Week number 3!! After all the destructive fun last week in demo, we decided to kick this week off with installation and creativity AKA tiling and painting.

If you’re just tuning in now, I’m very excited to use the Milas Lilac line from tile from The Tile Shop! We had some assistance with our flooring from our lovely Gardner/Fox associate, Adam, who has ample experience (and patience) with cutting tile. Even though a 5” hexagon pattern won my very official Instagram poll, I went with a checkerboard of Milas Lilac and Black Marquina. I am a sucker for checkboard – we have it painted on our kitchen floors too. It never goes out of style! Thanks again Tile Shop, you’ve got a very satisfied customer.

I couldn’t wait for my auberge dream life to come true, so after the tiles were finished, we channeled our focus in the complete opposite direction and went to work on the ceiling. Typically I stick to Sherwin Williams for paint colors, but with the COVID-19 shutdown, Home Depot’s Behr line was the most convenient to purchase. I am pretty laid back about colors – I rarely do a paint sample – if it looks good on the chip I go for it. So far its worked for me just fine! I was in between Muscat Grape and Paparazzi. After Muscat Grape won a poll between myself, my husband, and the cashier, I naturally knew I had to go with Paparazzi. It came out a little Barney-the-dinosaur-like, but I think that association will fade away once the wallpaper and wainscoting are in place.

While we’re on the paint topic, I noticed something mid-week: “inexpensive” vanities are still expensive. Because we can’t actually visit my favorite showrooms to look for a vanity, plus the risk that production could be delayed, using what we had made sense. We know it fits, it’s in good shape, and the only downside is that the color does not work (anywhere)…which is where paint comes in! I used Rust-Oleum Ultra Cover Premium Latex Paint Semi-Gloss Black. I didn’t follow the instructions exactly – but I did slap 3 coats of paint on there and it looks great! No sanding necessary. It will be nice to carry the black from the floor tile up the vanity and will work well with our future black countertop. Plus, it will pop nicely against the white wainscot. Now the new sink, countertop, and faucet are an adventure themselves, but I’ll be getting to those in a few weeks with the rest of the plumbing details.

The final step that we took during this very busy week was designing our wainscoting. This took a ton of SketchUp wizardry. I could have just measured and drawn guidelines directly on the walls but wanted to take the opportunity to put some of my newly acquired Sketchup skills to work. I am still finalizing the design but here are the major components of how I went about designing the wainscot:

• Application – wainscot is typically actual wooden panels adhered to the lower part of a wall ($$$$). Instead of going the traditional route I decided to “shadow box”. This means I am just going to attach the trim to the walls in the shape of panels and paint them the same color as the drywall, which will give the illusion of panels. Magic!
• Height – typical wainscoting height is about 32-36 inches, which won’t work in a bathroom. I want the height to be significantly higher than the toilet and the vanity. I studied some photos online and came up with 52” as the right height for us.
• Pattern – our house is not traditional, and I did want our wainscoting to even hint at it (or look colonial). I have seen simple designs with boxes inside one another paired with a simple chair rail in some modern homes. Less is more, minimal is modern, and fewer saw cuts!
• Actual trim/molding – I don’t want anything too decorative or “picture frame” molding. Metrie has a line called “very square” which includes a 3 ½” simple chair rail, and a 5 ½” baseboard. For the boxes, I used simple half rounds with the pieces of trim getting smaller as the boxes got smaller.
• Spacing –  I randomly chose 3” as the amount of space that I wanted between each piece of trim and I think it’s going to work perfectly.

Dilemmas:

• The sink is not centered on the wall. And there is a window to the right. And an outlet. How will it all interact?
• 52” is high for the mirror. Should the molding “frame” the mirror? Should the mirror be hung over the molding? Will I get a backsplash for the vanity that will need to work with the molding? I would love a fancy 10” backsplash but then what do I do with the molding in that space?
• I have an old vintage mirror that I love but seems too small for the room (see pic below). Mirrors are pricey, and I think faced with this deadline I’m going to stick with what I have .. but that won’t stop me from thinking about the future! If I decide to change up the size of the mirror I need to consider the distancing of the wainscot. Protip: If you ever find a mirror that you love that seems like a good price, BUY IT! Whether you need it or not.

Week number 3 is a wrap! I still have A LOT to decide on in a very short amount of time, but we made some major moves this week and I’m really happy with how things are starting to look! Check back next week to see our wainscoting install! 

Also, check out the ORC blog and other designers while you wait! There are so many unique spaces coming to life, click here for some serious inspiration!