the upstairs bath! :)

This illustrates what inspired me to say that tan and gray might work. Maybe keep the dark gray tile, add light gray towels, light tan walls, black accessories?

Here is a link that might be useful:

Well, that fabric does show how to make it work. Could you use that anywhere?

Here's the current blue bath:

{{!gwi}}

Here's the last one:

It is Martha Stewart Atlantic....an old color from the Sears/K-Mart colors. Reading a bit green in the first pic. Looks more like the second one IRL.

If you remove the doors, it will leave holes in the tile, but you can fill those in. I've done it. I don't see any reason why a curtain wouldn't fit, especially if you use a pressure rod. On the other hand, if the glass doors are in great shape and don't have gunk around the edges, I'd just leave them.

I have also removed a shower door and filled the holes in. Its not perfect but its not glaring either.

I do like that combination on the fabric, if you could Use that fabric for something it would tie it together, but as as individual colors together, I am not as sure, it may be better to go simple with the room and put color in the textiles.

What did you fill those shower door holes with? Just removed doors from two bathrooms. There are holes in the tiles.

Thanks

I think gray would be dull looking. I like the idea of light blue or even light green.

Just to chime in about the tub. I have a friend that had her tub re-glazed and this tub was a mess!!! I think it is about 40 years old and all of the glaze had worn off. I went over there to see her "new" tub and I was impressed; it looked brand new. I believe it is a bit "spendy" but really worth it!

For paint colors in order to sell, I would go as neutral as possible; just my 2 cents :)

I had a gray tile in previous house. This color is closest to EK Summer Sky.

http://www.videojug.com/webvideo/how-to-fill-and-repair-holes-in-ceramic-tile

Thanks for all the suggestions, I'll post when we get this project done. It's small, so hopefully it will be pretty easy, and will get the ball rolling!

My husband says that it's easier to re-tile than re-grout. We'll stick to the same tile color with the dark gray grout, and some gloss if we can find it. I remember it was hard to match the wall tile, so we could end up with the same tile (sigh).

I'm planning to buy a new set of towels in a silvery gray. We've got some leftover paint that I'm going to try, Behr Toasted Cashew. We can always re-paint.

twotogo, do you remember how "spendy" it was to re-glaze the tub? I have two tubs, one is an old clawfoot, so I was hoping for a deal. Maybe we'll just buy a tub mat and call it a day. I think that's what PO did.

If you are going to retile I wouldn't retile in the same color. Pick something with beige and gray not too light, but not dark either.

I wouldn't retile or regrout unless the tiles were loose. Do whatever is needed to get the room looking really, really clean. Remove anything that protudes from the wall other than the towel bars. Paint the walls a light blue gray like amy's second picture. Be sure that the towels are big and fluffy.

For what it's worth, I hate, hate, hate gray and am not fond of blue, yet we bought a house with charcoal floor tile and blue-gray walls in my bathroom. I didn't like it, but it looked nice enough that I lived with it for a couple of years until I got some more pressing matters off my list. The chances of matching a buyer's taste aren't that great, so only spend where you're certain that it matters.

I think you should be able to clean the grout with White and Bright or something like that and seal it. I sold a condo unit with bad looking tile that I just cleaned really well and it sold once After that, looking the same way.

That looks like a bath that people are either going to essentially be okay with the way it looks or they are going to want to gut it, IMO. I am not sure any measures beyond freshening up are going to gain you much. I would at least start out this way and if the realtor gets bad feedback on it maybe think about retiling then.

An alternative to cleaning the grout is to use a colorant to make the floor present as a solid. Just make the grout go away. I think re-tiling is too much effort for resale.

Remember, if they like enough of the house to get as far as those secondary bathrooms, the floors should not be a deal-killer.

I don't understand re-tiling being easier than re-grouting. You can use a grout scraper to get most of the old grout out, clean the tile and grooves real well and then just grout.... as opposed to smashing out the old tile and starting from scratch.

Before I did anything, I would clean up all the grout and replace where necessary. I think white grout is best for resale...it will look so nice and clean. I personally think a gray and white palette is nice and classic, but your whites need to be whiter. Also recaulk the tub and consider the reglazing. Once everything is nice and white (and gray), then decide on your paint colors and accessories, etc.

I think it's so cool that people have taken off the glass doors on their tubs with success....I would be so afraid there might be rust stains underneath or some kind of non removable adhesives or something, I wouldn't chance it.

We pulled off old shower doors which must have been 40 yrs old. Here's a pic of the tub after taking off the doors -
{{gwi:1476207}}

There was cement-like stuff all around the edge of the tub. I scraped it off with a paint scraper and washed the rest off with Fantastic and steel wool. Actually was easy and most came off with the scraper. I then had the tub reglazed and it turned out great -
{{gwi:1392871}}

It's worth getting those old doors off. Makes such a difference.

Jane

I love that you kept the green tile and worked with it.

Wonderful transformation.

Rust won't be a problem -- it's just the adhesive that you need to remove and the paint scraper works great for that!

Thanks for posting the pictures jane~That looks great! Green is my favorite color, and I really love those old ceramic towel bars and fixtures, they have such character! I wish I could've seen a peek of the flooring too.

I've decided to keep the shower doors on, mainly because I'm too chicken to add more work. My husband already needs a fire lit under him to do anything at all. One of the reasons we're selling, LOL.

I will have to try cleaning the grout and/or re-grouting it white. And painting, I think a soft color would look nice. I tend to agree most with palimpsest, that the new owners will either like it enough, or gut it. And amy made another good point, if they get that far, we're doing good!

If you still want to see it when I get it done, I'll post again. It might take me a week or two. Thanks again! :)

jane_ny: Thanks for your post. I have been seriously considering taking down the doors on the tub that will be our kids' bath, not just because they are dated but also because bathing them with a curtain makes it so much easier to reach them. I'm scared too though because we won't be reglazing and don't have the money to replace anything if it turns out looking terrible. If you hadn't reglazed would it have looked okay after you scraped off and cleaned all the gunk from where the doors had been?

Prairiegirlz5: regrouting is a good option, please do post photos of the "after"!

Yes, I got it all off without damaging the tub or tile. I used the scraper, which got most off and then just used regular cleaners like Comet and Fantastic.

I have two full baths and did the same with a upstairs bath tub. That tub was 20 yrs old and had horrible brass shower doors. Got that cleaned up also and hung a curtain on a tension rod.
Upstairs hall bath:
{{gwi:1385996}}

This picture was taken while construction was going on. I did not reglaze this tub. I'll get a close-up picture if you like. Removing the doors on both baths did leave small holes in the tile. I filled them with tinted calk and they are barely noticeable.

Jane

Excellent! Along with the link above from k9arlene about how to fill tile holes I feel pretty confident I'll be taking them down now! Thanks so much.

Some people like shower doors. I would opt for a really good cleaning of everything, do grout touch-up as needed, paint the walls some shade of blue, add nice fluffy towels and stop there.

And I assume you're going to remove the ivy arrangment from the wall.