RenovationsVanities for the Master Bath January 19, 2016I think the vanities are going to be one of my favorite parts of the master bath. Thanks so much for the sweet comments on the updates and plans I shared last week. While I’m having to adjust to the differences in this plan, I’m getting really excited about it. If you missed the plans post, make sure you check it out for details here. As a recap, we’re starting with a classic base and then building on top of that. You guys loved the floor tile as much as I did! I still can’t believe we found it for $1.49/square foot. Several of you asked about the brand. This is where shopping at a surplus store like that gets tricky….it can be hard to find the products elsewhere. It’s from a Spanish company and this is their website, but it looks like they don’t sell directly to the customer. This tile is called Bosse Gray. I have seen similar tiles at big box stores like Home Depot or Lowe’s, but the finish on this one is the best I’ve seen. If you do a quick search on “wood-looking tiles,” some great options come up that look similar to this. Here are some good options I found. I love the character that the white plank walls add. We decided to go with a classic subway tile shower. Having a tile shower installed is expensive, not to mention the glass door that will follow a little later. I wanted white to blend in this room and you just can’t go wrong with subway. All of the tile for this 3 x 4.5′ shower was $175. I considered doing a colored tub and many of you suggested that! I LOVED the suggestion for a berry or plum tub with brass – amazing. But…Chris was not remotely on board with a colored tub. He hated the idea. Since it’s a major fixture in the room that we are not going to paint again, I decided to go with a neutral that wasn’t white, so it’s still a little different. We’re going with a glossy black tub with glossy black feet like the one above. I considered doing a different color on the feet, but I really loved the black popping against the floor. This tub above is a very pricey option, but it looks the most like ours of any I found. I’ll share details on ours soon, but it’s a small fraction of what that one costs! While I really love black and white in design, I’ve been using more color in this house. But don’t worry, some color will be layered on top. Now that we’ve got this base nailed down, I’m moving on to design the rest of the room. The very first thing we got for this room were two Champagne Bronze Vero faucets from Delta. I’ve pictured a brass faucet in the last four bathrooms I’ve designed and it was never in the budget. Finding a nice-looking brass faucet is not easy these days. I love the brushed brass look that this Champagne Bronze line from Delta has instead of the really glossy brass you sometimes see. These two faucets came back in June and have just been waiting on this bathroom to be finished up so they could get their moment of glory. While these are more of an investment, fixtures like this are where I would put my reno money. We’ve bought so many super cheap, nondescript faucets in our past kitchens and bathrooms and there’s nothing wrong with that. But, we’ve almost always had problems. They don’t hold up, they leak, they break. Every kitchen and bath I’ve ever designed was a bit different. I knew we would be moving soon. While we’re still in major money-saving mode today, we are renovating a little bit differently knowing that we’re going to be here longer (most-likely…I’ve learned to never make promises about that because sometimes, the adventure just takes over). I love the touch of brass that these bring into the room. They’ll really pop against all of the white. But my favorite thing are the modern lines. The bones of this room are very classic and rustic, which I love. But it does need some sleek modern layered on top and these are perfect for a touch of that. Even after we had the faucets and the rest of the room basics figured out, we’ve really struggled with deciding on vanities. To me, every room needs a wood element to sort of anchor it. I really wanted a wood vanity that was vintage-inspired with some character. I could just picture the gold faucets against wood-tones. We’ve had issues finding that because we needed two matching. I’ve seen some bathrooms with different vanities, but I’m really digging the symmetry of having matching vanities, mirrors and lights on each side of the pretty claw foot. I looked around a little for some vintage chests or something we could convert, but quickly realized that wasn’t likely to happen as quickly as I needed it. We also wanted something with storage, but I really didn’t want a “stock” cabinet, if that makes sense…especially since my major “punches” in this room got nixed. We searched and searched for ready-made vanities that matched with character and storage and couldn’t find anything we loved for less than $500 or so each. $1,000 for vanities was way out of the budget with the other elements we’ve already lined up. While my husband is pretty handy at making furniture, he’s spending a ton of time finishing up the rest of the bath and nice-looking vanities with good storage are much harder to make than a simple table. I kept being drawn to farmhouse style vanities like this one. {via} We wrestled with this because this was the exact look we wanted, but no storage. We started looking at the rest of the bath and realized that there is the perfect nook behind the shower for a big cabinet! It will give us way more storage than any two vanities would. We shortened the planned shower by 6″ to allow more clearance. It was 5′ deep and will now be 4.5′, so still a great size shower. While most of this floor plan is really to scale, the shower side is not. There isn’t nearly as much space between the shower and my closet door as it appears here, but there is enough for a cabinet! We’ll be using these farmhouse-style table legs from Lowe’s to build a very similar vanity to the one you see in the inspiration image above! They’re $25 each and we need eight to make two vanities. When you add the rest of the wood and stain, we’ll probably have around $300 in both. I’ll let you know the exact number once they’re done. But that’s still saving a ton over the ready-made options we found and they’re the exact look we wanted. I love vessel sinks and we’ve had them in the past, but I’ve always felt like they took up more counter space. Or maybe they just make it harder to use the rest of the countertop? This may totally be a personal thing, but since we don’t have much room for vanities, we’re using regular sinks to maximize the counter space. And they’re much cheaper, so for the price of one reasonably priced vessel sink, we’re getting both of ours. They’re $39 each and you can find them here. It kind of cracks me up that the smallest thing in the bathroom is the most expensive, but I know those faucets will make a big statement and saving elsewhere makes it more feasible to get that brass look I’ve always wanted. It kind of reminds me on wardrobe advice I’ve had before. Have classic pieces you can interchange and then make a statement with an amazing piece of jewelry. Well, bathroom, these faucets are you beautiful, brass, statement-making necklace! We’ll be building these soon and I’ll do a tutorial for how we put it together. *** Don’t forget to sign up for the Given Goods Fringe clutch giveaway! It ends tomorrow! You can enter here.
Whitney Shortt says January 19, 2016 at 8:22 pm Love faucets and can’t wait to see how the vanities turn out. Love that style! Reply
Lindsay says January 22, 2016 at 12:18 pm Thanks Whitney!! I’m excited about the style mix with them. Can’t wait for it to be finished!! Reply
Maria says January 19, 2016 at 10:33 pm Really pretty! One thought about the sink + faucet situation though…the faucets are widespread, the sink holes are 4-inch center set. will the faucets fit in the sink holes? Can’t wait to see how it comes together. Reply
Lindsay says January 22, 2016 at 12:18 pm Maria, I know, this worried us! But thankfully, the sink pieces can be set closer together and it fits π Reply
Amy Lynn says January 20, 2016 at 12:59 am I love that vanity style! But I agree, it would be hard to do unless you had storage somewhere else in the room π I think it’s great that you’ll be able to make them, I can’t wait to see how they turn out! Reply
Lindsay says January 22, 2016 at 12:17 pm Yes, these would be impossible without additional storage!!! Glad we found room because I love this design we’re going for π Thank you, Amy! Reply
Denise says January 20, 2016 at 8:28 am Love the idea for the vanities! Can’t wait to see it all come together! Reply
Lindsay says January 22, 2016 at 12:17 pm Thank you, Denise! I’m so excited to see it finished. We’re getting closer! Reply
Leslie says January 20, 2016 at 10:17 am I think your bathroom is going to be beautiful. Especially because it is what you like and can afford. Can’t wait to see the vanities. Reply
Lindsay says January 22, 2016 at 12:16 pm Thank you, Leslie!!! I’m so excited to see them too, haha π Reply
Krista says January 20, 2016 at 11:12 am I think it’s a good call to put your money into beautiful faucets. Those are the thing that most likely will be used most often in your new bathroom. Reply
Lindsay says January 22, 2016 at 12:16 pm That’s so true, Krista! And I just love the pop they’ll add! Reply
Charisma says January 20, 2016 at 2:12 pm I love your design plan I do understand about the disappointment over the patterned tiles. I love the patterned tiles and am considering some for our entry but I also am worried about them being too busy when I want a stream lined appearance that I also worry could be boring, AHHH the dilema. I too am frustrated with faucets always seeming to be leaky after maybe a year or two. The ones you’ve chosen are beautiful. Have you looked into square sinks at all? Reply
Lindsay says January 22, 2016 at 12:16 pm I know, Charisma, it seems like the options are boring are too much, haha! I have seen some that are “calmer” if that makes sense, but still have a subtle pattern? I’m considering using some like that in our kitchen! I love square sinks and did consider it, but they weren’t in the budget. All that we found were about three times what these little round ones are. I do love them though! We just decided to put that money elsewhere π Reply
Charisma says January 22, 2016 at 12:50 pm Thanks for the response I have found the same thing with square sinks I think the lowest I found was at lowes at $87 was wondering if maybe you’d found some deal that I could take advantage of. Oh well Reply
Libby says January 20, 2016 at 6:08 pm I love your plans for the bathroom! Tile, wood, paneling, faucets, color, everything! One suggestion you might consider for the vanity legs. You could anchor the vanity to the wall, and only use legs on the front. You don’t really see the legs against the wall anyway. Whatever you do, I know it will be beautiful! Thanks for sharing your journey with us! Reply
Lindsay says January 22, 2016 at 12:14 pm Libby, I loooove this idea!!! You would see it since they’re taller than the tub, which doesn’t really matter. We’re trying to decide how we feel about that, but we love this idea to potentially save money! thank you for sharing! Reply