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JP Warren Interiors All white is a good option for a person who is not a designer. It is more difficult to go wrong. Have you made any selections yet -- tile, stone, fixtures?

becks66ca I have made no decisions. I am finding single elements I like, but am having difficulty putting them together.

JP Warren Interiors What are the single elements? Can you post more photos? Even if you haven't purchased, what are you thinking? Oh, and what is your budget?

becks66ca I don't have any pictures. I'm thinking of either a chocolate brown vanity with a white top or a white vanity with a light grey top. Either way, I'm hoping to go with grey tile.

I'm not very good at picturing this all in my head, so I'm very unsure of my choices. I'm hoping someone will be able to help me sort it all out!

M J HAMPTON DESIGN home depot has sheets of carrera marble 1" mosaic as well as larger tiles...very reasonably priced. Do your shower and floor in carrera marble, get the white vanity with grey marble top, replace all the fixtures with polished chrome or polished nickel, treat yourself to new plush white bath towels, and paint the walls a very faint grey-blue. (or if you want an all white bathroom paint it Benjamin Moore "Snow White" which looks great with carrera.). The shower door...change it out with new frameless glass doors...if thats a bit pricey, use a nice high-end shower curtain like the waffle-weave one from Waterworks, until you have the funds for the glass doors. Also swap out the vanity light for a polished chrome one with white shades...on my monitor the shades look amber or yellowy...just get one with pure white frosted shades so the light flatters the grey.

olldroo If your bathroom is small, then the chocolate brown vanity will make it look smaller. If you like the greys then go with them, just keep them pale and make sure your room has sufficient light so the grey does not go drab.. Keep everything plain and simple. Grey is a trendy colour at the moment so the risk is that might be the thing that dates your bathroom so maybe a grey/white colour for your tiles would be a better option. Keeping it pale and neutral will allow you to change out paint and accessory colours in the years to come.

becks66ca Thanks for the ideas!

ptmatthews I would go with white tile and counter and then use gray on all the painted surfaces. That way, if you tire of the gray down the road, you can change the color without having to change the tile and counter.

Signature Kitchen & Bath Design I too like white in smaller bathroom. Are you keeping the tub? If you can do away with it I would suggest a shower, it will make the space seem larger. I would also do away with the molding around the window if possible and continue tile into window. I like a glossy white subway tile in a 6"x3" for the shower walls and extending it out the shower onto the vanity wall taking it all the way to the bathroom door and all the way up to the ceiling. If budget allows you can add more detail and break up the subway tiles by adding a white chair rail tile molding about 2/3 up the wall. On the floor I would put down either a carrera or calcutta gold marble in a large 2" mosaic and grout in a silver. The darker grout gives the floor definition and makes for easy maintainance. Paint the opposite wall a medium gray. Vanity would be white with matching marble top. Finish vanity with chrome faucets, hardware, and lighting to give it a bit of sparkle. I've attached pictures of one of my clients guest bathrooms that was done last year. Hope this helped!

Yarbro Home Improvement LLC Go with a 42" high white wainscoting. Tile, bead board, wood panels etc. Lots of options there. Place a dark color cabinet against it. Maybe a dark color paint above the wainscoting. Any color tile and counter top against the white wainscoting will look nice.

dianahb Personally, I think grey is timeless. It may be popular now, but that's only because designers have finally seen the light. :) -- It is a timeless sophisticated color that really falls into the neutral family (unlike pink or the color of the blue currently on your walls, or greens).

I don't know what you're thinking about in terms of tile-- but Crossville sells a beautiful rectified porcelain in their Empire series (in a grey- 'Generals Grey' and they also have a really pretty off-white called 'Empress Silver'). Check out the Crossville porcelain-- gorgeous stuff-- moreso if you can see it in person. But there are lots of marbles that are affordable (some more so than the Crossville porcelain)-- but I find carrera marble is way too often suggested by tile shop designers (because, I suspect, it seems safe), and I think people just like to say they have a marble bathroom. I'm imagining every bathroom in every middle-class subdivision in every town in America now has carrera marble in the bathrooms at this point. I just think it seems so uninspired and-- yeah-- very safe.

I suggest getting a pedestal sink (which will really open up the space), or getting one of those open vanities (for storage) with a white porcelain sink built in. In smallish bathrooms, eliminating the built-in closed vanity really opens things up.

Signature Kitchen & Bath Design Here are some picture of suggested white vanity. I like the stainless detail on the drawers and you also get a lot of storage. The product comes from Xylem and can be bought at local dealers or build.com. They also sell marble tops to match. I happen to think marble is also timeless!

sacapuntaslapioz post pictures of the tiles first. then getbideas for vanities

becks66ca I've made a bit of headway on my decisions. What do you think?
Tile- Happy House Avantgard 12x18 in grigio
Paint- Benjamin Moore caribe green 2042-50

Interiors International, Inc. I prefer baths that are in natural colors. White is so hard to keep looking clean. I don't think that the brown will look dated but if your concerned go with black or a real wood vanity.

javincent3 I'll agree with Interiors International. Using a wood vanity in Espresso with softer travertine marble counter would look rich, classic and timeless

camillealbert Love the idea of an open vanity with storage underneath. Good in a small bathroom. Just watch your grey choices....there is blue-grey, brown-grey , green-grey and probably others I haven't thought of. All white bathrooms can be very sticking too with just a pop of black. Good luck.

dianahb I have to agree with the above comment. The tile you've chosen is a gray, which looks really nice. I like that a lot. I think black would be a more interesting choice against that gray, other than white. I know people like white, but that always translates as "safe" to me and, so, a bit uninspired. When I see white in people's bathrooms-- no matter how nice it might look-- my first thought is always "uninspired." (I know. I'm very critical.)

I also think you just can't beat real wood. I just recently got rid of a bunch of built-in cabinetry and sink/vanities in my bathroom-- it was horrific stuff-- and am putting in pedestal sinks and a free-standing mid-century modern vanity between them-- all wood, beautiful old handles-- the real deal. It probably matches nothing at all, but what a gorgeous piece of furniture all by itself-- which you can (sometimes) find for a steal. At the time, I bought 2 (matching vanities which were connected by a mirror- but all could be used separately) with the idea of cutting them for sinks-- but they were so beautiful, I couldn't bring myself to have them chopped up like that. I feel like if you go with real wood (from olden days-- you know-- when real wood was actually a thing)-- it just never goes out of style-- especially if you find something with clean lines.

I'm also horrified by how much people charge for vanities specifically made for bathrooms.

Judy M Go back to the first photo in your ideabook. I think with that tile you need a dark vanity and one with a more modern style than the raised panel one you show.

Is the tile for the shower walls and the floor? Is this the only bathroom or a guest bath? Consider storage solutions if it's used often.

dianahb Oh-- I'll also add that I noticed recently that Restoration Hardware has a sale on currently-- open vanities/sink-- that look very nice. Not sure how they look in real life, but in pictures, they looked terrific.

camillealbert Kohler has one too.