First of all this is a gorgeous site -- there are so many beautiful palettes and patterns !

So here is my problem ... we have torn up our bathroom and are in the midst of redoing it but I realize now that I didn't really think the whole thing through before we started.

So ... try to picture this. The bathroom is a rectangle with the door in the middle of one of the long sides. Immediately opposite is a small window. On the left wall is the vanity & sink, on the right wall is the shower (bathtub-size). The vanity top (including sink) and the entire shower surround are made from a material called Swanstone, the color is called Tahiti Grey and has a speckled granite look -- medium gray overall with both nearly black and nearly white speckles. The vanity itself and the is made from maple with a natural finish.

So those are the colors that are fixed in stone so far. Now I need to choose a tile for the floor -- am leaning towards a fairly dark grey tile that has some dark brown highlights that seems to span the space between the black/grey granite and the maple. And then what about the walls ? and what about the toilet !? If the toilet is white will it leap out as being the only bright white thing in the room ?

I just created my first palette to show you what the colors look like so far -- it is called "stone maple" and shows the range of greys in the Swanstone, and some of the range of browns in the maple. I'll try to attach it here : stone maple palette

I would love to see any suggestions you wonderfully creative people have on other colors to add to this mix. (And is there a way to make a palette that has more colors ???)

thank you so much !!!

sherey65

You may not find one at a box store but you should be able to find a toilet in one of those slate like colors. And you can always yank it out and have it epoxied in whatever color you want if it is worth saving. You could go wild and do it with color changing paint.

I think the good news is you have some really nice neutral colors. So in a way, the world is your oyster.

My first reaction was to stick with that scheme and focus on redoing the lighting in their to be dramatic. Some little wire cable track lights and pendants could be fun and easier than ripping the ceiling apart to put in well lights. Some of the newer LED fixtures are cool and might be perfect for a bathroom. That is the direction things are going so definitely look into it. Firefly lighting is fun too. I do not know this company but wanted to give you an idea. Your local lighting store will have some things to look at. You might want to stick with low voltage too. Will save you on energy and if you happened to hit it you would not fry on the spot. Although the circuit should be protected anyhow?

Wire Cable Track Lights

I would explore putting down some slate or slate like tile in a medium or even a darker gray to match the surround or at least play off of it. I have seen some beautiful floors recently with glass tiles running through ceramic almost in stream like patterns. You could introduce some of the maple hue or even something contrasting like a blue in the glass tiles. Color changing tiles could be fun against a dark field? Even a solid color glass tile floor could be nice.

Color Changing Tiles

As long as you seal it bamboo makes an excellent bathroom floor because it flexes with different moisture content. It is harder than most domestic hardwoods and you can get it in just about any color from bleached white to a dark ebony. I've worked with a number of interior designers and architects and on bamboo floorings and nudged them toward this company. The prices are a just a very bit higher than quality hardwood but you will probably never have to touch the floor unless you scratch or gouge it somehow. Stay away from the cheap box store and liquidator stuff.

Bamboo Flooring - Quality Stuff

There are some beautiful recycled tropical woods that would be dramatic in there too. For that matter you could put in a maple floor too!

Again going with first reaction, if you did work on the lighting, I would be tempted to go fairly or even really dark with the walls and trim the window out in the same color but with semi-gloss. Put a dark blind in their. You could have some fun doing sheen stripes or something that would really pop with nice lighting.

With the neutrals, you can splash more or less whatever color accents you want in their and you can be as bright and saturated as much as you want. With flowers, towels, curtain for the window, soaps, some framed art, candles it could be very dramatic and inviting. Point a few of the firefly lights at the towels and the place will pop. I don't know, some elegant sconces?

I will work on something for you later.

Here is an idea for floor and wall colors



I also like the idea of natural slate. You can find a nice indian green slate with similar color to this greenish grey.

or

Here's my take:

Plus your almost black & almost white speckles in Swanstone - which should go w/just about anything.

w/o photos...
i would take the same medium grey #333 w/this maroon color - maybe like a marble type or create a design consisting mainly on these two color tiles. the maroon should go beautifully w/your maple colors & the grey would tie it all together w/your Swanstone.

then maybe have a fine line of this forest green-blue (I know) colored tiles in the middle, 2/3 way up to the top or at the very top as a border between the tile & a painted wall.

then the wall could be painted the lighter color (Sherey's Turquoise) or this shade but even lighter to make the space feel more open.

good luck.... let us know how it goes... before/after pix would be nice if you could ever get some. =)

I forgot the obvious.

How big is this bathroom?

Having recently (OK 2 years ago) redone my bathroom, I know some of your pain. I chose a tile (wall and floor) and used that to determine my wall color. What I had to start: natural maple cabinets, white tub and loo, sandstone-ish sink/vanity top in tanish tones. I chose a tile that was mostly (you guessed it) tans with random patterns of squiggles of deep green and egglpant purple and a uniform diamond pattern on part of the some tiles that made a kind of line along the wall at about 3/4 up the wall. Then I chose an eggplant purple slightly faded color to paint the walls. It really pops and I can change it easily to a green or brown to make it new (without new tile). I can go anywhere with the rugs/curtains/towels, as long as I stay away from blue - it won't work with my tiles.

So, here are some colors you might want to have in your floor or wall tiles, in small amounts, that you can then pull for 'pop' with the paint or accessories.


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here's a pattern with it (I hope, I'm still learning this picture stuff)

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I also found it helpful to find something, a picture or a piece of material with the colors I liked on it and use that to color match as you go and pick things out.

Hope this helps!

Just Perfect Color wrote:

I forgot the obvious.

How big is this bathroom?

It's fairly small (at least by US master-bathroom standards) -- approx 1.75m (5'8") by 2.75m (9').

The floor tile I like looks almost like slate and has a wonderfully rough texture to it. The pictures aren't great but you can see it at Pental/Extrema -- the "Rafting" color all the way on the right. I like a rectangular tile more than a square one but am a bit worried by the size of these -- they are 12" x 24" (30 x 60cm) -- given that the visible floor area will use only about 15 of them total !

I *love* the "Black Berry" and "I Know" colors, KS !

I want to stay fairly neutral with the "permanent" colors (vanity, tile, shower) but then add some "pop" with the wall color (maybe ceiling ?) and towels etc. I'm leaning towards using the bullnose piece that comes with the floor tiles as the baseboard trim although elsewhere in the house I would generally lean towards a creamy white on fairly tall baseboards to accent/frame the wall color.

Thank you all already for your helpful suggestions !

sherey65 wrote:

Just Perfect Color wrote:

I forgot the obvious.

How big is this bathroom?

It's fairly small (at least by US master-bathroom standards) -- approx 1.75m (5'8") by 2.75m (9').

The floor tile I like looks almost like slate and has a wonderfully rough texture to it. The pictures aren't great but you can see it at Pental/Extrema -- the "Rafting" color all the way on the right. I like a rectangular tile more than a square one but am a bit worried by the size of these -- they are 12" x 24" (30 x 60cm) -- given that the visible floor area will use only about 15 of them total !

I *love* the "Black Berry" and "I Know" colors, KS !

I want to stay fairly neutral with the "permanent" colors (vanity, tile, shower) but then add some "pop" with the wall color (maybe ceiling ?) and towels etc. I'm leaning towards using the bullnose piece that comes with the floor tiles as the baseboard trim although elsewhere in the house I would generally lean towards a creamy white on fairly tall baseboards to accent/frame the wall color.

Thank you all already for your helpful suggestions !

So you need to pull some tricks. In a small room like yours you do not want to set tile right angle to the room.

I like your idea of rectangular tiles but map them out at an angle. Folks will happily take a dump in your unique space and wonder about what was different.

Flooring at angles suggests their must be something beyond. Bigger. Better. It tricks us out of box thinking.

I also used the bull nose tiles as the baseboard in the bathroom. It has turned out much easier for cleaning and pulls the look together.

Mine was small also and I was told to definitely put my big floor tiles 18" squares at an angle, it makes the room feel bigger. I also put the tiles in the showere/bath area allthe way to the ceiling, it made the ceiling look higher.

Think a lot about lighting in the bathroom and how you use it: bright areas, dimmer areas, night/low light option.

I wanted radiant floor heating, but I lost that one to budjet issues, but I went with a kickboard heater under the vanity instead of a radiator heater. I have 2 boys, enough said about that.

Oh yeah, side note, make sure when the toilet is placed that there is enough room to fit a mop around the base. Easy bathroom clean up was a must for me.

and then there is the grout color choices ...

red eye wrote:

I also used the bull nose tiles as the baseboard in the bathroom. It has turned out much easier for cleaning and pulls the look together.

Mine was small also and I was told to definitely put my big floor tiles 18" squares at an angle, it makes the room feel bigger. I also put the tiles in the showere/bath area allthe way to the ceiling, it made the ceiling look higher.

Think a lot about lighting in the bathroom and how you use it: bright areas, dimmer areas, night/low light option.

I wanted radiant floor heating, but I lost that one to budjet issues, but I went with a kickboard heater under the vanity instead of a radiator heater. I have 2 boys, enough said about that.

Oh yeah, side note, make sure when the toilet is placed that there is enough room to fit a mop around the base. Easy bathroom clean up was a must for me.

Very, very, very funny. We can grow up and write our names in snow though!

red eye wrote:

and then there is the grout color choices ...

True enough but you can get grout in just about any color these days. Just make sure to seal the grout if you are going to use that in the bathroom.

And don't scrimp on the subfloor or you will be cracking tile and grout forever. Find some tile setter that knows what he/she is doing. Float a new surface with the gravity seeking materials under it if you are setting tile.

I am guessing your house is made of sticks or other wooden floor joists? A bathroom is really the heaviest room in your house. And next to your kitchen the most active. A bathtub itself weighs? Fill it with water and put yourself in it? You are asking a lot of those 2x6 or 2x8s downstairs?

I think I am going to take a bath now. And pee all over the floor around my toilet.

Only problem is my Mom is gone. Who is going to clean up after me?

Red eye, I have not laughed so hard in quite awhile. Thank you. And it really is a nice human factor design consideration.

Ok. One other toilet consideration. You can put the new incinerator things in your dining room if you want. The biffy, the crapper, the... does not have to have plumbing and be in the bathroom anymore.

Eat, fart and dump? All in the same room?

Think of the space you would save in your small bathroom without that poorly designed piece of porcelain, over plumbed somewhere else?

You could buy incinerator toilets for everybody coming to Thanksgiving next year. Sure great grandma's chairs would have to to go. But everybody will remember you over and above whether the turkey was too dry, the china and crystal was chipped? Imagine having your own custom incinerator toilet to sit on Next November 25.

I have people that will paint anything if you want one or more for the dining room. Stop worrying about the one in your new bathroom? It is what it is. A target for us guys to miss.

Still laughing red eye. And by the way, putting the seat down is your problem. We only need it half the time. And we tend to notice if it is not flipped down.

Well your palette so far is wonderful, and keeping with neutrals for the floors and tile will work great. Just Perfect Color and Red Eye's suggestion to turn the floor tiles at an angle sounds like the best idea, especially if you're planning to use larger, rectangular tiles (I love that idea).

As for the wall color, since the room isn't too large, try a beautiful soft yellow. It will blend well with the neutrals and you'll be surprised how much it opens up the space. Plus so many colors complement yellow that you can go wild with accents. I think a bold orange or soft blue would look nice, but play with your options.



For the toilet, definitely try and find a grey or beige color, since it will stand out if it's the only white object. It shouldn't be hard to find different colors, though, so try looking around a little.

Good luck on the rest of the remodel, it sounds like this bathroom is going to be a beautiful haven.

I am glad to share the love with ya Just Perfect Colors! [remember what the huskies say, about what snow to eat] I would avoid anything that uses fire and those sensitive areas, so the incinerator toilet may not really be the next big thing (at least not for me)

Sherey65, I got the big tub (no jets) and my contractor definitely reccomended that we reinforce the area under the tub. He added a header in the cellar (I live in a ranch) for support. No squeaky floors in the bathroom, but don't try sneaking down the hallway, there's no place to go without a squeak. You will definitely want to make sure you have a good subfloor for the tile like JPC said.

Just one final comment. And I do understand the box stores have their place although I try to stay out of them. A client just bought an antique home and redid the bathrooms. She went through three plumbers and three or or four toilets that leaked for each. The last plumber finally knew that the toilets had micro cracks in them from being dropped by the material handling monkeys. Apparently this is a common problem at the box stores.

All us boys would love a color changing toilet!? Could be really gross but fun?

Color Changing Sink

since you said it is small, i also really like the idea of placing your tiles at an angle, but also... is it possible to mix & match tiles (like a square type & a rectangle type) but something that goes together in color/texture/pattern. Play with it a bit... draw up some design ideas... just make sure you keep the dimensions/ratios/scale accurate to each other.

also, since it's small, i choose a much lighter color to add to the mix: