Hello AT,
My S.O. and I are midway through renovating our tiny, windowless bathroom, which had white 4 x 4 tile on the walls (with a lot of damage) and stained, cracked hex tiles on the floor. We've replaced it with white subway tile and a taupe-y ceramic tile for the floors. There will be a dark wood, wall-hung cabinet vanity with a thick, square white sink...
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We've also gotten the dark "wood" mirrored cabinet from West Elm. The fixtures are Kohler Purist in brushed nickel, and the light fixture is also brushed nickel. The overall look we're aiming for is clean-lined, modern, spa-like calm. I plan to frame some large photos for the one blank wall in the room.
So now we come to what should be fun part, but I'm stumped on three questions:
1) What color grout should we use for the wall tiles? I'm worried that with the amount of dust/soot that finds its way into our NYC apartment, white will show too much dirt.
2) What color to paint the walls? The S.O. has already ruled out anything in the lavender or taupe-brown family. He is leaning towards green. I prefer blue, possibly a slate blue. I could be persuaded to go with green but would prefer to stay away from the admittedly lovely sage green just because it seems a little too Restoration Hardware-y. At this point, I've been thinking about this for weeks and am losing my mind, so specific suggestions are welcome.
3) Soft furnishings. I am a purist when it comes to towels and insist on white. I'm intrigued by the idea of a simple black-and-white shower curtain--will that work with the dark wood and green or blue walls? If so, I'm looking for a knockoff of the Matouk "Newport" curtain with a black border but haven't had any luck finding one.
Sorry for the long e-mail, but as I said, I've spent way too much time agonizing over this and will appreciate the help.
Thanks!
-Anita
Dear Anita,
This is a lot, but we'll start the ball rolling:
1. With grout you want to see it next to your tiles. Keep it light but close to the shade of your tiles so that it doesn't stick out to much.
2. We like green too, but your greens seem really dark. If your bathroom has a lot of light we'd choose the fourth from the left, but if it is dark, we'd go for the second from the left, which has a nice tone to it.
3. We like white software in the bathroom as well, but for towels we go with soft colors. We're not big black and white fans and think that this goes best with bright white walls anyway, which you are not doing. We'd stay with the white shower curtain and bust out with your towels.
Anyone else???
I vote for the second color in from the left (What is it called, anyway?)
I think it will yield the results that you're looking for - modern, clean, fresh.
Holly
1) What about sealing the white grout? There are many different products available that promise increased protection against mildew and staining over untreated grout.
2) Have you thought about sea glass? Not quite blue, not quite green and so very modern. Something like Seas's Edge, Sea of Gemini or Seafoam Pearl at www.behr.com .
3) I would stick with an all-white shower curtain since you have so many other colors going on. One of those heavy matelasse fabric styles would have a very plush spa feel.
Can your husband be persuaded to rethink his aversion to taupe walls? With a taupe floor, a lighter shade of taupe is exactly what the walls need to be soothing-soothing-soothing. Once you have a block of taupe on the floor and a swath of green on the walls, something has to tie them together, or they'll just sit there and sulk. Plants would do it--but you don't have a window, so it'd have to be the shower curtain and towels... but you want white...
I agree with Holly that the second green from the left is most spa-like, as well as least likely to sulk *and* least likely to require a flood of lighting to compensate. Putting on make-up in a dark green bathroom with no natural light could be... interesting.
There's a reason that RH sage is so popular -- most people look good next to it. That's difficult to achieve with a green.
that looks my bathroom... you wouldn't happen to be in the clinton hill co-ops? and are you using a contractor or doing it yourself?
If you want the spa feel in a windowless bathroom, you have to be careful not to go too dark. Though blue is my favourite colour, I don't think the slate blue would have the effect you're going for. I would second maxwell's suggestion of the 2nd or 4th green from the left. I would also go with everything else white (towels, shower curtain, etc) to accentuate that spa simplicity/tranquility feel. If you have space on the toilet tank or sink surround, a potted white orchid would really play up the fresh, spa atmosphere.
Oh, forgot to mention... consider grey grout. My bathroom has white tiles with some black edging tiles and pale grey grout. It is a very unobtrusive neutral I don't usually notice it. Our floor has small black and white tiles again with grey grout and it does a great job of always appearing clean.
geralyn - you're in the clinton hill co-ops? so am i!
my 2 cents: think of how color will reflect onto flesh. i'm just sayin, even the nice greens you've selected, reflected onto naked skin = the color of a dead person.
try it naked.
A nice lighter green with some blue in it: Benjamin Moore's Antique Jade.
I've only discovered this site last month, but already it's a treasure trove!
I've just bought an apartment with a very dark and small bathroom (2 actually, 1 toilet room and 1 with a bath) and I've been thinking about tearing out the tiles and re-doing it. Of course I've never done such a thing before, so I'd like to ask if there's anything really, really hard about tiling a wall. I presume that if I just clean it well, chip-out all the old grout (it's only 10 years old so the stuff's brittle), use those cross-shaped spacer and try to keep everything at right angles, it should be a doddle, right?
Have you folks tried retiling yet? Discovered any hidden pitfalls?
Also, I've discovered a very soft green - a jasmin-tea green - from Flexa - that I used at a half-density that looks very fresh and modern. Just enough yellow in there to lift it...you might want to consider that.
There are some tile professionals over on That Home Site who post frequently in the bathroom forum. They really advocate for grey (or dark) grout. I think it looks quite nice, because it shows off the details of the tiling job. One of them has also been involved in starting an info page for people whose health has been comprimised by using a certain grout sealer.
regards,
trillium
Hi Jim.
Here's something that may be a pitfall if your apartment is old enough (around the 1940s or earlier). Our tiles are apparently set in cement, so getting them out will be quite the task. If your tiles are set in a normal way, I'd imagine it will still be a tough job, but will be do-able.
Good luck!
Wow, thanks for all the comments, everyone. I think I'll be heading back to the paint store this weekend. We've run into a cabinet problem that's slowing our job down a bit, but I'll be sure to share photos once the bathroom's finished.
I should have mentioned that if I do go in the green/sea-green direction (which looks like we're headed), bath mat and some hand towels would be in the same color family to tie it together. In the clear light of day, I see that I should find the towels first and then match the paint to that, I guess. All other towels would be white. And I'm now in the white shower curtain camp thanks to your feedback.
Some answers to questions:
-Holly: The second from the left is a Benjamin Moore; I'll check at home tonight for the name of the color.
-Jessica / trillium: of course, sealing! I think the sad state of the grout pre-reno has me fearful of white, but I will look into sealing and the possible health hazards of some sealants. Thanks for the lead.
--wende: I think the taupe aversion is partly my fault for an ill-considered use of taupe in another room. But he's willing to put it back on the table.
--geralyn: I'm not in the clinton hill co-ops, but I bet that the tiny, windowless, white-tiled bathroom is pretty standard to NYC co-ops. We're using a contractor, who is doing a fine albeit slow job.
Thanks again, everyone, for your generous advice. And Maxwell, thanks so much for creating this site. It's been a wealth of inspiration and encouragement. I bought the book last week and spent yesterday vacumming and mopping the whole apartment, after having dropped off a bag of clothes to Housing Works and sent a piece of furniture to the basement. I can't wait to tackle the rest of it.
You should feel clean in a bathroom, so whatever does the trick... Usually, light shades of colors are best, I think.
The second green from the left was Benjamin Moore Misted Green.
Thanks again.
Thanks Fiona,
I've heard from others that alot of modern tiles use a grout that is strong yet reasonably brittle, so it breaks apart with a scraper easily. That's what I'm hoping for at least!