Mood Board: Bathroom Update Design

Today I want to post one of our proposals that is a little less elaborate than the one I showed earlier this week. It’s a simple mood board and strategy recommendations for a bathroom update design on a moderate budget. I think this one is especially helpful for readers since some of its concepts would be easy to apply in your own home.

If you haven’t already read about the types of proposals we offer, you can check them out here.

The main challenge here was to improve the space on a conservative budget, and keep choices neutral enough that they wouldn’t harm a potential home sale. Of course complete bathroom renovations are costly by their nature. But in this case they were anticipating selling the home in the next few years, so only wanted to spend the minimum amount necessary. They wanted to enjoy the room in the meantime, but not worry about it having detracting features when put on the market. Often when staging rooms, they are left bland and uninspiring – like they’ve had all the life sucked out them. That’s what we were trying to avoid.

Before

Alright, so here’s how the room started out:

Entry and First Vanity

Second Vanity and Shower Enclosure

Corner Tub and Second Vanity

As you walk into this room, the first things you notice are the spa tub and the nice filtered light coming in from the window above it. So, my general plan for the room was to enhance that light and airy feeling. All of the main elements: the tub, toilet, sinks, vanities, etc. would be of classic styling and either black or white finishes. This decision alone would open a wide variety of options for purchasing locally in-stock materials, and so would drop the cost of the project compared to buying harder-to-find colors and finishes. We would also keep all the elements in their original positions so as to avoid extra plumbing work in moving the connections.

Mood Board for Bathroom Update Design

1. Glossy white subway tile for the walls of the shower enclosure
2. Bathtub in a white painted wood enclosure – could be beadboard or board and batten style framing detail (like the one in this image), whichever you prefer
3. Apply white painted beadboard to the shower enclosure and empty wall space at approximately chair rail height.
4. This is the wall color for the space above the beadboard. The color should be a very light blue-green with grey undertones. Benjamin Moore, 716 Fantasy Blue is a good example of this. This blue will add a nice, subtle contrast to all the white.  
5. Hang black framed mirrors, and choose black vanities with white, or light grey countertops.
6. If the black vanities are harder to find or more expensive, white is a perfectly fine substitute – with white or light grey countertops.
7. Fixtures should be chrome finish and if they have retro-styled details, even better.
8. Decorative accessories will serve to add a layer of texture and soften to the room. Natural materials like jute, rough wood, and linen would work well. Antique styled glass could also tie in some of the retro details. In general, stay with mid to light tones, you could even incorporate some accent colors here (see #10 for more on accent color choices).This is also a great way to bring your personality into the room. So choose whatever you like, you’ve got some flexibility here. 
9. I suggest a small-scale black and white pattern for the floor tiles, like shown in several examples here. Tiles could be square or hexagonal. However the small tile size and pattern will add extra labor. So if the patterned tile does not fit within budget, a solid white or solid slate grey tile would work well. Although the slate grey is very dark and almost black, avoid true black (neither glossy nor matte), it would be too stark and harsh for this room.
10. On the empty wall in the bathtub corner, I suggest hanging a grouping of 4 to 5 white frames with white mats. Arrange the frames to your liking, but the frame composition should fill most of the empty wall space. You have some flexibility on the art choices for the wall. 
    • I recommend finding a collection of prints that are close the color family shown here – soft mix of watery colors, with some more vibrant colors here and there.  
    • This color palette would help enhance the light and airy feel. Generally choose light to mid tones colors, avoiding dark and primary colors. Blues, yellows, greens, greys and pinks work especially well, avoid reds.
    • These choices will add some accent colors and help liven up the color palette for the room. I think the grouping would be especially nice with art that has a dreamy, watery theme. Of course art is very partial, so what is best here is what inspires you or makes you smile.
11. These are alternatives for the art wall that may be easier to find than what I outline in #10. 
    • You could go with a natural, beige or sepia toned prints. The example I have here is a vintage print, but any other type of artwork, would work as long as it is in the beige or honey color family. 
    • Another alternative would be to have black and white photographs or drawings. This would be perfectly fine (and the easiest to source) but with this option most of the room will be black and white, if you go with this, I would suggest making it a point to bring in some accent colors in your other accessories.

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