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oceanna_gw

Please help me pull this bath redo together? (Lots of pics)

oceanna
12 years ago

I'm redoing my main hall bath, the one guests use, the one that would be the kids' bath if there were kids living here. For those here who don't know me, I love antiques, updated a little. As a professional artist I love rooms that are interesting and make my female friends say "oooo that's pretty!"

I just finished putting up the white painted beadboard (yes it's Graham and Brown wallpaper), topped by a white chair rail. I love how it brightens up this dark room.

Please excuse the mid-redo mess! I'm not a good visualizer, so I tend to decorate by trial and error and just keep repainting rooms till I get them right. Not kidding, I painted my bedroom 5 times in two years and I still don't like it.

So, first I turned the upper wall pale aqua, and bought yummy towels to go with it. I wanted to do a grey/white carera marble look on the floor and the counter and that's where I ran into (mainly) budget troubles in finding what I wanted. Champagne taste on a beer budget. So then I ran across the ad for the granite in CL and fell for it, but it didn't go with the aqua, nor do my new towels, which I can't return because I used them. Then I experimented mixing old paint that was in the garage and wasn't happy with any of the results, so then I thought of wallpaper. I think I will turn the ceiling back to white in any event. This room has no window, so it's a dark cave.

METAL - Faucets silver/white; light above mirror brass; towel/tp holders brass and silver; cabinet handles brass/white. Silver metal around the antique oval design-etched glass shower doors. The mix of gold/brass and chrome/silver looks good to me.

I just found a good deal on this silver-plated art nouveau hand mirror in a local antique shop. It's in exquisite shape for its age, and I'm very excited about it:

FLOOR - peachy-beige/white sheet vinyl. I am considering putting stick-down tiles on it, darkening it a little and giving it more texture and character, but leaving it similar in color. You can see the sample tile here. It looks like a peachy-beige and grey rough slate. I think it will ground the room a little better than what's there.

GRANITE COUNTER TOP The brand new granite counter top has flecks of black, peachy-beige, and white in it. I got a great deal on it, no color choice. This looks true to color.

I am tempted to put floral wallpaper on the top third of the wall and that's where I mostly would love your advice. My primary aim is to make it remarkably beautiful and personally enjoyable. My secondary aim is to make it so pretty that I won't have to wallpaper-strip and re-paint to resell in 5 years or so -- although I doubt that can be accomplished. Thoughts?

This Mucha will hang prominently above the towel rack to the left of the toilet, visible from the hallway. She is my color inspiration. Her colors are very dark bluish-green (the dark parts mainly at the top), paler bluish-green, peachy-beige, deep coral red flowers in her hair, gold, and tan. My print of her has a wide off-white mat with a narrow gold inner mat, and a medium-ornate subdued-gold frame.

Here are some wallpaper samples I'm strongly considering, narrowed down from dozens.

ONE - with peach/tan, violet, purple, gold, green, or beige towels? Maybe my pale aqua towels would go with this - seems to when held up to my computer screen.

TWO - with peach/pink, gold/tan, green, or blue towels? Pretty sure my pale aqua towels would go with this one; again seems to when held up to computer screen.

THREE - with green, tan, or peach/pink towels?

Or, I could go more traditional such as one of these:

FOUR - red or gold towels? This would be the most dramatic, and probably least feminine.

FIVE - peachy/pink towels only? (Could this pass as beige and be less offensive to men, or will they just see it as pink, in which case I might as well do the flowers?)

I've always thought it was okay to make the guest "powder room" more feminine and pretty than we might the rest of the house. Can we get away with that, and at resale time?

Or should I just chicken out and go very conservative and paint the walls a solid neutral color like the rest of the house, such as the peachy-beige, or a tan? I tried peachy-beige up there, as you see, but didn't like it. I tried a darker tan, but it got cave-like. I have some red-brick-toned wallpaper (not enough) and it looks good. The granite seems to demand some red tones. Blue and green backgrounds don't work with it.

1. Which wallpaper do you like best? Or do you think I should paint instead, and if so, what color? Ceiling back to white, or the background of whichever wallpaper?

2. Would you dare put stick down tiles on top of the existing sheet vinyl? The concern is it peeling up later. The existing is in good shape, but I'm not wild about it. The stick-ons are within budget and I can do it myself' not so with sheet vinyl. This is not a high traffic area, but the floor does get very wet at dog bath time, until me and the three dogs get out of the shower and I can dry it with a bath towel.

3. Any other comments, ideas or suggestions would be very appreciated!

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