BATHROOM INSPIRATION

I'm gonna get straight into it because we are legit in the THICK of it.

Opening line too cheesy? Ha just like Khloe's macaroni. Fine I'll admit, I'm a mom with dad jokes . I never professed to be the funny one in our relationship. Ken actually has a really good sense of humor and when he is really happy his laugh will make you smile or laugh too.

There hasn't been a lot of loud laughter lately, at least not in our basement. What started out as exploring cosmetic upgrades to the space quickly turned into a full on gut job down to the studs. Nightmare? Maybe. What saved us in this instance was having a separate savings fund exactly for this reason. Anytime you’re buying a fixer upper it‘s a good idea to ensure you’re saving for a rainy day. Once we got past demo, plumbing upgrades, electrical upgrade and termite removal, we focused on the bare concrete walls that would become a beautiful blank canvas to make the space 100% ours. While all the "dirty work" was being done I spent my quiet time at night searching and pinning to find inspiration for the next phase of remodeling and stumbled upon this beauty by Dwell.

I was immediately drawn to the mix of black, white and wood tones. So so good! I decided to start with the bathroom for a few reasons but mostly because it was the smallest and least intimidating space. We also recently finished up our main floor bathroom so I knew exactly what I was getting myself into.

As I thought about the basement bathroom design a little more I knew that I wanted to use a smaller scale hexagon floor tile to add more drama but one that would also make the room appear larger than it is. I settled on a combination of a longer white subway tile on the walls that would run in a traditional offset pattern and a small hexagon black marble tile on the floor like this one via Home Catalog

For the lighting I fell in love with the idea of side by side fixtures framing the mirror . This would also help to visually guide attention to eye level since the ceilings are only 7ft high in the basement. The gold lighting against the black tile really amped up the luxury feel in this bathroom via Apartment Therapy

For the shower and vanity , I kept going back and forth on the finishes and the hardware. My mind kept telling me to go the safe route but ultimately I went with my heart and decide to go with mixed metals and a medium wood toned vanity.

I figured that this house would always be in our family even if we decided to move at some point, so why not just design it the way I want it . At the end of the day, if you want your house to feel like your home , your personality should shine through right? Not some other person's idea of perfection.

We shall see where all of this inspiration and sweat equity takes us but in the mean time I'll be here trying to stay on budget. Here’s a sneak peak. Are we liking it yet? Wish me luck!

xo Nalini