A Yellowing Bathroom Gets a Luxe Redo That Leaves No Detail Untouched
A functional, well-designed bathroom just might be the most important room in a home. After all, everyone in a home uses it — especially if it’s in a high-traffic part of a house or apartment.
Homeowner Kiley Cutler wanted to make her main-level bathroom look and feel like a put-together space for her husband, two kids, and guests, so she opted to give the yellow-toned space a much-needed makeover.
“Before, there were yellow cabinets, vintage yellow tile and wallpaper, a shower, and, for some reason, two doors into the tiny bathroom,” she says. “It’s our most-used bathroom and the one anyone who comes over uses, so I really wanted it to feel special and nice — a little beautiful space someone could step inside and feel like they can have a little moment to themselves.”
Here’s how she created that feeling, with a little bit of professional help and with a little bit of DIY.
A demo process allowed for some smart layout fixes.
To kick off the renovation, Kiley and her husband, Pete, took the existing bathroom down to the studs. Because they have other showers in the home that get more frequent use, they removed the shower from this main-level bath to allow for more space, and turned it instead into a powder room.
Kiley and Pete switched the placement of the sink and toilet so the toilet was farther away from the door. They also eliminated one of the two doors — something that never made much sense in the original space — and finally they removed the dated, chipped, stained floor tiles.
Goodbye, dated ‘70s tiles. Hello, black and white.
The old gray-blue flooring was replaced with sleek black and white tiles, which Kiley calls an investment. They were pricey, but she’s glad that she and Pete made the splurge.
“It’s a small space, and I knew I wouldn’t be as excited about any other kind of floor look,” she says. “I know if I ever want to change up the bathroom again we can easily paint and wallpaper, but those floors are staying here forever — or as long as I am here.”
Beadboard and butterfly wallpaper add more vintage charm.
The floors were professionally installed, as was the beadboard that replaced the yellowing square tiles on the walls. The new beadboard is painted a blush-meets-plum color, Sherwin-Williams’ Mulberry Silk. Kiley likes the paint color so much she says she might paint the ceiling the same shade in the future.
After painting, finding the perfect wallpaper was a difficult feat. Kylie and Pete ended up choosing an “unexpected” design: a butterfly-printed pattern from The Home Depot. “Once I saw it, I couldn’t find anything I loved as much as this one,” Kiley shares.
Thrifted finds — plus a toilet upgrade — complete the bathroom.
Kiley added finishing touches, like a vintage-style sconce from Lighting New York, an eye-catching console sink from Renovators Supply Manufacturing, and a thrifted mirror, artwork, lamp, and tissue box.
Kiley didn’t stop there, though. “When I thought I was pretty much done with the bathroom, something still felt ‘off,’ and I couldn’t figure out what,” she says. “I realized that the white toilet stuck out as looking so stark and new and bright, when the rest of the room had a more colorful, moodier, vintage feel. I ended up getting a wood toilet seat, and I feel like it just added the perfect final touch on pulling the whole thing together.”
The attention to detail is something Kiley loves about the after. “It just feels special and like it was given as much attention as any other often-used room in our home would get!” she says. “I love going into this bathroom now.”
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