As part of the addition we are putting on our home, we are adding a second bathroom for the kids.   We started with one full bathroom upstairs and it was gutted a week ago.   It’s an “interesting” experience being without a shower or toilet upstairs.    I’m grateful for my friends and family who let us pop in for showers and that my husband is unphased by my decision to redo most of our house.

Small Full Bathroom Inspiration

So many times I have failed to blog my home because it never feels “finished”.   Well – the process is so much of what you can learn from so I wanted to share some of my inspiration and thoughts along the way.

I use Pinterest (follow me and my boards here) and Instagram to grab a lot of my design inspiration.   Because we are adding another bedroom and laundry area in the square footage of this addition we are limited in the size of the kids’ new bathroom.   It was also ideal to place the bathroom where there will be no exterior windows.   Natural light is a game changer in any room but especially a bathroom.  Not sure about you – but my makeup looks MUCH different in natural light than under overnight artificial light.

Creating A Bright Small Bathroom Without Windows

Because of the lack of natural light I opted to add a tubular light in this bathroom.   This wasn’t something I knew anything about going into this process but it’s a way to allow natural light into the space through a solar light tube that outlets on the roof.   You can get them at Home Depot and my contractor will handle the details of installing it.  Of course I decided on this 2 weeks AFTER having our roof replaced ?.

To make the space seem as large as possible I keep reminding myself of these things as I select pieces to fill the space.

• Light is bright – the tiles and paint colors will be light colors.   This isn’t hard for me since I am such a lover of white and gray.
• Simple – keeping to only a few different tiles/textures to minimize how busy the space appears to the eye.
• Mirrors reflect light!   Of course there will be a large mirror above the vanity but I will also probably add one above the toilet as well.

This blog post from Maison Depax about tips for designing a small bathroom was really helpful to me!

Maintaining a Budget

This is going to be my kids’ bathroom, so they aren’t getting a marble floor.   I live in a modest home – for resale a marble floor might come back to bite me, but marble is where my eyes sway to on Pinterest.   Here are some bathrooms I saved in my kids’ bathroom board.

Unfortunately DecorPad did not credit the original blog that posted this bathroom.

Image c/o Maidondepax.com

Picking out tile online can be difficult.  And since it’s something you order in a large quantity I actually got my buns off the couch and headed into a real life store!! I love Home Depot! I’m a DIY lover so I can get lost in those aisles the same way I do at Target. Bottom line I found a great alternative to marble tile at price that is much easier to stomach.  Porcelain tile with a marble look is what I’m going to use!   People who can tell (or care) that it’s not real marble aren’t the type of folks who will be hanging around my boys’ bathroom anyway.

Pardon my amazing photography skills –  this is the sample I was eyeing in store for under $3/square foot!    This was definitely something I wanted to check out in person before ordering and I loved it.

For The Master Bathroom

I went back and forth about having a custom vanity built or just getting something from Home Depot.    I was going for the look and storage of something like this Ariel White Bath Vanity.  The only thing that’s holding me back from the Ariel vanity is that I’m just not head over heels for the counter top material.   That said – it’s $2,000 cheaper than the most reasonable estimate I got to custom build something similar.    One estimate to have something similar built was $10,000 – YIKES!

I’m feeling REALLY overwhelmed by all the decisions that come up along the way but I know it will be worth it when the job is done!  I’ll be sharing all the new spaces and decor on the blog and social media in the coming months.   I’d love any advice from some of you who have survived a major renovation.

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