(no subject)

[flemmings]

They're coming to redo my bathroom on Tuesday.

AAAAAAUGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

I don't even know what colours I want. Not bright white tile like now that blinds me in the morning April to September. Not dark designer colours that will make the place a cave from October to March. Pale coloured tile shows the grunge. Dark coloured tile will turn the room into a broom closet. I hate neutrals. I don't have the funds for an upscale job.

If only the damn room didn't face east I'd go for honest bathroom black and white. But it does, oh it does.

Comments

[stormcloude]

My bathroom right now is dark blue and pink. *^_^* Though all the tile is beige. I always thought neutrals were good, then you can add color with towels and shower curtains and things. And they're much cheaper to change when you get tired of them. But I always wanted a sky blue/forest green tiled bathroom.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

I knew people whose house was done in neutrals- grey, beige, some palest green. The place felt frozen. (They painted an upstairs bedroom deep orange to compensate.)

I might go for the sand-apricot-peach shades as compromise. Supposing someone makes those in affordable tile. The thing being, if the budget is limited there's no point trying to look designer. You end up looking tacky. Which is why honest black and white has so much to be said for it.

[(Anonymous)]

Why don't you do dark lower tiles and light upper tiles? You hate all neutrals?!

I foresee much browsing of tile in your near future. Also consider looking at magazines, 'cause if you find something in a magazine you like, you can use that as a basis for color schemes and stuff and save yourself some wear and tear.

M, I assume? Or L?

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Because the window is over the bath and the light comes blazing in on the tiles in the bath space itself, nothing is solved by light upper tiles. I want something that reflects a nice glow, like pale blue, and that won't make the rest of the room look too boxy. I may go for a wedgewood something with white walls in the bathroom itself.

There's a neutral in there now, some creamy-brown trim above the white tiles, and the same colours on the walls. But neutrals are so WASPy. 'Oh, I couldn't use colour and leave any kind of impression on people.' ^_^

[mikeneko.livejournal.com]

Whee! Mine is happy green and drywall gray! <-- still hasn't finished it.

I put beadboard around the bottom half of the walls (ye green part -- I like green), and I'm thinking that someday the walls are going to be happy-yellow-yay. Or maybe something purple? Eh, I dunno. <-- worse than you

Anyway, I put down reddish quarry tile for the floor with gray grout. Looks spiff and is nice and cool in the summer; but cold enough to stick to soles of your feet in the winter because underneath it is crawlspace (ah, hindsight). Also required a ton of sealer.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

First floor bathrooms can have quarry tile and the concrete to support them; rich bathrooms can have marble tile; I'm getting yer usual cleanable whatevers, alas.

People always say yellow is happy; I find it psychotic-making. The baby room at work is yellow and I've never seen the guys so rangy.

[mikeneko.livejournal.com]

Ah. Doesn't require concrete, but quarry tile is not glazed, is porous; hence sealer (yet another hindsight item). Plus paw, I've found that a darker floor lets ignore dirt longer. Yes! (*cough* We are sooo not domesticated, here.) I dunno why anyone would want marble in a bathroom unless they've sufficient slaves to take care of the damn stuff -- it doesn't go well with water that has acidic pH.

I find it psychotic-making.

Woot, with me no problem, I'm already there!!11!

My thinking along this line was that way lighter colors won't cover the drywall patching beneath them very well, so they'd require two, maybe three coats (but I guess this is only blergh-worthy if you gotta do all that painting yourself). Still, lighter color of some kind would be better in a small room. Esp. in winter, which is gloomy enough w/o the assistance.

[tammylee.livejournal.com]

I am no help. Our one bathroom is brick red (to match the bedroom) and the other is a sort of a clay brown/grey to match the majority of the condo.

burnt umber? Salmon? Wide stripes alternating white and orange?

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

burnt umber? Salmon? Wide stripes alternating white and orange?

Your palette and mine don't match at all, do they? ^_^

I can take pale salmon up to a point, because it segues into a kind of pink I like; but I prefer pinks and reds generally, which I can't have here because of the tiny space.

[mvrdrk.livejournal.com]

Mmm, going to disagree on can't have red.

There's ways to do strong but not dark colors in small spaces by using them as accents rather than the main color. So you could do a 'pink with red trim' kind of thing (or pale blue and royal blue). I will go do some research.

[summer-queen.livejournal.com]

I do have a black and white bathroom -- floors and half tiled walls. The previous owners oh-so-helpfully painted the top half of the walls ... PINK. Pale pink, but still. I've mostly converted it to pale, pale grey, but I'm stuck with the b&w look (I keep telling myself someone will like the vintage tile).

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

That sounds like something I'd do, actually. B&W and pink. Or rose, even better.

[avalonjones.livejournal.com]

Mine here is kind of a cross between sand and peach, and I find it quite tolerable.

What about sage green and darker green?

I used to know someone who had their bathroom done in black-and-white checkerboard pattern (one black tile, one white tile, etc.--and the tiles were quite large), on the floor AND the wall, and then she hung Aubrey Beardsley prints in it and had blood-red rugs and a red shower curtain. Arrrgh. Instant migraine.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Sage green might be nice but too dark for the space. It's 4.5 feet wide and a scant 8 feet long, and the one window is above the tub in the outside wall, so the possibility of enlargening it to get more daylight (never mind the advisability) is nil.

[incandescens]

I have (goes to look, alas for my powers of observation and memory) mottled beige-grey tiling on the floor and part of the walls and behind the shower, white painted wall otherwise, and white fixtures. No windows. It does come across as surprisingly cool and spacious, even if I have to scrub the floor frequently.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Is the scrubbing because there's no windows and no air circulation? One thing that gets put in for sure is a high quality fan. (Mottled beige is actually what I have on the walls. They do hide dirt and mould, I'll agree.)

[incandescens]

No, I do have a decent fan in the ceiling, married to the light switch, so it is aerated. It tends to be more dust; all the bloody dust in the apartment seems to blow into there and then settle in the corners. Not ickily dirty, and probably hoovering would deal with most of it, but when I'm cleaning down the rest of the bathroom I usually end up wiping/scrubbing the floor as well.

[mvrdrk.livejournal.com]

Ask them if they have a fan that attaches at the roof/exterior wall. You'll get a lot less noise in the bathroom that way.

[kickinpants.livejournal.com]

What about those tiles that don't have spaces in them, like linolemeum? (sp???) Is that too ghetto? That's what my bathroom has.

I personally am a big fan of light yellow walls, but not everyone is. Lavendar or a lighter shade of purple? Pale green or blue? Rose or lighter shade? What about light yellow, blue, and green checkers, like a quilt?

Sounds like fun though. Seriously. Picking out your own colors. I wish for that someday. :)

What about white floor, but colored walls. Would that be cave-like?

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

light yellow, blue, and green

(grin) No. Really, *so* not me.

Lavender goes gray in most lights, all-rose goes grungy easily. L is right- highlights more than solids is probably what I want. But cheap tile is cheap tile and rarely gives you what you want.

I'll talk to the guy in more detail about tiled floor vs linoleum squares and which is more water resistant. The present floor has god-help-us inch square ceramic tiles. You can imagine what the grouting is like. White floor- or black and white squares- might be a solution. Only dark *does* hide the dirt, as the tri-cloured cat said.

[kickinpants.livejournal.com]

You can always checker with white and a dark color. Have fun with this. :) And don't doubt your decision. Once you get used to the change, it normally feels like "That was the right choice."

[mvrdrk.livejournal.com]

My parents did white floors. Once. Never again.

Dark or strong floors with paler walls does work well.

I'm glad you brought this up. I'm going to go rethink my own bathroom tiles. Now that the shower is unusable, it might actually get fixed.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

(dreamily) A nice Mediterranean blue, yes. (Though it'd be weird in the winter time.) And the penguins sound cool.

[i-am-zan.livejournal.com]

this is probably too late but, our bathroom tiles are a sort of blue-white upper half and a slightly darker blue lower half, and the floor tiles are actually a sunny yellow. Which gives it a nice bright colour when its dark and grey (yes out here it can get dark n grey!)
But not too bright when there's plenty of light! We have yellow and blue fish on the separating line between the tones.

It doesn't look as weird as it sounds. The blue cololur works for both cold and warm weather, as you have the different tones.

Hope it gives some ideas anyhow!