We all know that kitchens and baths sell a house, so it's no surprise that a majority of the money went into those spaces. Here is the Guest Bath in the Strong Dr house.
This is the hall/guest/main bath that everyone sees. It has a double sink and yellow tub. The wallpaper felt vintage to the house. The cabinet was definitely worn out. We had to replace the shower head in here because it was too low for my 5'3" daughter. That meant all new tile around the yellow tub. I went back and forth on the design for this space. Do I find a way to save the tub? Or do we glaze it? I had some options for a low end design that was all white (and super boring). I just really wanted to do something spectacular since this was the bathroom everyone was going to see.
I had been hoping to use a zellige tile with wall mounted faucets.
I really love the look of the zellige tile and the brass hardware. I thought it could be interesting and whimsical, giving back some of the character we were taking out. The middle image is from an episode of fixer upper, top right is from Raili Clasen (Instagram: raili_ca_design). Top left is Prairie, bottom two I got off of House Beautiful.
I also wanted to finally use some concrete tiles. I have wanted to try them out for years, but did not have a place for them in my other homes. This was a good place to test the waters since we wouldn't be staying.
Pink and green bathroom from Studio diy! Blue bathroom. Pink tile, blue tile, white tile.
I thought about doing just a cement tile on the floor, or just a zellige tile on the wall. I mean any of these clé tiles would have been stunning.
At the end of the day, I just couldn't stop thinking about the Studio DIY! bathroom. I have never seen a bathroom where I didn't want to tweak at least something in the room. This bathroom was just PERFECTION! I honestly kept going back and forth on this design until I decided to just steal the look.
Here it is in all of it's glory. The exact same bathroom that another designer already designed. I have written here about the fine line between "inspired" and copying. It is a tough line to tow. This design had the green zellige tile I was already looking for with the brass hardware I had already priced out. But I decided to copy ALL of it (minus the pink sinks). In the end, when this bathroom was done, it was spectacular! But I didn't love it. I used someone else's design just because I loved it so much. It wasn't mine. It was convenient and lazy on my part, but it wasn't mine. There are moments, as designers, where we get a little nervous to pull the trigger on our own homes. This was one of those moments for me. I got scared, I didn't trust my gut, and I blew the budget on this bathroom. The best thing I could have done was keep the concrete floors I had throughout the house and just did a 2 x 6 zellige tile all the way up the wall. It would have been just as spectacular, and a lot less expensive. But I chickened out. I own that choice. And I let it be the learning experience that it needed to be for me.
This is the design board I used to budget everything out. At $7,000 this is the high end bath of someone else's dreams. A few months after it was done, I wish I had taken some more time with this and designed it around the yellow bathtub. We glazed over it recently, and I think I could have done something really unique if I had embraced the yellow. It's just not a color that I love, which is why I decided to carry the green into this room.
You can see the full reveal here.