04 Aug How Do I Figure out the Right Design Style for My Bathroom?

How do I figure out the right design style for my bathroom? Here at down2earth interior design, we always tell our clients that we will not be imposing our signature style on them. Rather, we are here to be the interpreters of their style, so that when a guest walks into their home, they say, “Wow, this is so you!,” not “Wow, looks like you worked with down2earth interior design!”

But how do we even know what our own personal style is? Do we “know it when (we) see it,” as United States Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart famously said about obscenity? And what if you’re like me and you like an obscene number of styles, but you need to figure out what’s right for your particular home.

Let’s look at my attic bathroom project as a little case study of where to even begin. The space started as somewhat of a blank slate. But even though fixtures were bland, it has some distinctive architectural elements: dark wood doors, a painted wood floor in a reddish hue, a claw foot tub, an ornate radiator, and low eaves. So, compared to some homes that don’t have such interesting features, I was definitely starting off with some architectural cues.

This bathroom is just off of my office (headquarters of down2earth interior design). Tackling the design of the office is next on my list. Since the office design has not been fully realized yet, I didn’t view this bathroom as an aesthetic extension of the office space. But I did start to reflect on what we do here at d2e and some of the branding we’ve put in place to see if that would give me any additional cues.

Geography

Should I pay homage to our home city of Philadelphia with Ben Franklin wallpaper and some City of Brotherly Love art?

Occupation

Should I relate the bathroom décor literally to my job as an interior designer? After all, Philly Voice did refer to me as a “Connoisseur of Color”. So at one point, this paint swatch wallpaper was occupying my imagination.

After living with the paper taped up to my wall for a while though, and testing it out in a moodboard (below), it felt too busy for the space, and also a little too on the nose.

Architecture and Color

I next played around with moodboards looking at classic styles that would complement the era and architecture of the house. I also thought about the fact that we use the color green in most of our branding, and specialize in green design. So the idea of “green” provided some color inspiration. Still, so many green options abound (as you can read about in our blog post on our team members’ favorite colors) so that doesn’t narrow things too much. I created more moodboards, just like I would do for my clients, to test out more wallpaper scenarios. Because these were just for me, I didn’t develop them all the way – just enough for me to get a sense of whether a palette was starting to work.

While I loved the architectural nature of the hedge mazes in the top moodboard (with the added bonus of little squirrels popping up here and there), the last one was the clear winner in my mind because of color and scale of the print. Because the eaves transition into the ceiling above and the wall below along a gentle curve, I decided that the best way to apply wallpaper was to continue it up the wall, along the slope of the eaves, and onto the ceiling. To have that much wallpaper could really be overwhelming if it wasn’t subtle and properly scaled. A small print whose background is the same color as the trim seemed to be the answer.

Photo by Sarah Wight Sayeed

The chocolate brown background of this Mulberry Spring wallpaper from Lee Jofa creates less visual stops and starts when it meets dark wood door frames and window frames. And I love how the pattern is a small flower, referencing our d2e logo (which is a crocus). The wallpaper gave me the “seed” of the palette, if you will.

Once the wallpaper choice was established, I was able to choose a green color for the wainscot (Sherwin Williams SW64232 “Garden Spot”) and a terra cotta color for the outside of the tub (Benjamin Moore 2174-30 “Sedona Clay”).

The wainscot on the tall wall, you’ll notice, did not exist before. There was a small strip of wood behind the sink, and I took my height cues from that.

I added chair rail on the tall wall in addition to the sink wall because I felt that wallpapering every single surface would just be too much. However, I also didn’t want picture frame molding to stick out dramatically behind the toilet. I asked my contractor to build me frames out of 7/8” Lattice. The folks at Rittenhouse Lumber and my contractor (the amazing Emilio at Postorivo Contractors) thought I was a little nuts because this stuff isn’t typically used for picture frame molding, but they went with it and I love how it turned out.

Photo by Sarah Wight Sayeed

One challenge when renovating an old house like this is that the walls are plaster. If I had asked that the medicine cabinet be removed and replaced with something larger or more stylish, it would have created tons of dust and labor to rebuild the cavity and the wall around it. My hack: go to my local frame store (Custom Picture Framers in Glenside) and have a frame made for my existing medicine cabinet so that it looks more substantial and old-world.

The frame style of the dog art matches that of the medicine cabinet. Photo by Sarah Wight Sayeed.

I ended up using this same frame style for one of the art pieces. Once I chose this wallpaper, I decided to lean into the deep chocolate color of the background and play up the feeling of an old lounge or library.

Photo by Sarah Wight Sayeed

The Dandelion pub, here in Philly, sports as similar dark color palette and has old dog portraits all around. I am a HUGE dog person, so I went with dog art in the bathroom, with some classic hunting dog silhouettes on the tall wall, and a low, elongated piece of dog art on the wall behind the tub, where the ceiling slopes dramatically.

This elongated art piece shows a West Highland White Terrier, which we call Archie, the name of my dog’s favorite neighborhood friend. Something for Muttilda to look at too if she follows me into the bathroom! Finding art in a proportion like this is rare, so I bought a piece of art whose proportions started off as taller.

I had the art framed in a way that cropped off the top and bottom and I ended up with a piece that was much shorter than how it was when I bought it. These proportions work much better with the wall space available over the tub.

Photo by Sarah Wight Sayeed

All of the metals in the frames are a soft gold –really a little pewter-ish, to look old, and they pair nicely with the soft luxe gold of the faucet, the radiator paint,and the hardware. Speaking of hardware, I changed the hardware on the bathroom vanity for an upgraded look, and I recommend this technique often to my clients. I was very limited as to what vanity I could get because of the slope of the ceiling. Only the skinniest vanities would work because if I went with a standard depth, the person standing there would hit their head on the ceiling. But skinny vanities tend to be more modern in style, and as we know, I was going for something much more traditional and evocative of the era of this 100 year old home. The wood color and the door panel style seemed right in this Petite Empress vanity but those shiny chrome knobs in such a ‘blah’ style where not going to cut it.

The vanity before (left) and after (right) upgrading the hardware

So I swapped them out with Everitt T-knobs from Atlas Homewares in their warm brass finish and even had second holes drilled in the cabinet doors so I could use the Everitt pulls instead of knobs there for a more substantial look on the doors.

Recently we had a visitor to the attic bathroom…a foster cat who hung out for five days while waiting for the Forgotten Cats adoption center to get their power back after a storm. I hung out with her on the floor for quite a bit and really got to immerse myself in this space and felt so happy with the dignified and appropriate selections. And despite the dog-themed artwork, I think the foster cat would give it 2 paws up as well!

Having trouble decided with the right direction is for your space? Contact us here at down2earth interior design via our website and we’ll help you figure out what your space is asking to be!