I love the liner, the niche, and the doors are wonderful! Nice job!!

Thanks so much, Lauren and Yadax! Know I put a toe outside the box by choosing pale yellow tile in 6x6 vs white subway, ha.

We begged our usual plumber to hook up our shower drain, so hopefully after today we'll be 100% functional if 90% done. Our temp shower curtain may end up being a long-term one depending on the budget and economy, but it's all good compared to the before.

Lauren, I know how even *with* researching older -- and thus often small -- baths I struggled to find ideas I liked for certain areas like the window. Now you and Marisany have provided GREAT inspiration for others, though a bit too late for me! Guess we've all been miserable for around the same amount of time.

I love all the same things you all do, but Lauren, I see you like what may be my favorite part of the reno...the fact that the cats got their own WC vs sharing ours! Sure wish we'd gotten around to *that* 6 years ago.

Cat litter box used to be behind a charming "oh that's good enough for now" blind
[we still need to hang our oval mate-to-vanity mirror]

...to a large formerly-annoyingly-open cubby on the stair landing that just needed doors and privacy glass!
[PO's increasingly-worn carpet aka another project since there's just plywood beneath]

I love the creamy yellow staggered tile! Square tile is more in keeping with our area...the subway trend didn't take off around here back in the day...the tilers used square or scored plaster a lot. That's one of the reasons we decided to use a combination vs all subway.

Still think about the black hex floor with white 'daisies' that I might have gone with if able to stick my toe outside the box. Just wasn't confident enough to take the plunge and stuck with white.

Forgot to say how beautiful those leaded doors are and what a great idea to get them in your bathroom. Bravo to Vix!

What's next for you? I'll be on the decorating forum working on our hallway picture rail and stencil, followed by the living room.

What a great bathroom - it looks twice as big now, light and airy. And oh, that oyster shell liner! *Good* call!!!

Congratulations!!!

Nice work -- love the liner. Love the terrazzo shower pan, too. Are they the folks who are down by the river on the inner north side?

And who made the vanity and mirror?

Did you frost/etch the vintage glass panels? It looks like they're not clear, in installation.

Thanks much, Charlikin and Flyleft!

Yes, I *love* how big it "lives" now, physically and psychologically. I used to go upstairs to avoid anything but paint-brush washing in the sink, now Mr Vix is making fun of me for lollygagging in there.

Fly, we started with that terrazzo manufacturer (Acorn Engineering, CA-based, would NOT recommend).

Long story I started to type out, but blood pressure/tension skyrocketing. So let's just say due to various reasons/inadequacies we were out 2 months of precious-to-us time and several hundred bucks more (gas jumped/shipping costs bumped) by the time we got our base from Creative Terrazzo (Chicago-based). CT was super-responsive and FAST, I just hadn't asked about finish -- assumed it was like Acorn's -- in all the chaos of switching, which is how I ended up doing my own! Love the looks/feel, hope it works out.

Vanity/mirror from Fairmont. [Steeply discounted floor model.]

Leaded glass is just as-is, but turns out that means with a greenish tint under all the deposits! [Had to sandblast/frost the reeded glass shower window at last minute, though, to get opacity at night. Another long grrrrrrrrr story. Not happy with Parr Lumber.]

Lauren, can't even think about next project, but of course there is a list...will try to keep up with yours!

Gosh that is so pretty. I love the cabinet doors, marmoleum, and soft colors with a little gleam from the liner tile. Thank you for giving me some ideas.

Hmm. I'm now rethinking my look-subways with glass or marble accent. I'm not a yellow person, but when you put it all together like you did, wow.

Hi Mercurygirl! I'm following your threads, looks like you're in the thick of things. Thank you so much for the compliments. It is nice to know that someone(s) out there like what I've done!

While I love a classic white bath, the 20s-30s had such WONDERFULLY colored tile I'm a bit sad more folks don't go that way. Our modest 1905 Oregon house probably lacked plumbing, let alone tile [Seriously! I'm dying to find out.]

I honestly could not be LESS of a yellow person, but a small dark bathroom in the grey PNW is what is is and I knew white would skew a bit clinical in that room with/without all our (great! new!) artificial lighting. Plus grey/yellow is such a classic prewar color combination it just felt right to me/us given we were doing a vaguely 20s bath. [My upper bath, should we ever recover from this reno, gets lots of light and will probably have white tile.]

If I had my druthers, did not live with a green hater, and no resale worries I'd do a jadite green -- or at least muted pale green! -- tile in a heartbeat. Or maybe orchid. I think old house people are much more tolerant of colored baths, actually, so resale is kind of a non-issue.

The field tile is Dal's "Crisp Linen,"and if you saw it in more light you'd be all NOT YELLOW. But I knew it'd be yellow in my room, ha. Dal has spendier lines with matte finishes and a couple of more pronounced yellows. Pratt and Larson has a gorgeous glaze on their pale "Butter" tile, too. But at 1.25 s/f for the Dal semi-gloss...we could justify the liner tile. Yellow tile with grey or grey/black marble accents would surrrrre be pretty!

You've seen Lauren's bath IIRC, and don't miss Marisany's white bath with cafe au lait tile accents. Keep us posted!

Here is a link that might be useful: Vintage Standard Plumbing ads -- COLOR! in the bath

Hey Vix,

I'm in the PNW too, so I know what you mean. Grey/yellow is great and really I like it because it doesn't read sunshine yellow. I can tell it's very soft and comes across almost neutral.

Thanks for the link. I've definitely been checking out all the vintage and mostly white baths, but I'm determined to work some color in with the accent. I'll probably go with my original plan, but if I had a bigger room I might reconsider.

In any case, I'm sold on the Marmoleum for my kitchen reno (next year) if the wood floor is shot in my 1941 house.

Best,
MG

We've been slowly working on final touches, and aside from putting another layer of paint on the upper window and adding the chrome hardware to it, we're pretty much done. Made a big difference to get that mirror up and hardware on the cabs.

Plans for shower glass doors got squashed by the dismal economy (as it goes so goes our job security), so I found a super-sheer curtain instead. Still trying to get a lucite rod that will "disappear" when curtain is back.

Thanks again for all the positive reinforcement to keep going!

Here is a link that might be useful: Vix Household Bath Reno

Truly gorgeous! The glass salvage doors are of course the showpiece!

You have done an amazing job with this; every detail is perfection. I have such leaded glass door envy. Doesn't the light thing here in OR suck? I am fairly well obsessed with rich, pewtery grays right now, but the idea of living with that color both inside and outide from November to April sends me running toward less moody - and often less interesting - colors. Speaking of interesting, I love the pale sea glas color you used here.

I love everything in this bathroom! (sigh...)

Just thought to mention about our glass shelf you might like too. After we started using our sink it seemed we needed somewhere wider than the 2" edge of the sink to set things down occasionally. Found a very simple glass shelf at Ikea for only $9 with two little chrome clips. Installed one in the upstairs bath as well because its adds needed 'set down' function to the sink area (not a great pic, it looks prettier in reality):

Can I just say that I'm stopping by for the first time in a few months while the baby sleeps and I'm SO JEALOUS. We gutted our bathroom the week after thanksgiving LAST YEAR and we're still not done. The holdup is all me of course - well and a baby who has been teething since he was 2 months old, argh. It's sooooooooo gorgeous.

And lauren, I'm so sorry I haven't been able to get back to you but yours came out AMAZING as well. I loved looking at the pictures, it's just too darn hard to type with only one hand free most of the time and time just got away from me. Maybe you could hear me cheering from here? Especially the floor. It came out awesome! No zigzags!

Maybe this will give me the push to get it done. Right now I am struggling with giving up the soapstone I wanted for just plain absolute black granite for the sinks because I can get that locally, templated and installed for less than it would cost for me to have to make two trips an hour away to get the soapstone and then pay someone to install it - and if there is a problem with it I will have to drive it back down for them to fix it etcetc. I just can't handle all that so I'm thinking of going with something mundane and not vintagey at all.

Anyway this isn't about me and my woes, it's about you and your gorgeous bathroom. I'm SO glad you went with the shell tile, I never would have forgiven you if you didn't.

Bluekitobsessed, Na_praha, Lauren, and KGW --

Many thanks! Trust me, not every detail is perfect and it took me some time to deal with letting go. [Which I've yet to master, actually.]

Lauren -- I do love that shelf AND its price but we don't have much room between tile and mirror, so I will probably file that away for Upstairs Bath. We have the 20w x 10h x 6d cubby to the right of the sink, so *so far* we've been ok.

Na_praha -- With single pane windows in the house I always have leaded glass window/door/sidelight envy. Hence my taking liberties with this bath since it wasn't a purist reno anyway! And thanks re the paint color. Since I didn't want a THIRD aqua-in-some-variation room, I swear I tried a zillion colors. But I realized I wanted a shade that blended with the unlighted sconce shade color, so I mixed something up and had Miller recreate.

BTW, know what you mean about greys -- thought long and hard before doing a stairwell/upper hall in a cool grey, but skylight + window + fir = not too grim, so:

MS KGW! Have missed seeing you around and was gonna send you a personal update, truly. Do NOT know how you got through a problematic reno being increasingly pregnant as I was losing it, esp over the [string of expletives deleted, ha] stuff that went wrong with terrazzo base and windows. I think you get a pass for lack of progress given what you endured PLUS given that you and your DH are new parents!

And as much as the soapstone sounds delightful, if you can shrug your shoulders and learn to love the black granite it may be a much better use of your time and energy. Keep us posted!

Hi Lisa! I'm very happy to hear from you again. Speaking now from the 'its done' bath zone (3 YEARS...its seemed impossible) it can be said with all confidence that you will like the granite as much as the soapstone. Your bathroom is beautiful and I look forward to more progress pictures! Your beautiful baby will grow faster than you'd believe possible!

When the tile was going in I said 15 rows of subway, then contracter said we'll need 16 rows to cover the light switch and I said okay and went off to work. When I saw it my first reaction was TOO HIGH! Oh no, I was upset...all my planning and now it wasn't right. Also, the even # of rows meant the top 6" would not align with the base 6". Fast forward...it doesn't matter. It looks great even though its high and top and bottom does not align. I had planned and visualized for so long it was hard not to have it exactly as it was in my mind. That's how it'll be with your granite, it will look great even though it wasn't the plan.

I love all of our 'vintage' bathrooms with new materials, and can say absolutely that mine would never ever be what it it now is without the inspiration and advice shared on this forum.

I'm just stumbling across this thread now but want to tell you how beautiful I think your bathroom is. I like the almost-Vintage look. I like authentic-Vintage too, but it's not for everyone. IMO, you bathroom has a timeless quality that will not look dated in fifteen years and have you itching to remodel yet again. Its aesthetic appeal should last as long as its functionality, and that is something to treasure!

Rosefolly

What a GORGEOUS bathroom! And very unique too, which makes it even better. You must be terrifically happy.

What's the name of that oyster-shell liner from DalTile?

I love your unique Vintage bathroom that I feel is beautiful and I love the choices that you made. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks so much Rosefolly, Mmme, and Lynn.

While getting through the reno was kind of brutal, I had a great time putting together materials that were all *used* in the early 1900s (terrazzo, linoleum, marble, exotic wood, shell inlay, glass cabs, 6x6 tiles) even if they weren't commonly *combined* together in modest residential baths, ha!

Mr Vix and I are definitely happy with the end result; as this is our 1st floor/guest bath and is right off our main hall, we're SO glad we don't have to see the old bath a zillion times a day anymore. And as I assume we'll sell someday we hope others will like it too...though it'd certainly be easy to put in a white pedestal sink and RH type of med cab to push it in a more "classic white vintage" direction.

[Our upper bath would be headed in that direction if we hadn't run over budget in the lower one and had to put that off AGAIN, but oh well.]

Mmme -- the liner is from Dal's Ocean Jewels series --> the Brown Lip Basketweave 1x6 liner. We went through a local, discount commercial place to get the best rate (better than our contractor could get, plus we didn't have to pay his cut on top of it).

Here is a link that might be useful: Dal Tile Ahnzu Ocean Jewels

vix, may I ask which local discounter? Was it BuyRite, by any chance? Or TfL? Thanks...it's a gorgeous liner. I would say it's my favorite thing in your project, but my favorite thing is actually how everything works together, so there you go :)

Ha...thank you!

I went through Linoleum City. [Obviously, they sell more than just linoleum!] Always worth getting a price quote from them for any kind of tile/flooring IMO -- esp as they don't mind working with DIYers. What they show in their space isn't much, but I think as long as they have an account with a manufacturer they can order for you (not sure).

I had seen the liner at Dal's showroom and gotten the retail price for reference, then priced it both online and via a few places that needed my contractor to order (man, they did NOT want to tell me what their price was, either, so as not to out the standard markup!). Ended up calling LC and ordering as "me."

After our GC couldn't seem an appropriate tile person for us, we also used one of their recommended pros for install. If you call and get [the very patient] Susie, tell her the shell tile liner person says hey!

Yes, this is beautiful! Enjoy!