Inspiration Board: Master Bath

Woohoo!  I've finished the master bathroom inspiration board.  It turned out to be much more traditional than I was thinking it would, but I'm feeling it.  Bathrooms are the second-biggest expense per room (kitchens are #1) when it comes to remodeling a house, so I wanted to make sure that I kept it a neutral palette and didn't veer too far into any one trend, which is how I ended up with a traditional design.

It will always look good and will never go out of style.  This design is the Little Black Dress of bathrooms.

The sink base and the storage drawers are from Pottery Barn, as well as the shower curtain, the flowers, the light fixture and the faucet.  I'm really in love with that gooseneck faucet.

I relied heavily on PB for this one, and it didn't start out that way.  I was originally thinking that I'd use the Hemnes sink base from Ikea, since the bath adjoins our bedroom and it would just be easy to keep everything coordinated.  But testing it out at the store, it just didn't seem like it would hold up very well over time, and I'm okay with that for dressers, but a sink base is a different story.  So the PB sink is like ten times the price, but it comes with a honed Carrara marble top and those adorable little bun feet.

Speaking of marble, I was originally thinking I wanted vintage-looking hexagon tile flooring like this.

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But I decided that a little luxury goes a long way.  And there isn't much square footage in a bathroom anyway, so you might as well splurge on what you really want.

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These beautiful babies are 10" x 14", so I won't need to buy very many to cover the floor in the bathrooms.  My plan is to do white subway tile from the floor to 4' up the walls and for the tub / shower surround.  I love the look of white-white-white in a bathroom - probably because the color has an inherent association with cleanliness.

For some fun, I can change up the shower curtain and accessories.  It's also an inexpensive way to add some color here and there.  My only rule about bathroom accessories is that I won't ever do colored towels.  I'm a chlorine bleach lovin' girl, and I will only ever have white linens in my house.  That goes for sheets as well.

The mirror is from Home Decorators Collection.  I want a single large mirror with a big, chunky frame, and the ones from PB just weren't cutting it for me.  I also knew I didn't want a medicine cabinet / mirror, which is another reason the Pottery Barn sink base was more appealing - it has a lot of storage for all of the things I wouldn't be putting in a medicine cabinet.

Unfortunately for me (or fortunately for the average buyer), the bathrooms in the houses we've been checking out aren't in dire need of remodeling.  Yes, they're builder-basic medium oak, boring and utilitarian, but they're not an area of immediate concern.  So the bathroom remodels are going to be lower down on the priority list.

Tomorrow is Monday, and I'm really hoping we get good news about the latest house find.  I really want to be able to post about it with the confidence that it will actually be ours!