Planning Our Guest Bathroom

We have family coming to visit and stay with us in less than a month and that got me thinking about our guest bathroom. This room has been marked low priority on our list of home renovation projects because it doesn’t get a ton of use, unless we have company over. But remembering we are having guests come soon, I stood in the doorway of the bathroom the other day visualizing things I could do to make the space more inviting. It was then that I had the realization that we definitely need to show a little (a lot of) love to this room and preferably soon. I’ll just be real and admit there is not a single decoration in there. There is a shower curtain, a soap dispenser and a hand towel and that is it. We are talking very bare bones decor wise. Not to mention it has the same theme as the rest of the house when we moved in, “Bland”. The tan tile, off white walls, white cabinets, white countertops and white tile in the shower all run together and when I stare into this small narrow room my eyes hurt trying to adjust to the bland abyss. Okay, I am being a little dramatic. At least we are working with just builder grade neutral choices and not pale blue tile, floral wallpaper or a pink toilet.

I can’t wait to paint the bathroom. We are planning to use Utterly Beige from Sherwin Williams, which is a tan-gray shade and is the same color we painted the guest bedroom since similar elements will be incorporated into both rooms. We have some bigger scale projects that we would love to tackle right away like replacing the tan tile and redoing the white cabinets to be a darker color but that will have to come a little later when the budget allows. So for now I am focusing on a few smaller scale projects and decor pieces that we will be able to add to the room sooner and will enhance the look of our guest bathroom.

Faucets | Kingston Brass Faucets from Amazon
Changing out the silver faucets is a must on our list. We got a killer deal on these Kingston Brass faucets on Woot! last year for our master bathroom and I have been really pleased with them. I will be stalking Woot! from now on to see if they ever offer them again. Amazon also sells them for around $88 dollars which is not bad at all considering some bronze faucets can run you an upwards of $300 for just one.

Pendant Lights | Portfolio 13-in W Oiled Bronze Standard Pendant Lights from Lowe’s
In an effort to rid this bathroom of all that is silver, we plan to change the light fixture as well. However, we already know we are going to have the same problem we ran into in our master bathroom so this will be a more complicated process than just replacing the old fixture with a new one. We would love to rewire the lighting and patch the hole in the wall and then drop these awesome pendant lights from the ceiling, one over each mirror. It is going to be a little extra work but it will definitely be worth it.

Framed Leaf Print | Botanical Palm Leaf Digital Print from RepublicaDeCali on Etsy
We really want to incorporate some bright colors and art into the bathroom to liven it up and these leaf prints are the perfect solution. I want to frame one or two of these and set them on the shelf we will be building over the towel hooks. I love that they are minimal, colorful and will tie in perfectly with the shower curtain without overwhelming the small space.

Wire Basket Storage | Charlotte Lined Wire Baskets from Cost Plus World Market
I have my eye on these wire baskets from World Market. I have been gravitating towards wire baskets for multiple rooms lately but what I like about these is you get the wire look but the lining discreetly disguises bathroom contents. I plan on placing a few of these on the floating shelves we will be building over the toilet to store toilet paper and air freshener. That way it is in close reach and available out in the open to guests but not as noticeable and detracting as the toilet paper tower situation that we currently have going on in there.

Shower Curtain | Rainforest Shower Curtain from West Elm
I purchased this colorful shower curtain from West Elm before we even moved into our house and I am really exited to actually put it to use. It sparked my idea of having a tropical themed guest room and guest bathroom. (I use the term “theme” loosely because Brent is not a fan of themed rooms. I on the other hand had a themed room from the time I was eleven until I graduated college so we have had to strike a compromise and agree that I will add just a few tropical “elements”). This shower curtain is bright and fun and different than most of the neutral items we have in our home.

Floating Shelves | Making our own
We plan on building two floating shelves over the toilet area. This will be really helpful for organization purposes and allow us to utilize all that empty wall space. I like the idea of having washcloths, towels, etc. readily available to guests stored in baskets on these shelves so they can comfortably use it at their leisure and don’t have to ask how to find everything they may need.

Towel Rack with Shelf | Making our own similar to this Wall Coat Rack from Wayfair
I am really excited about building this project. I don’t particularly like the idea of having a towel bar in a bathroom where multiple guests may have to hang up their towels. I would rather have hooks but I wanted the hooks to be displayed in a more interesting fashion than just plain hooks stuck in the middle of the wall. I couldn’t find a great example of exactly what I am thinking (luckily Brent can decipher my sketchy descriptions) but this coat rack from Wayfair is similar to what I am envisioning just with different hooks. I would love to have hooks on a mounted board and then have a wood shelf attached to the top so that I could add a few more decorative items in the bathroom without cluttering the countertops.

Vase with Split Leaf Philodendron Leaves | Vase from Crate & Barrel and Artificial Split Leaf Philodendron Leaf from Quality Silks
Adding a few Split Leaf Philodendron leaves in this really cool white vase from Crate & Barrel would allow me to subtly tie in more tropical elements and add some greenery in the bathroom. I love the contrast of the bright green leaves in the white vase. I could see this sitting on the shelf above the towel rack with the leaf prints.

Framed Mirrors | Making our own similar to the ones we made for our master bathroom
Last but not least we will frame our mirrors that we recently recycled by cutting the original large mirror into two pieces. We did the same thing in our master bathroom. Having two narrow mirrors rather than the one unframed large mirror made a huge difference in the feel of the room and I have no doubt it will be the same in this bathroom as well. We will most likely stain it a lighter color than the ebony stain we used on the frames in our master bathroom. I predict this will be our first project in this space because we currently have no mirrors hung up in this bathroom! They are sitting in our garage ready to be framed.

Over the next few months I suspect we will be sharing quite a few of our guest bathroom projects. There is no realistic way that we will get it all done before our guests come, but any progress in this room will make me feel better about having guests use this space.

*To see more of our guest bathroom ideas, follow along on our Guest Bathroom Board on Pinterest.