Phoebe's Bathroom

 

My vbff, virtual bff, Carol's teenage daughter Phoebe is a lucky girl. Not only has she got her own bathroom, which is almost unheard of over here, but she's getting it overhauled this fall. I can sort of understand Carol's urge to get it done. When on earth was that baby pooh shade on a bathroom suite ever in fashion? Martin took one look at it and said "bachelor camouflage. No scrubbing needed." Eeeewwwh!

 

Carol already changed the sink from a swirly marble laminate to this beautiful white corian. Major envy on my part on this one! Can you see how well it goes with the toilet? AND the soft and cushy mustard of the shag carpet? Yikes! Again, what were they thinking when that was laid that down by previous owners?

Carol already had some great ideas for the bathroom but wanted a second opinion. Here's what she wrote. 

I keep thinking an accent wall (wallpapered) with a color, would look nice in her bath, but then I think that we will need to install a fan so the paper doesn't peel. I need to choose a tub and tile, and flooring. I would love for Phoebe to have shelf or hotel style rack above her toilet. We are trying to decide if we should keep her existing cabinet style or put new cabinet doors on everything. I would love for her to have a built in laundry basket but I am not sure where it should go.

She needs areas for haircare stuff- bands, flat iron, styling products, and for makeup.  I think Phoebe needs something (a caddy, or built in wall cubby ?) for her tub/shower. She usually has bottles by her tub.

Phoebe's favorite color is green. She has simple, clean, modern taste with a more traditional slant than Carol's. Not Girly or frilly. She is not a ruffles type gal.

So here's what I suggest. I agree that an accent wall would be nice but if that's not an option how about painting the walls and getting the pattern in there in the shape of a shower curtain and maybe a wall decal? I'm normally not big on decals but I'm liking the idea of one in this bathroom.

For the floors and behind the new white tub that Carol's having installed (together with a shiny white new loo!) I would go for plain white tiles. They would allow for Phoebe's still emerging taste to evolve and any colors that she may love more later on can easily be added or switched to. I would splurge and add under floor heating... Mmmm.

As far as storage goes I have to say what's already there is not bad at all. There's plenty of potential. I would change the doors and drawer fronts under the sink to plain white and add clean lined hardware. I would remove the tall cabinet doors and hardware completely, remove any shelves in the bottom one, paint the inside in a color and store towels etc at the top and place a laundry basket in the lower portion.

More detail and ideas below.
 

 
   

1. The color scheme I've gone for incorporates Phoebes fave, green. I added aqua and plenty of white for a fresh, clean look. The aqua would go on the walls and the green on the inside of the tall cabinet where the doors where removed.
2. I like the idea of glossy cabinet doors and drawer fronts. Ikea has some which if they don't fit could be copied and they also carry these sleek handles.
3. You can't go wrong with white fluffy towels for a clean look.
4. Hotel towel rack above toilet. Check!
5. Since there will be some reconstruction of the wall behind the tub anyway, I would go for a built in niche for bottles instead of a free hanging thing. This custom built one is really nice but so are these ready to install ones.
6. Bathroom lighting is really tricky I think. I do really like this fixture and this and this. This one's really nice too...
7. I like the idea of breaking up the squareness of the sink and vanity with something round like this mirror. Another option would be this one which we have in our own bathroom. I once had one of these too which was great.
8. It's kind of difficult to find nice shower curtains but they are so easy to sew so with this in mind the options are endless. Just add grommets to the top  of a lenght of fabric and line it with a white or clear synthetic liner. I like this fabric in here. Here, here and here are other nice options.
9. The white looooooooo!
10. Carol and I are both packing strap storage fans and I found this laundry basket which would look really neat inside of the bottom of the tall cabinet (lined in green, remember?).
11. Shag carpet removed, white tile with under floor heating installed and all you need now is a little bath mat which can be tossed into the laundry machine when needed.
12. For the hair accessories, make up and other supplies I'd add these dividers to the drawers. I'd keep the flat irons and the styling products in one of the drawers or in basket in the smaller cabinet below the sink.
13. These would look nice on the sink. And be practical too.
14. I like this wall decal in green for the window wall. Imagine it next to the window and with some of the blown away seeds...
15. ... on the window itself. Instead of the existing shutters, which I'd remove completely, I'd add frosted film to the glass for privacy. After that's been installed the flyaway seeds are added on top. Here and here and here are some other nice decals. Ferm have some cool ones too, like the ligh buld one's above.
16. These are some of my favorite containers. I would add some next to the towels in the tall cabinet for extra knick-knack storage.

There you have it. I'm a bit worried that this look will be too subdued for Carol as her tastes are much more eclectic than mine but hopefully Phoebe will like?! Do you have any great bathroom ideas or links you want to share? We are all ears (and eyes)!