My “Peacock Bathroom” Makeover Brings Charm Back to My 129-Year-Old Home
For the first half-year I lived in my house, this dark, claustrophobic bathroom was my only “functioning” bathroom. The shower leaked across the floor, the toilet flushed only when it wanted to, and the sink had given up on draining. Rust streaked across the walls, and the tile was cracked, missing, and too dingy to revive.
But those six (character-building) months gave me time to come up with a plan to make the most of a classic 5-foot-by-8-foot row home bathroom layout. Without changing the basic floor plan, the bathroom went from tired and dirty to completely updated in a style that feels more appropriate for an 1895 Victorian home.
A smaller freestanding tub adds more visual space.
The inset tub had a wall that was presumably added to frame the tub in visually. And it may have done that, but it also 100% succeeded in closing the bathroom in on itself. The space felt cramped and claustrophobic, and I literally had to sidestep and shimmy to get to the toilet nook.
The first and most critical change was to remove the mid-room wall — as soon as we determined that it was non-loadbearing, and the plumbing could be swapped over to the other wall. Taking down the wall on the end completely opened up the space. Now, it easily feels twice as big.
But finding a tub that fit this small space was the biggest challenge in the entire renovation. This freestanding soaking tub from Vintage Tub & Bath is just 47” long, but because of its soaking tub styling, it still feels luxurious. (I’ll note that neither my husband nor I are tall people, and this may not work for others!)
And the best part? Since we kept the toilet, sink, and tub within the existing blueprint, the plumbing stayed exactly the same.
A ceiling-mounted shower curtain rod makes the tub more versatile.
The other two bathrooms in the house both have showers, so this bathroom doesn’t necessarily need a shower — but if I was putting in the work to make this bathroom exactly how I wanted it, I wanted the versatility. Plus, when the bathtub was installed on its own, it actually felt like too much space in the bathroom. (Wild, right?!).
A ceiling mounted-shower curtain rod with the showerhead attached allows the freestanding tub to function as a shower, but it still looks streamlined and simple when you’re looking at the bathroom.
Vintage-inspired black and white tile feels more authentic to the house.
Peeling back the literal layers revealed that this bathroom had been renovated at some point in the last century, presumably mid-century when pink tile was the look du jour. I’ve seen fabulous before and afters where the pastel tile has been maintained, but that’s not my style, and ours had been painted over with crusty ivory paint.
Instead, I picked bathroom tile that felt closer to historically accurate: black and white basketweave tile on the floor, black baseboard tile, white subway tile on the walls, and a careful selection of black pencil molding and white chair rail feel like something out of a pristinely preserved pre-war apartment.
A wall-mounted sink keeps a light, minimal look.
The idea behind the existing sink wasn’t bad. A wall-mounted sink is efficient in a small bathroom. But the old sink wasn’t functional on any level. It didn’t work, which is, of course, an issue, but it was also mounted so low that you practically had to sit on the ground to use it.
I found a small wall mount sink from Signature Hardware that fit the narrow floor plan of the bathroom without venturing into tiny sink territory. It’s sleek and minimal, but still big enough to easily wash my face.
Removing the built-in shelving adds inches.
I’m not sure what the thought process was behind the random assortment of built-in shelves that filled the entire wall. Each was painted a different color, which was probably someone’s art project, but it’s not for me — plus the shelves weren’t deep enough to store anything significant, and the storage was completely open while I prefer closed-door bathroom storage.
We took out the shelving and instead installed a medicine cabinet with storage and a wall-mounted shelf with just enough room for extra towels, toilet paper, and a few pretty toiletries.
Throughout the room, I went with classic chrome finishes. It’s on everything from the shower curtain rod to the stand-up toilet paper holder (a workaround when we couldn’t install a holder into the brick exterior wall on the other side!).
Navy wallpaper breaks a conventional design rule.
I looked at a dozen different wallpaper options, most incorporating black in some way, whether it was a black background citrus print or a quirky menagerie motif. But the winner was one I kept coming back to again and again, despite breaking the conventional ‘don’t mix navy and black’ rule.
This peacock wallpaper from Rifle Paper adds a dark contrast to the white tile that climbs halfway up the wall and, thanks to a south-facing window, the room doesn’t get too dark despite the small square footage.
The door color just happened to coordinate.
You may be wondering if we chose the door color to draw out the blue-green details within the wallpaper, but that was a convenient coincidence. This was the color I chose for the doors throughout the house, and it perfectly coordinated with the wallpaper — something I noticed as soon as the wallpaper installer left, and I shut the door to surround myself in this vintage-inspired space. It was just meant to be!