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Blue Ensuite Bathroom Reveal

Victoria Ford
Prepfordwife Main Bathroom Reveal Vanities

Hey girl hey! I know we have been all One Room Challenge all the time but alas! I owe us all this bathroom reveal! This blue bathroom is the ensuite bathroom in our home. It was recently featured in the May 2021 Issue of Country Living Magazine for the Make Over Takeover but I have been meaning to bring it to the blog so it would have a permanent home here too.

With that said, so much of what’s featured in this post was sponsored in collaboration with the Country Living spread. And there are some affiliate links as well. They cost you nothing but I may receive a commission for them. As always, thank you for supporting the brands that support PrepFord Wife.

Ensuite Bathroom Befores

Bathroom Problems to Solve

There is no need for a bathroom renovation if there is not a problem. *Louder for the serial renovators in the back* I’m guilty of having a design spiral every now and again as well but for something as big as a bathroom renovation, you should be working to make the space more functional for you while making it aesthetically pleasing.

In this bathroom, there are some very clear warning signs of what needed fixing.

What We Loved

Surprisngly there was much to love in this space.

Bathroom Inspiration

As usual, I started with one image that sent me spiraling. This one. (You can see this couples’ full house feature here. I’d put it in this post but I’d hate to drive traffic here off of their beautiful work.) But that was the goal. A little rustic. A little post war. But still a little Victoria. And what’s that mean? Blue.

Blue bathrooms are kinda my thing. See example A and B here. I find blue to be soothing. I also just find it to be an easy finish for others to digest as well. While I don’t explicitly design spaces for resale (after all, if people want a different space they’ll do it for themselves too). I do think about what will be most palatable after a few years especially with the permanent fixtures in a space like tile and flooring. So I let the color blue and the above inspiration pic guide me.

Bathroom Mood Board

I am not usually the mood board type but I’ve found with the Country Living shoots that it just makes sense to be able to articulate my vision to someone else besides Marcus. I’ve tried pretty stylized version but these real rough cuts that live in Powerpoint tend to be easier to explain what I’m going for. The key pieces on this mood board are the blue, the classic hex floor, the bead board and the vanities. Everything else was negotiable for me in some way. I try and stay flexible with the way these COVID lead times are operating.

Blue Ensuite Bathroom Reveal

Dual Vanities

Some time ago on Instagram, I asked the question, “would you rather have a long vanity or two smaller vanities in a main bathroom?” The vote was pretty much split down the middle but what I continually heard is that partnered folks would rather have single vanities for two reasons. 1) To minimize their partners junk all over the place and 2) to minimize clutter that sits in the dead spaces of the sink. Marcus is a neat cohabitating partner so really it came down to clutter in the dead spaces for us and the ability to have dedicated storage space to ourselves. That was the true win in this scenario. So when I chose these Signature Hardware vanities, I went into it with that in mind.

Because we have a really tight bathroom, only 52 inch across, I knew I would have to choose something that was designed for a powder room if I wanted the double vanity. I kept my eyes peeled for 18-24 in vanities that would be around 36 in tall. After that last debacle of a short vanity, I was never going back. I also wanted something that was elevated with a fancy foot that felt like furniture. Oh and it had to be dark wood. I wanted this space to feel both timeless and 2021 at the same time and dark wood just screamed that to me. The Keller Vanity topped with the Mellwood Faucet and Nostalgic Hardware knobs gave me that. It’s such an elegant option.

I accidentally ended up with these World Market Brass mirrors after realizing that the mirrors that I originally ordered were way too large to fit in this space with the triple sconces from Hudson Valley Lighting. And there was no way I was giving up the lighting. So after a quick run to World Market with curbside pick up the day before the shoot, These babies were ours. And we kinda love them a lot.

Tile Floor

When I thought about tile in this space, I knew it was Fireclay Tile since we love what they do and have always wanted to use them. This was the perfect excuse. Not only do they have a wild range of colors but they also have a great story. Fireclay is a B Corp company meaning they’ve been scored on a number of things that make them a incredible company. Like they’re a carbon neutral company with 80% of their products made from recycled materials and 100% of their factory electricity is renewable. I could rave about them all day and it’s an honor to have their tile in our home.

I decided to keep it classic with these 4 in hex tiles from Fireclay in this floral arrangement. I opted to bump up the size from the traditional 1 in for a little more modern style. It doesn’t hurt that this style is included in quick ship and will arrive in five days or less. A bit of a no brainer. Because I ended up loving this style so much I carried it from the room into the shower with a white grout to finish it off.

I always wrestle with the decision of using white grout because that means a ton of scrubbing on the floor of the bathroom. But if I used a darker grout, then soap scum would be visible. We tend not to wear shoes in the house though so I decided to risk it with the white grout. The risk is paying off. We’ve had this space for about three months and it’s been pretty painless to clean the floors. Any way…

Shower

I live for a good shower. I don’t know if you can tell from the original photos but we opted to open up the wall in here by around 6 in. It was a tight space. The doorframe that was in here made it tighter. (At the time of these photos the door wasn’t installed but I will be sure to update them to include a photo of the glass door as soon as I can.) Not only did that create more space for us but it also let in more light. More light is always the goal for us especially since we used this slightly darker tile.

I fell in love with this Dusty Blue Fireclay Tile as soon as I took the sample out of the box. Fireclay Tile does an amazing job with colors and no one has as wide a range as they do. Because I was picking a slightly less traditional color, I opted for a the classic size subway tile with white grout. I took the tile to the ceiling to create a steam shower.

YALL! Can I just tell you how much I love this shower? One of my rules for showers is that I will not renovate one without a sprayer. I could technically live without it but if I am already ripping walls out? Let’s do it right. A sprayer just saves much time on cleaning both the shower and my body.

The Cooper Shower It reads as a little complex but is super simple. The top knob converts between the shower, the off setting, and the hand sprayer. The bottom knob controls the temperature. So essentially, you can leave the bottom knob set and just cut the top knob on and off. What a low key game changer this has been. It insure that each time I get in the shower, it’s magic. (There’s no great way to photograph this but just trust me on it).

The Walls

We decided to just go for broke and wrap this space in this color. We opted for a tall 60″ bead board after eyeballing it to see what would be tall enough for our preference. We painted it in semi-gloss Shewin Williams’ Smoky Azurite that was also eyeballed for a match. I’d say it’s pretty close. We made sure to also include the window area so it would be totally cohesive.

There you have it. There’s our little blue ensuite bathroom. When we are finally done our whistle stop tour of room with Country Living and One Room Challenge, we’ll be back to make little edits in this space (like a new light switch). Ah well. Thanks for hanging!

XO Victoria

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