Bathroom Preview

About two months ago, I gave you all a small (very small) glimpse of what our kitchen is going to look like. In that post, I promised I would do a follow up of a bathroom preview.  Well this is me, following through on that promise.

Like the kitchen, I had several photos that I used as inspiration.

Inspiration #1

What first caught my attention in this bathroom was the center upper cabinet between the two sinks.  As soon as I saw that, I knew it was something I wanted to incorporate into our master bathroom.  Another element that kept me coming back to this picture was the black and white color scheme.  Like in the kitchen, a black and white color scheme appeals to me because of its timelessness and versatility.  I love the cup pulls on the drawers and I also love the shaker cabinet doors.  I also love the two framed mirrors vs. one large mirror.  And the two farmhouse-ish lights above the mirrors really got me.  This photo was my design jumping off point, however, as I continued to research bathrooms, I found other images that gave me ideas to incorporate into our bathroom to transform it into something unique, that was truly ours.

Inspiration #2

That's right folk! We got ourselves a clawfoot tub! Back before we even closed on our house we found a clawfoot tub for a deal on craigslist.  And we pounced.  It was ours!

And here she is. Harriet.  I just named her.   Harriet....Tubman. Get it? 

What is it with us and naming the inanimate objects that we own (have you met Orville - our Ford Truck)?  Maybe its a sign we should settle down and have some babies.  Whoaw Whoaw, slow down.  Let's just get back to talking about the bathroom please.

Incorporating Harriet into the layout of the bathroom created some challenges. We still needed space for a shower, we wanted to create an open feel in the space, and we needed storage space. We expanded the bathroom to absorb some unnecessary closets, so the first two challenges were settled, but we still needed to make up for the storage we had lost. When I saw the inspiration photo #2 that showed a little bump out behind the clawfoot tub, I had an idea.  What if we built a bump out behind our tub, but instead of it being dead space, could we have a hinge on the top and allow for storage inside of it?  And of course, Steve, being the saint that he is... said "Sure! We can do that!"  And we did! Steve built it a couple of weeks ago and it is looking great!

Inspiration #3

This photo summed up the color scheme I wanted our bathroom to have.  I love the mixture of the oil rubbed bronze fixtures as well as the chrome fixtures.  I especially love the contrast of the fixtures on top of the sea foamy color next to the crisp white trim.  Speaking of trim, we also are doing beadboard like in this bathroom.  Who's got two thumbs and loves beadboard?  This girl! (Picture me - both thumbs pointed back toward me with a big'ol grin on my face.)

Inspiration #4

The last inspiration was from one of the houses we looked at when we were house hunting.  We loved this character filled home in a great neighborhood.  We didn't end up buying the home but we were so sold on one of the character elements that we decided to add it to the home we did buy.  And that element was the bathroom tile.  I can't say for sure whether the tile was original, but if I were a bettin' women, I would bet that it was.  The tile was a black and white basket weave tile that looks like this:

It is unique, interesting, and has an "old house" feel which is something I'm always looking to add to our 1975 home.

We are really looking forward to seeing it all come together! 



The plumbers were here this week and hooked up our faucets.  And my brother-in-law has been making a lot of progress finishing the tile in the shower.  We are pretty excited about how this bathroom is looking. I even started shopping for rugs and towels! Too much fun!

Have a great week everybody... and stay healthy.  The poor Kercher household had come down with a nasty case of the stomach bug! Luckily I can blog from my couch wrapped in a fuzzy pink bathrobe!