The layout of our bathroom was determined when we underpinned our basement and all the rough-in plumbing was done.
But the specifics of the design still needed to be figured out. And as we started looking into how to actually construct different options, we had to rework the design.
Coming up with a design vision was definitely one of the hardest parts of this project. I had several different inspiration photos that I liked, but it was all over the map.
Then enter Alex, who wanted something “colourful” (not my strong suit) and “less boring than the rest of the house” (ouch). So back to the drawing board I went to come up with something that was a bit more bold and daring than the rest of our Scandinavian-inspired house.
After spending hours on the internet, I came across Mutina’s Puzzle tiles, which I managed to find at one of my go-to tile places. Fun fact, this is the same company that made our kitchen backsplash tiles.
Once I had my tiles picked, it was easier to then advance the rest of the design. At the same time, we picked the shower base and were relatively limited in colour choice since we needed to get something in stock (if we wanted to avoid a 3 to 4 month delay).
We decided to make the long wall of the bathroom the feature wall with the patterned tiles, while keeping the back wall and third side of the shower white. I drew it out in Illustrator to help me visualize what I had in my head, and also compared the different tile options (those with black and without) to see which tiles I should order. Although I really liked the black tiles, we will have a lot of black accents so I didn’t want to overdo it.
We then decided to do a ledge in the shower (which was important to know for framing), a toilet (to determine how much width we had left for a vanity), the type of mirror light combo (so we’d know how to complete the electrical work) and the type of door (so we could do the appropriate framing).
Some of the details still need to be figured out, but we have everything we need to complete the base construction and not delay us. Let’s hope it looks good when it’s done!