Bathroom Renovation: Fixture Choices

So here's a rundown of the rest of our fixture choices. We decided to get the matching sink faucet to the shower/tub set that we got:

American Standard Williamsburg 2-Handle Faucet

Then I asked the guys to get us a sink that was similar in design to the inspiration picture I had posted earlier:

I knew that there was a Kohler and American Standard version of this sink, and frankly I didn't really care so long as it was similar. They brought a Decolav sink that looked almost exactly like the picture, so I was pretty happy.

And as for the toilet, well, I had no real opinion about the toilet except that ours was a Kohler toilet and still functional, so our old toilet went right back in. It's still being sold today and was one of the more expensive options at Home Depot:

Kohler Wellworth Toilet

Then there is the towel bar, the toilet paper holder, the towel ring, the shower curtain rod, and a new toilet seat. But I couldn't find pictures of what we selected online, so you'll just have to wait until we put those up to see those.

Bathroom Renovation: Floor Tile Choices

When Joel and I originally talked about redoing the bathroom, we had gone to a tile store and tossed around the idea of using big hex tiles for the floor, something like the picture I had posted in an earlier entry:

I'm not sure of the size of the hex tiles in the pic, but to me, it looks like 3" hex tiles. We had asked our bathroom guys about putting in 4" hex tiles, and what we got from our bathroom guy was that 4" hex tiles were available, but a 4-week special order. Phooey. We're unfortunately on a deadline (I have houseguests coming in 7 days) or else I think Joel and I would have seriously considered waiting. They came back with these 2" octagon tiles as an alternative:

2" hex tiles were also available, but the ones that were readily available were unglazed, which, I don't care what anyone says, is WAY harder to keep clean. So it was between standard square tiles or 2" octagon-and-dot tiles. I was really on the fence about having THAT much grout line to worry about, but Joel's design aesthetic ruled the day and we decided on the 2" octagon tiles. Here's a sample pic of what it ought to look like when installed:

They just finished laying the tile today and will be doing the grout tomorrow. I have to say, up until this point I was very worried about our choices. Especially since one of the guys was all like, "Are you sure that's not too much white?" Now I'm very excited after seeing the tile down on the ground. It's going to look awesome.

Bathroom Renovation: Material Choices So Far

In case you were curious at all, here are our material choices thus far. First, there's the tub:

Kohler Villager Cast Iron Tub (right hand drain)

My dad insisted that we get a cast iron tub, even if we had to pay extra. I thought only fiberglass was included, but when the guy asked what kind of tub I wanted, and I said "cast iron," he said, "That's heavy. But very good quality." And they brought us the tub above, which frankly I was pleasantly surprised with the brand name. And now we have the bold look of Kohler in our bathroom. Sexy.

Here is the tub and shower set that we were a little blindsided with yesterday:

American Standard Williamsburg Tub/Shower Set

Joel and I decided that the porcelain handle went with the look we were going for, and he wanted polished chrome, so we just decided to go with it because the contractor had already brought it in and it works with what we were going for. It wasn't cheap looking and there weren't plastic knobs, which were really my two requirements, so I was fairly indifferent. My friend who just rebuilt a house was mumbling something about ceramic discs, and so when looking up what was purchased for our bathroom, I was happy to see that these had the ceramic discs she kept referring to.

Our more permanent choices (besides the tub) are for the tiling and vanity. We're going with granite countertops, and it's been sort of a trial to choose which little square will grow up to become our vanity countertop. We've chosen to go with subway tile with a glass tile accent for the tub surround, and it's been sort of hard to decide on the floor tile and the vanity countertop. Here are the material samples:

And here's a closeup of our subway tile, glass tile accent, and vanity stain finish we've selected along with what I believe to be our finalists for the countertop:

We pre-emptively (hopefully) discussed sink faucets and such yesterday and printed out what we wanted to give to our guy today, so I think there are only a couple more decisions that we need to discuss with him, but in general, we're on our way!

Bathroom Renovation Inspiration Pics

Okay, so just to prove that we're not actually flying by the seat of our pants with this bathroom renovation, here are some inspiration pictures that we're basing our bathroom renovation choices on. I've been collecting these pictures for awhile, so some of the pics, I'm not really sure where I got them from.

First, we stayed at the Hotel Solamar in San Diego a number of years ago and I fell in love with their bathroom design:
I loved the bathroom as well at the W in San Diego when we stayed there:
I think these hotel bathrooms were really the start of my ideas for our bathroom.

I also love vintage-inspired bathrooms, like this one that was featured on Apartment Therapy:

And since we have such a large vanity in there, I had been looking for awhile for a good design that fit into the overall feel of our condo. Here are a couple pics of vanities that I found with the same basic design but with different finishes:


Originally we were just going to change out the vanity and flooring, but I really wanted to change the lighting in the bathroom as well, and then the plumbing needed to be updated, and well, that's where we are today!