Toilet Closet Update & Inspiration

Well, we've officially finished one week with only one "bathroom" in the house and it's been really great for our relationship. I kid. But seriously, I didn't realize how handy it was having two bathrooms even if one of them, for all intents and purposes, wasn't even a real bathroom. 

Which gets me really excited when I start to think about having an ACTUAL bathroom downstairs with a sink and outlets and room to twirl*

*small twirl, arms only partially extended

So, here's how it looks at the end of week one: 

Here's the before/during/after for reference: 

Things you can see in these pictures: 

• The toilet flange was removed. That pipe had to be cut down in the basement because the flange was glued into it. No big deal since the pipe is going to have to be re-routed anyway since the toilet will not be in the same place. 

• The water supply going into the toilet also had to be cut so that we could pull the floor up. We used this neat thing called a shark bite to seal it off. My mom cut the pipe and popped that thing on in just a couple of minutes. 

• The "floor" has been pulled up. There's still the sub-floor down there but since it looks like the toilet supply was leaking, I'm thinking that wood might not stick around. We'll see. 

• The most exciting thing is the moving of the return air duct. It's about a foot to the left now and that means more space! It also means that we can start to see where walls will be and how far back we will be able to go on that side of the room. 

Here's a better look at the before and after of that:
BEFORE it was really close to the old bathroom wall, less than a foot.

AFTER it's moved a foot to the left so the wall can go back that much further! Yay walls!

Now then, let's talk fun stuff. Inspiration pictures!

I've noticed when you're looking for pictures of water closets or powder rooms, a lot of the really small ones use a bold color or pattern on the walls. It's kind of counter-intuitive but it works. 

Here are a few looks that I like for one reason or another.

This water closet from Meet the Shaffers has been on my "it" list for a long time. The high gloss green paint, the glossy black light fixtures:

Mmmmm glossy black...

Speaking of glossy black, this bathroom from Lonny may not be as small as ours but I love how the inky black goes all the way to the baseboards and you can see that they used hex tile like we're planning to. 

A few more ahem...bold options include chalkboard walls like this bathroom

I REALLY love the Twombly-ness of this but I'm not sure if it would work for everyday use. I can hear my mom cringing right now and saying something like, "Well, you have clean it!" I think, more than anything I just like the pattern and the colors here. The white, the brown, the blue/black. 

I also really dig using magazine covers or photos as wallpaper like this one from ElleDecor

Or this other one from Lonny

(originally, I thought we might have to do our sink like this - cut into the wall on the left)

Dogs and flowers! Flowers and dogs! That's just a little too bright for my taste but I admire their commitment and I've been brainstorming a way to use all the extra National Geographic covers I come across while thrifting. Hmmmm...

I also really like more traditional colors and styles because there's a chance that someone, someday might not be as excited about a chalkboard bathroom as I was.

My mom mentioned doing tile all the way up the walls just to make it easy to clean but I just don't think it's in our budget. Maybe just paint some faux tiles on? That'd be cool, right? Right?! Either way, I really like the white tiles/black grout and brass fixtures of Mandy Milks's bathroom from House & Home.

So, whadaya' think?

Stick with traditional or try something bolder?

There are pros and cons to each, I suppose. I'm going to try and locate a sink that I like this weekend so we can start thinking about how much room we have when we frame everything in. So I guess I've still got a while until I need to start thinking about paint colors, huh? 

: ) 

Have a great weekend!