After ditching the too big bathroom vanity, the next plan I had for our bohemian bathroom remodel was the removal of the floors. The 98 cents a square foot tile had to go. They just look awful. I wish builders and flippers would get away from using it. So bad so that I would’ve preferred starting out with old linoleum than this tile. Call me crazy but I actually like the look of that stuff.
Taking on a bathroom renovation budget is really scary. We’re not DIYers and we don’t have any skills. So the cost for us to remodel the bathroom was much higher than a lot of bathroom renovations on other blogs I’ve read. It felt like the first place in our home that really needed a makeover though. Costs ended up quite a bit more than we initially contracted out for because every layer that came down led to needing the next layer pulled down.
Because I was already nervous about the cost, I also wanted to make sure I was mild in my choices. I was originally planning for and in love with cement encaustic tile for the floor and a bright turquoise hexagon wall tile. But I worried that it would be too out there for a buyer if we needed to sell in the next 5 years. We certainly wouldn’t be able to afford retiling it just to sell the house.
So I went a hunt for a tile that was white, but still in a shape that echoed the same interesting pattern as the encaustic tile I adored. I ended up with the Jeffrey Court Marrakech tile. It’s a white tile. So I did the white tile with white walls (this may change soon…).
Some preliminary ideas for the floors were marble hexagon or slate or a light colored polished stone. But those fell off the table really soon in the planning stages.
For the floors, I wanted something that wouldn’t contrast too much with the wood flooring of the hallways. Well… wouldn’t you know, there’s this relatively new and cool tile that looks like wood. And it’s pretty cheap!
Initially I started looking for a tile that matched the warm pine color. But I hate the finish of these floors and dream of one day replacing them or settling for restaining them. In the end it wouldn’t match so I change my focus for a tile that is similar in color to what I plan for the hardwood’s future. I shared about this floor choosing process last fall here.
So they’ve been installed for about 8 months now and I really love them. They’re quite beautiful and they were inexpensive. That really helped balance the already over the top budget for the space. Have I mentioned how much I budgeted? Gulp. Now, mind you, this includes the relocating of the hot water heater and the new unit- $12,000. But it really did help to go high/low on the space. I digress… I’ll chat all about that another day.
So now we’ve got these sweet wood look tiles on the floor. But like most bohemians, I don’t like bare floors. I like rugs. Lots of them.
I tried using grey and black geometric rugs that I picked up last year on clearance at target. I didn’t like it. Then I tried the blue ones I had picked up last summer. But it was too much blue. And then when playing some musical rugs, I pulled this one out of the bedroom.
I like it a lot. I bought it for a great deal through ecarpetgallery on eBay (they also have a website you can shop from). I’ve now bought 3 rugs through them and they’re all really lovely. They don’t know I’m writing this, but if they ever did want to collaborate, I’d love to work with them.
Some people may worry about it getting wet. It’s small enough to where I can roll it and throw it in my washer. And it’s heavy enough to where I can vacuum it frequently. So I don’t think I’m going to have much of an issue with mold/mildew.
When looking all together, you can probably see why I may want to paint the walls. I feel like they need a dark color as heavy as the floor is in the space. But I love the copper stencil border and if I take on painting the walls, I’ll want to redo that too. Who knows if I’ll ever make the time to do all that though.
I don’t know how much of any of this is all that helpful. If you’re taking on a bathroom renovation yourself, I would definitely give the wood look tile a consideration. They’re much easier to DIY, too if you wanted to try and go that route. And weigh in on the whole painted wall dilemma I’m having in the comments below. I’d love to pick your brain!
