If you’ve been following along on Instagram Stories, I have been sharing some bits and pieces of the first project we’re tackling in our new house: the main bathroom. Meta Coleman, our designer, has already gone gung-ho and I thought I’d share some of the process with you. Personally, I love seeing how things end up!
Let’s go!
Designing our Main Bathroom
First things first–something as private as a bathroom wouldn’t have necessarily been my first priority in a house that still lacks door knobs and baseboards and straight up organization. BUT we don’t have a functioning sink in our bathroom nor adequate storage and I’m about to lose my mind. For fear of appearing overly dramatic, that combined with the amount of trips to the bathroom I take (thanks little guy in my belly) and a CRAZY pregnancy brain (or is this forever?!) means that I cannot find ANYTHING! I used to have three hair brushes. Ask me when the last time I brushed my hair was. I can’t find anything! So, I’m imagining that with a nicely cared for bathroom, I’ll be able to find things again?
Where we are starting
Another reason to start with our bathroom is that I’ve been working with Signature Hardware who provided us with a beautiful vanity and some accessories, which means we are on a tighter deadline than we would if we weren’t partnering. Now, this is both good and stressful, right? Getting a room fully designed? Dreamy! But doing it while (hopefully!) moving studios, getting ready for the holidays (our biggest time of the year) and all while before baby comes by the end of the year.
Anywhoo, when I first started working with Signature Hardware, I had NO design in place. I picked out a vanity nonetheless because I had a time crunch. It’s this beautiful green one called the Olsen Console in Hunter green and white oak. 
I figured we’d make a plan somehow after that decision. It’s not usually how I like to start things, but deadlines are deadlines!
Wallpaper samples
So, Meta came with what I had and went to work. She brought a ton of wallpaper samples over so we could get a feel for what this vanity needed to be paired with. Some of the ones we were looking at:
I shared some of the options on Stories and you gave such a wide variety of responses! Meta and I share a love of Josef Frank so those were obvious add ins, and then add in some florals and botanicals and I was having a tough time deciding! What would you have done?!
Then we narrowed it down to the winner, which is a Josef Frank classic, Eldblomman, in red. It’s a splurge for sure BUT since we didn’t need too much (that’s the beauty of bathrooms!) and we will be doing a wainscoting below then I kind of justified it…for my Christmas gift-ha!
After making that decision (turns out–a good portion of interior design is just making decisions), Meta came up with this mood board:
Main Bathroom Mood Board
She included lighting options from Hudson Valley Lighting, who I am also working with, mirrors, artwork, wainscoting, rug, etc. Take a lookie:
And the color palette at the top and bottom? So dreamy!
And she created a very quick mock up to get the gist of the wallpaper and fabric together.
Isn’t it amazing?!
DIY Wainscoting
So, the plan is to do the wallpaper on the top 2/3rds (remember the rule of thirds!), then a DIY wainscoting that involves circle and diamond cut outs. I just ordered some unfinished wood and square pieces that we will apply to the wall and cannot wait to get moving on those! I’ll be sharing how to do that at some point so stay tuned.
Artwork
Paul LOVES Japan so Meta had the idea of including some beautiful Japanese block print art. I still haven’t decided myself what to do there–might need to try something new out.
Mirrors
The mirrors I’m particularly excited for. She did the coolest mirror treatment in her own bathroom at her house and she’s giving us the leftovers to do the same technique. She had bought some yellow glass and surrounded the mirror with it. We might try an unusual organic shaped design to go with the wallpaper or maybe something more uniform. Paul’s on the fence about it (read: doesn’t like the idea) but I’m ALL for trying things out. Any thoughts there?
Accessories
Like I mentioned in this post, I had bought those yellow and white striped towels because I loved them so much and they JUST SO HAPPEN to work marvelously with this design doncha think?
Towel and robe hook accessories
I had ordered a number of beautiful, vintage-inspired brass bathroom accessories from Signature Hardware that work so well with this design.
Flooring
Lastly, the rug. We haven’t gotten to that stage yet, but we have some ideas–just need to place the order. What would you do here? We installed the Stuga Tivoli throughout the whole house, which meant that we are covered for flooring. It also meant that creating a custom floor was out of the picture. Could have been fun to do some sort of checkerboard flooring, no?! But, a rug will do the same thing.
Window Treatments
You can see from this picture, that the room actually gets some lovely South-facing lighting thanks to the window here in the bathroom as well in the adjoining closet (think of the selfie pics?!?!?!?! Ha–kidding…kind of). Once again, Meta brought over some samples and we picked out a Soane and will turn it into a roman blind. For the closet, we’re still working on picking out something, but we’re thinking it’s going to be some sort of green floral. If you have any leads on one–I’m all ears!
Paint colors
We’ll be painting the wainscoting a beautiful blue along with the trims. And then I’ll talk about the closet below.
Main Closet
We’re also including the closet into the design. The plan is to go with an all over peach/blush everywhere. I remember learning that Jackie O painted her bathrooms a peach color because it reflected well on her skin and I’ve been wanting to do something along those lines too. This was a perfect place to do so! We’ll probably do the trims in this beautiful green color. See how all the colors work together?!?!?
We’ll also be doing the toilet room, which consists of the toilet and shower. It’s small and narrow and probably won’t be very interesting to see…but who knows?! Maybe we’ll try and make it interesting.
Ok! That’s it for now! Would love to hear your thoughts!
If you’re interested in more Interiors posts, here are some of my favorites!
Our new hardwood flooring
All the renovations we did to our rental
Affordable rugs under $1000
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