apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Is the ann sacks penny tile suitable for floors?

I have been considering a similar reno to my prewar bathroom. I was also going to put subway tile up the wall, about 60% of the height, and to the ceiling in the shower area. I find that the tile is much easier to clean in small spaces than the painted wall. To me the question is the demarcation line - where should it be and what do you do with it (in our case, it sort of frames in the medicine cabinet). Also, I hate vanities. Can you spare the minimal storage space for a pedestal sink or nice plumbing?

I'm doing exhaustive research to re-do my bathroom as well (I may send in photos for advice myself!), and Ikea (surprise surprise) has nice basic vanities and sinks with various door options -- shiny bright white, frosted glass with aluminum framing, etc. Sorry for the insanely long link, if it doesn't work check out their Vattern bathroom series.

http://www.ikea.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?topcategoryId=15553&cattype=sub&categoryId=15609&parentCats=15553*16264*16071&storeId=12&catalogId=10103&langId=-1&chapterId=15613

I think for all the money it looks like you are willing to invest in high-end fixtures, you should get a designer involved to draw up a design for a custom vanity. It should be something very blocky and clean-lined, almost seamless. And I like the idea of one or two organic (wood) notes in an otherwise hard-surface bath...

The two wood finishes I am liking these days in modern baths is a gray-brown walnut or a limed oak.

Whoops, didn't see rest of post re Ikea, sorry to be redundant...

We have the same vanity in a 4-door model and it is even more hideous in the larger size. We've looked at several options to replace it but may end up copying a built console we found in Better Homes & Gardens with a bowl sink on top.

Ikea also has a longer, mirror-fronted cabinet that could work.

Also, have you thought about repurposing kitchen cabinets? I like the idea of wall-mounted cabinets with some clearance off the floor beneath. And a THICK solid-surface countertop treatment.

patrick, for IKEA cabs anyway, re-purposing the kitchen cabs to use in the bathroom doesn't always work that well (according to people who tried on the ikeafans website).

Tile is much easier to clean in a small bathroom then painted walls.

I've been searching for narrow, plain and modern vanity. My conclusion is that it would be better to talk to a custom woodworker and just pay the money to get what you want. Lise, maybe you could look on your local craigslist for a furniture maker? Sometimes it doesn't cost much more to get what you really want by paying someone to build it custom.

regards,
trillium

Just a thought...I would avoid hooks for hanging towels. Although they look good, the towels do not have a chance to dry and will get musty very quickly.
Of course, if you wash your towels every other day or live in a very dry environment this may not be a problem.

trillium--
Why doesn't that idea work?

I have often wondered if re-purposing cabinets is a good idea. I mean arent they made for certain areas, like the bathroom oneswith lots of water and kitchen with heat, vapours n grime etc.

And if not then what is the point of having kitchen cabinets or Bathroom cabinets - just have one section called cabinets!

sorry i meant to withstand, presence of extra moisture or heat.

We're in the middle of a bathroom remodel, and our contractor explained that repurposing any sort of cabinet that's not made specifically for the high-moisture, heat-intense atmosphere of a bathroom is asking for trouble, esp. since the wood will usually warp later.

Because our bathroom is not huge (8" long by 5" wide), we opted to just get a 24" wide vanity custom-made. Total cost: $450. Not bad, considering we'll use it every day for years and we're getting exactly what we want.

So count me in as another one advocating a custom job.

If the carcass of all cabinets is made of MDF, typically, what makes one impervious to steam and another not?

And, um, aren't kitchen cabinets designed to house things like, oh I don't know, kitchen sinks?!?

I'm not buying this argument yet. Sounds like installers/contractors just want to stick to their usual sources.

Your bathroom looks almost exactly like mine before my redo this summer. My thoughts -- I went with a palin white vanity, purchased through my contractor, and then got really nice handles for it from Simon's Hardware. Looks simple and good. Also--look into a one piece toilet. They are more expensive but the loook is much less cluttered and they somehow look smaller. Because they are lower, I was able to extend my vanity countertop over the toilet for more space, and you could still access the tank.

I did not tile walls because I thought it would be too much tile in such a small bathroom. Painted the walls with a semigloss and they are very easy to wash. It's also a nice way to add color. I would also go for towel bar over hooks--the longest towelbar you can find. Towels take forever to dry on hooks. I got a small porcelain undermount sink with a custommade silestone counter. Looks very nice. Also went for single lever faucet to save space, in a bathroom that small every bit helps.

Good luck!

no, from what I remember, it's not a matter of whether or not the cabs can handle heat and moisture, but more if you want to narrow the depth of the base cabs you run into trouble from a structural standpoint. They're frameless and hang from a railing you mount on a wall, so I think that was the issue. If you wanted to use them as they come, then I don't think it's a problem at all. The extra height might be nice, too.

Another alternative is to just use the IKEA door faces and get a custom mdf box built. Here's a link discussing some of these options at live modern.

http://livemodern.com/forums/dwell/dwelllabs/646186141282?b_start:int=20#996845046101

oh, and while I'm at it, I've heard you can get pretty good deals on stone and quartz tops for vanities (that come with undermounted sinks already attached) at ecounters.com. The downside is that the holes for plumbing hardware are already predrilled.

regards,
trillium

Penny tile is great for floors. Just be sure to use a dark grey grout or it will look dirty all the time (due to the high grout:tile ratio.) I've priced it all over NYC, and Bella Tile and Nemo Tile (both profiled on these pages, I believe) have it for much less than Ann Sacks.

Oy, I have the same bathroom, only uglier. The icky blue tiles go all around the bath into the tub enclosure and I have major grout problems.

Congratulations on doing the reno.

Thanks everybody for your great ideas. We will let you know how it goes!

Patrick (the other one), I think the difference between a cabinet that holds a kitchen sink and one that holds a bathroom sink comes down to this: which one is more likely to be subjected to repeated, daily exposure to steam?

I know people are often extreme dish-washers, but the activity doesn't seem analogous to the steam your bathroom vanity gets poached in during the shower every day. Also, most kitchens are usually a little larger, so there's less chance the cabinetry will be coated in steamy condensation in a closed room.

I double-checked the contractor's reasoning with my mom (also a contractor, 30000 miles away) and my stepdad (ditto), and they didn't laugh it out of the conversation. I'm sure there's some element of self-interest on my contractor's part, but I'm not about to discount the possibility that bathroom conditions are more hostile in some ways than kitchen conditions.

Maxwell -- How come you recommend only using subway tile in the shower area itself? Is it mostly so that they can bring more color to the rest of the space to open it up, or do you think the presence of heavy tile on the walls itself makes the bathroom space seem more confined?

abc