No More Pink Toilets!

No More Pink Toilets!

This powder bath had a color problem. Pink fixtures! Nothing dates a bathroom faster than colored plumbing fixtures. I almost always do white or bisquit, unless it is a special sink that makes a statement. Black toilets are particularly bad for me. Okay, I'm gagging right now.

In this powder room remodel, the color had to go and a neutral, classic style was put in it's place. The homeowner wanted the look of a beautiful, boutique hotel. We had a very tall, narrow space at the vanity and I chose to accent that by locating two sconces beside a slender mirror. The walls were painted a dark neutral and then the vanity, countertop, and wall behind the mirror were a contrasting light neutral. This served to highlight the tall, narrow, dramatic space. I pushed for the expense of having the marble tile all the way up the back of that wall, I felt it just gave a sense of quality we needed in there. Extending the countertop material up the wall again just emphasized the tall, narrow space and added a sense of drama and elegance.

Another Powder Room Remodel

Another Powder Room Remodel

Here is another powder room remodel (before photo is at the bottom!) where existing cabinets were reused but all other finishes and fixtures were changed. The homeowner desired a more stylish and upgraded look and wanted to paint the walls her favorite color, purple. The main problem was the tall cabinet that you walked right in to when you entered the room. The homeowner wanted to keep the storage, but you don't often have tall storage like that in a powder bath, much less having it the first thing you see.

I minimized the tall cabinet by painting it the color of the walls and highlighting the vanity area with a little glitz on the mirror, lighting, and vessel sink. Your focus goes straight to the bowl and mirror and you totally miss the tall cabinet. Having all the other elements in the room a warm neutral made the purple color appear dramatic and purposeful. The room is all about the glitz at the vanity, while the wall color provides a rich backdrop.

Powder Rooms

Powder Rooms

I do lots of powder room remodels. It’s a smaller project and easy to include with a kitchen or master bath remodel. If you are going to have all those trades in your house, you might as well get this small room done while they’re around! I’ve only done one powder room as a separate project and it takes just as long to do as any other project because you go through the same process and same consecutive steps in construction. You might as well select the plumbing fixtures for the powder room while you are doing the master bath or the kitchen faucet.

In the next few weeks, I’ll be showing a few powder room remodels. Most are pretty simple. The basic rule for designing a powder room is to keep the focus on one element in the space. These are small rooms and too much going on will look busy and be unsettling. I like to have some wow factor in there, after all you have a captive audience in the powder room, you might as well make an impression.

The powder room before and after above is a dramatic change. This was an older house, with dated wallpaper and fixtures. The homeowner liked dark, rich colors and traditional style, kind of a Ralph Lauren look. We kept the base cabinet, painted, added a new remnant granite countertop with a vessel sink, changed out the wall sconces and mirror and got a brand new powder room! I think the wow here is the mirror and the vessel sink and sconces play a supporting role.