I like greenotter's suggestion of a smoky blue. SW Misty is great; I also like the chip next to it with Upward, Windy Blue, and Aleutian. We have Aleutian in our master bath.

I love what you have picked out.
My favorite room is my computer room in
black and white.

That being said , it depends on what feel you are going for.
The grey,blue in any brand is going to give you a cool look and feel.
The inside of a shell is going to warm it up for you.

You need a visual of cool colors and a warm soft coral or
?

I love the vintage look of b&w with pink. Either a very pale barely-there pink, or maybe something like BM Odessa Pink. Lavender also looks great with b&w.

I'll never get over Silver Sage, I still love it dearly. I also like the deep soft coral idea. Ooh yeah.

But not gray. Gray could be scary and cold in a bathroom (sorry, my opinion only).

Whatever you choose, that is a gorgeous bathroom you got going there.

I'm thinking sort of "pistachio" green or something tourquoise-y, too. I'd hazard a bet the color I used for Mum's suite would be very nice... look for a BM card that include #s 711, 712. I don't know the "names", but have used that card repeatedly with smashing success.

Lisa, do you have the book Bungalow Bathrooms? Probably some inspiration in there.

It's going to be beautiful, no matter what paint color you choose!

I agree wholeheartedly with Bungalow House, no matter what you choose, it will be beautiful and timeless. Do you like warm or cool colors? I think a buttercream would look great and warm it up a bit or a smokey lavender color would be very rich, sort of an art deco look. I'd go with the buttercream, in almost a warm yellow shade because that is the feeling I want in my bath. You've made great choices and almost any paint color would work, which isn't a bad problem to have :)

I'm another vote for taking a look at Bungalow Bathrooms. You will get great inspiration with the photos in that book!

Is the door stained or painted? I'd coordinate with your door.

First of all, thank you so much for designing my future bathroom (which is similar, in terms of tilework, to my present bathroom)--lol. LOVE this bathroom. I, too, am one of those that is getting tired of SS. I like the idea of a buttercream--but that would depend on whether you like yellow, and people tend to have strong feelings about yellow (oddly), and how much natural light you have in your bathroom. Otherwise, I think a grey-blue would be very sophisticated.

I love your new bathroom!

Is there a reason you are second guessing Silver Sage?
Out of every color suggested, I feel it would work the best for the look you are going for. It's a timeless color.

In the silver sage collection, there is a color 'pale silver' sage and I think it would be a great color. DIL has both and one in public area and one in powder room. I like the 'pale silver' much better, comes of cleaner cooler, more bathroom-like.

I think a soft yellow would be stunning!

Thanks for the great response!

Part of my issue is remodel fatigue I think. We gutted the bathroom back in November and then spent 5 weeks fighting for the plumber to get his butt back out here to finish roughing things in and when he finally did, he did everything wrong/not to code, which cost us several hundred dollars more to get someone else in to correct it. In the meantime I have not had a full night's sleep because I am traipsing downstairs to the bathroom every 3 hours in the middle of the night.

So basically I'm questioning every decision I've made at this point and paint color is the only thing I can still reasonably change. There are so many gorgeous thing out there but not when you're on a tight budget :/ every time I see something beautiful I second guess all of the decisions I've made. I think I've done a decent job with $2/sf tile and the most inexpensive liners and trim I can find, and our bathroom is pretty large (has hundreds of square feet of tile between floor and wall and shower) but I'm getting cold feet now that we're looking at actually installing it in the room at some point in the next month.

I am not over sage yet because I have never in my life used that color. On the other hand I AM wondering if I am over all of the "white and green/blue green/blue" vintagey bathrooms out there. I think that is part of why I've incorporated so much black - although the white and blue/green are so beautiful, serene and period - just a nice crisp and clean look, I think I just wanted something just a little different than those but still classic.

The other thing is that our upstairs is shaping up to be very blue. Our bedroom is basically beiges and aqua, we found out we are having a boy and the nursery is going to have a lot of blue (because I love the color blue!) so I'm balking at doing more of the same in the bathroom a bit I think.

I know grey is super trendy now but count me with those who find it leaving them cold, even if it's a warmer grey.

I do have bungalow baths but there are not really any examples of a pure black and white bath. There are several colorful tile with black trim examples and a lot of white on white with lots of different wall colors, but nothing that really inspires me colorwise for my bath. There is an awful lot of green though, maybe that's why I first gravitated to SS and now am a little sick of it without even putting it on the wall yet.

Buttercream is a very interesting idea. I was at my parents' house last night and looking at paint chips for my parents' two guest rooms and my mom had this set of 1930's colors from SW and I was drawn to a buttercream-like color (before even reading the responses here) and wondered how that would look. Great minds and all that. :) I think part of it is that I think I just want something warmer to balance all of the cool tones in there maybe. SS does read pretty warm in some lights and originally I felt it was sort of the best of both worlds - sort of soothing and clean while not too cold.

Here are a couple of images I found on rejuvenation's website. The buttercream rooms also have buttercream/golden tile but hopefully you can mentally edit it to white. I also pulled a coral example, which is much bolder but I think DH would nix.

So thoughts with those visuals?

I think also figuring into it is that I feel so BORING right now. My downstairs rooms are all shades of gold/neutrals and upstairs is shaping up that way also. Do I want another soft gold in the bathroom??? Or would that be a good thing to tie in some of what's going on downstairs with upstairs? Or am I just overthinking everything?

Here's another example. ACK they even used my brilliant never used before idea for a border on the floor! (so much for thinking I'm all original and stuff, sigh!) I think the yellow is too pale and washed out but it at least shows yellow with black and white. I'd be using grey grout though.

I would find that so jarring in the morning! I think I could only handle a little prodding with colorful towels :)

Well DH just shocked the heck out of me. I just showed him the coral example and asked what he thought and he said "I LIKE IT!" After I picked myself up off the floor I asked why and he said it reminds him of his grandmothers old bathroom (Which is pink and black) without being pink.

Then I showed him the top buttercream and he said he really liked that too. He liked that they were both warmer than the sage.

He said he thinks the buttercream is "safer" and "less likely to become dated." Who is this man and what did he do with my husband?

So now I guess we are open to coral too. I don't think he ever was in love with the sage either but it was "fine." Now I need more opinions!

I love the yellow, but it is not surprise as the main color in my house is yellow ;)

In the absence of an inspiration from Bungalow Bathrooms, I would just pick a color that I like that I would NEVER use in another room in the house. The bathroom is very liberating that way, especially since your tile is black and white. I like the peach idea.

I hate to say this but the coral color next to the black is a tad halloween to me. I love the buttercreams but it would have to be the right one. Not too bright and not so light that it gets washed out. I also would still consider a soft, serene blue. Or the smokey blues mentioned above.

Lisa, I was thinking last night about the Honeysuckle in your living area. I don't think you need to pull those colors through the house. I always feel that a bathroom is a nice place to make a departure, color-wise.

That coral is just what I was imagining in my first post. Like the inside of a seashell. That is such a flattering color and I think it warms up the cool feeling of the tiles while still remaining classic.

To me, the buttercream is too nebbishy.

Well, I guess grey is out then, eh? LOL

I am not crazy about the buttercream - it just bring anything special to the room. Not that it doesn't work (almost any soft color will with the black and white), but I don't think it adds anything.

A pretty coral would be nice, but imo it would have to lean to the orange side rather than the pink side. The coral in the pix above seems way too strong for the look you want - take a look at BM Nautilus Shell or Antique Coral and see what you think.

The other thing is not to discount white walls in there. My grandmother's bathroom had the white hex tiles with black in a pattern around the edges, and white tile on the walls, and a white clawfoot tub - and a transom above the door, truly a vintage bath. The walls were white - and the whole space just always seemed so crisp and fresh. I can still picture that bath vividly, and the last time I was in that place was probably 40 years ago. Add some framed vintage pix on the walls if you like, old ads for bathroom products, and call it a day. If down the road you really feel you need more color in there, you are talking about painting over white walls, not pulling out tile or even that much wall space.

Congrats on the boy - I have two (old ones at 17 and 21) and they have been a blast!

Candace Olsen did an Art Deco inspired Kitchen using black and white cabs and flooring some months back. I don't remember the color she used on the walls. Why not look it up on HGTV.com?

Silver Sage does not come off blue in all rooms. Depending on lighting is can come off more green. Why not try a large swatch on the wall? RH sells $4.00 cans for testing. The Pale Silver paint from RH is very pretty and is not a true silver. It's just a very light version of Silver Sage.

I've had silver sage in several rooms. In order to work, in my opinion, the room has to have LOTS of natural light, or it's just grey and cold.

My favorite color to go with black and white is green. My kitchen with white subways/black counters is Lowes olive 3.

If you hate green, this color may not work for you!

Alternatively, Lowes sand 4 is a nice, warm brown that also goes excellently with black and white.

I love your bathroom plans and I love black and white bathrooms. This is going to be a stunning bathroom.

How about BM Woodland Blue? I think that is the name on the walls that I have seen and liked. It is a warm pretty blue with a touch of green and just feels peaceful.

How about black? I know it sounds extreme but on an episode of Room Service the host Sarah Richarson did a very classic bathroom like yours and put black paint above the wainscotting of white tile. It was stunning. It was very classic but with a surprising twist.

I read the first two lines of the original post and Silver Sage popped into my mind. Freaky.

Lisa: In the February 2008 issue of "House Beautiful" (p. 18), one of the designers, Whitney Stewart, had this to say about C2Paint's "Enoki 425" paint color:

"I'm always looking for the new neutral. This is it, a soft camel that has red and green and yellow in it. That's why it goes with everything. Can't you just imagine it with icy blues? Chutney orange and sage? Or black and white--always smart. When a color transcends itself to coordinate with so many different colors and still retains warmth, it jumps to that ethereal level. It's a color you just love to be around. You would feel like a million dollars in a family room, a living room, a kitchen painted this color."

I think it could work beautifully in your bathroom, as well. The color, as represented in the magazine, looks dubious, but when I think about it, on a wall, it might actually be stupendous. It's one of those colors that's difficult to decide on, I think, until you see it "in action." It's very different, however, and might really be the one to take your bathroom to the next level. :)

Lisa, I've been doing some doodles with one of your inspiration photos above. Hopefully with a little imagination you can envision your own bath ;) (I changed the tile to white, to get more B&W in the photo, and then painted the walls.)

I have some here, more at your album, and I'll work on adding more in a little bit.

Lisa's Album

Original photo, same Buttercream walls white B&W tile:

Ebony

Soft, medium blue gray "Gravel drive"
{{gwi:1542804}}

Shallow Tide (I'm still running through the colors, trying to get a better 'silver sage')

Salmon Shade

I'll be back with more, I want to tweak the sage, blues, and coral/salmon. Meantime, any direction you'd like to go, let me know.

Forgot to change the towel color, will fix that ;)

Both blues and the buttercream walls look great. The blues would be so relaxing..............

Orange is a wonderfully happy color. Folks who use it just love the mood it puts them in, so I hear/read. I'd think it would be a good way to start the day in an up mood with energy.

What you've picked is beautiful, and your drawings are just wonderful. What drawing program are you using?

Ohhhh..I love moonshadows Ebony! Stunning!

I'm green with envy! I adore black and white bathrooms, and I miss my clawfoot tub. The wonderful thing about black and white is that you can use almost anything with it. In my previous home, I had quite a range in my black and white bathroom: salmon paint, black and white toile wallpaper, tone on tone white wallpaper, EK celadon paint, etc. Paint is cheap, so have fun!

I like all the colors MS posted above, esp the ebony! which looks to have some purple in it :) I wouldn't rule out white either. To me, either pale or deep and dramatic really stands out.

OK, I did some corrections. (Tired last night and wasn't thinking.) Hope I've not sent Lisa into overload ;) Check the album, there are lots more:

Lisa's Album

Silver Sea

Thimble

Dockside Haze

I couldn't resist posting this red ;)
Chinese Laquer Red

French Bulldog (hopefully this one doesn't render purple?)

Here is a link that might be useful: More here: Lisa's Sample Bath

Loved the purple undertone :) This one does have more gray in that far left corner. I think they all look awesome! I think I could even deal with that red in the a.m., the way it appears in the virtual, as it has a nice softness to it and is very soothing.

I've been having so much fun clicking through colors (so much goes with it!), I forgot about things like putting on makeup! Don't want to give Lisa morning sickness, ack! ;D

Here SQH, this one's for you:
LA Ironwood

Well thanks! I love those smokey amethysts :)

First, congratulations on expecting a little boy! :)

Second, I love your tile choices, it reminds me of the little black and white bath in my first little house. If you don't mind my asking, where did you get the floor tile in the first picture? The small hex tiles? I had that bathroom painted egg-yolk yellow, and then jade green.

I painted my first floor vintage bath (in my current 100-yr-old home) a lovely robin's egg blue (Aqua Chintz... Behr or Glidden? One of those.), and have used white towels with black trim and monograms as accents. It's pretty, but I think I'm over it already as the color has become more popular. I think I'd like to change the walls to pale gray, with light yellow accents. But I see you've already ruled out gray. If you've already got a lot of blue going on, I'd vote for pale yellow or pink. I am excited to see what you choose, your drawings are beautiful! Good luck!

Here is a link that might be useful:

I have to echo what has already been said about the SS. I have seen it in a bathroom with no natural light and it looked pale gray. Not blue or green at all. Just gray. Keep that in mind.

Lisa, I was trying to find a nice coral like the one on your photo above, so far no good matches. I wanted to suggest a color, though. It's a Lowe's paint, the Eddie Bauer line, and the color is "Slice". I held onto a swatch of that color for the longest time, I really wanted to incorporate it somewhere but it didn't pan out. Anyway, it's very close to the color in your sample photo above, and might be something that you like ;)

Thanks for all of the virtuals, moonshadow! I think it shows me that any color will look okay, I just need to figure out what I want. Would anyone shoot me if I said I was drawn to the chinese lacquer red? Unfortunately, now I'm more lost than ever. :)

punamytsike, I'd say you're a little biased there. :)

bungalow house, I like the idea of doing something I wouldn't do in any other room. For whatever reason I've ended up with a lot of safe neutrals (I think because of existing colors I needed to work with, like seafoam green downstairs).

lindybarts, I don't see the halloween thing at all. Maybe it's just monitors.

amy, you crack me up :)

And on that note, sorry Les but white leaves me as cold as grey does. Maybe in a small bathroom it would be nice but this bathroom is almost 10x11 with very wide wood moulding that I'd like to pop a bit. The ceiling above the tub is also sloped so I will likely be doing the wall and ceiling all one color. Too much white, I'd feel like I was in a big padded room.

I will check out those corals though, if I can ever find my dang paint decks. This house is such a #*(@)( disaster with the remodel. :/

jerseygirl, I know what episode you are talking about and that one is responsible for pushing me into NOT doing hex. I can't believe how poorly that tile was installed! The lines between the sheets were so obvious and seeing that was the last straw for me - I had been wavering but I saw that disaster and said forget it. Then I discovered I could use octagon and dot and save about $1k in tile and I was sold. Anyway that room is a very grey/black/white room and I'm not sure I want to go that monochrome/cold.

thanks daisy. I'm not a particular fan of green in general (and not olive green for myself) which is why silver sage was such a departure for me in the first place.

Thanks Lynn. If I go back into the blues I will consider that one.

greenotter, black may be chic and unexpected but since i'm neither.. hehe, I just can't picture it in such a big room. Again if it were a small powder room type space I can see going for that much drama but I think I'd like to be a little less drama free.

graywings, that's how i ended up with SS. It was my first thought. Now I am having second thoughts. :)

I need to get going but will respond to the rest when I have a chance (work has been busy and I've been tired).

You're welcome. One thing that kept recurring over and over is that there are so many colors options that work with the B&W tile! That could be a good thing - or not ;D

Would anyone shoot me if I said I was drawn to the chinese lacquer red?
Not me! As soon as I hit that one I went "wow!" ;D

Great work, Moonshadow! After all those visuals, I wouldn't have any problem choosing a color, it would be the salmon, or maybe the buttercream, or then again the chinese lacquer red also looks good....like I said, no problem! Have fun, Lisa, it looks like there are a lot of good choices out there, you could always leave it up to dh, right?! He sounds like he's evolved during your decorating process. If only my dh didn't care so much it would make redecorating easier.

And congrats on the upcoming baby boy! I have two wonderful sons, 16 and 22 and can't believe how quickly they've become young men. Enjoy!

I like the blue that is on the wall in your illustration!

I didn't read all the posts above - so sorry if I'm repeating this - are there other colors in the house that this room needs to flow with?

If you are still considering something in the SS vein, but want something a little more vibrant (yet still soft and subtle) check out Ellen Kennon's Aqua. I sampled it last week (got the sample within 2 days - it was really fast!), and ended up using it in my new master bath (remodel now in progress). It's really gorgeous. Doesn't read grey at all - it's almost exactly as Ellen describes it on her webiste as "crossing the fine line between green and blue." I was a little apprehensive when I came home last night after the painters had come - I feared it was going to be too overpowering once it was up on all the walls, but it's not at all. It's rich, yet soothing and quiet at the same time (if that makes sense). I also seriously considered SW Sea Salt, which is another beautiful color with that same feel - but it's a little more subtle than I wanted to go. In any case, I think either would look fantastic in your bathroom. Here's the link to Ellen's site - if you scroll down, there's one photo of a bedroom painted Aqua. It'll give you a feel for the color, but the photo isn't great, and I'd say it's much, much nicer in person, and with better lighting. (Her color visualizer is also way off in its depiction of the color, IMHO.)

Here is a link that might be useful: EK Full Spectrum Paints site

Okay I'm back with more replies. Anyone who is bored of me can just ignore :)

OSH, I admit that the color doesn't sound much better than your initial reaction to it, but i'll check it out. Camel isn't really that appealing to me though especially considering I already have it in my dining room.

mayvenne, yeah, everything looks great with black and white. Argh. I don't think I realized just how versatile it is. I mean i KNEW it was fairly neutral and had possibilities but seeing all those colors and how well everything works is just more confusing.

oceanna, I use plain old autocad to draw my plans and elevations. It's not really meant to be a "rendering" tool so much but I try to make my elevations somewhat detailed so I can see whether what I am thinking about will work or not.
Thanks, I hope it looks as good in person when all is said and done (another 3 times downstairs to the bathroom last night and I just want my dang toilet back).

lindybarts, they they look really nice but I think too dark for what I'm going for. They'd look gorgeous in pictures and in a magazine spread but i don't think it's a space I'd love to be in every day.

squirrel, that narrows it down! :)

amanda, thanks for the congrats. Will be back with nursery questions once I have a working toilet. Although DH liked coral I think he would draw the line at pink. :)

kmcg85, thanks for the warning. It looks fantastic in the stores under all of those display lights. :)

moonshadow, I will check out that color. I emailed rejuvenation to find out the color and they said they didn't know but recommended I print out the picture on my printer and have it colormatched. Um are they crazy???

onourway2nc, yes, you see my dilemma. Thanks!

roguevalley, I don't think so. It's just a big room off a central hall. It's not like it's the "master bath" or anything.

acomom, thanks for the recommendation. I just emailed them yesterday and requested they send me all colors they have added since 2005 when I first got my sample pack from them. They emailed me back within hours to say they'd be sending it out, yay. Aqua is one of those new colors. It will be interesting to see what else she has new. Also I should check out the old too - I was reading through her descriptions and she recommends terracotta for bathrooms. I had forgotten I had those but something a little more complex might be just right for the space.

And amanda, I wanted to put this separately so you had a chance of seeing it.

Hex tiles are widely available from anyone who sells american olean, but those particular tiles are very matte glazed and very flat edged. I found them from someone on the baths forum and they were VERY VERY nice to work with and will ship. The same time is sold at waterworks for presumably a lot more money (or so they told me) and it's really gorgeous stuff. Unfortunately when faced with being a little sick of seeing hex everywhere and it not working out nicely for the borders I really wanted vs. paying 1/5 the price for octagon and dot i went the cheap way, but it is really gorgeous stuff.

Here is a link that might be useful: tile shop hex

Thanks, Lisa!! I appreciate it. The matte finish and very flat edge are exactly what I've been looking for. The only ones I found were glossy and had a pillowy edge. (I don't know if they were American Olean or Daltile, one of those I think.) I really like the border design you've come up with using the oct. and dot, though! Can't wait to see how it all turns out.