Tile fun!

Finn is now a certified tile expert after enduring at least a dozen trips to different tile stores in the last few months!  Choosing tile for two bathrooms was harder than I thought it would be, probably due to the time pressure we were under.  We had also already designed two bathrooms in our house so it was a little more difficult to come up with some new ideas as we didn't want to do the exact same thing.  Here are a few pics from our one and only house bathroom before the big remodel.

About 10 years ago one summer we returned from a big vacation and decided to go ahead and demo our very scary bathroom.  I wish I could share the before pics of it but I only have print photos from back then that are in storage right now.  The bathroom had dark paneled walls and a really tight lay out.  We ripped out the low ceiling and all the bath fixtures including the tub.  We then added beadboard paneling on the walls,  painted the exposed boards ceiling white, added a skylight, installed white hexagonal ceramic tile and bought a vintage clawfoot tub which we sanded and painted ourselves.  We also bought a new pedestal sink and toilet.  I had always wanted a cottage style bathroom and this was my favorite room in the house.  I really miss soaking in the tub after a long day but happily this bathroom will stay exactly the same even though it is out of commission during the remodel.  It has actually been the temporary laundry room!

The next bathroom that we designed was for our studio cottage.  This was a huge undertaking as we needed to start from scratch with new plumbing.  Because the studio was going to be more modern in style, we decided to use totally different materials in the bathroom compared to what we had used in the house.  A glass tiled shower that we saw at a resort in the Bahamas was the inspiration.

 Here are the before pics:

We decided to place the bathroom in the left back corner of the studio.

Pretty scary looking!

Lots of work had to be done and it took a very, very long time...

The bathroom is behind the kitchen wall.

Here are the amazing after pics!

Mr. Bamboo installed the Hakatai mosaic glass tile himself.  His meticulous attention to detail in doing so was incredible as it was a huge challenge to get all the tiles to line up, especially around the edges and in the shower niche.  It took him about 5 months working off and on during weekends to get it finished.  The tile we used is called The Horizon Series and if you click on the link you will see our shower as the feature picture!  The bamboo sink counter was also designed and built by the mr. as well.  It is made of Plyboo, which is a bamboo plywood material.  Overall the studio bathroom has a beach spa vacation feel to it and we love the way it turned out.

Choosing different tiles for Finn's bathroom and the master bath was a lot of work.

Some of the tile showrooms had playrooms which was really helpful!

Finn was a pretty good design assistant though!

After finding a limestone tile that we loved for the master bath floor and shower, we decided that we wanted a glass feature wall where the shower fixtures will be.  It took a lot of work trying to find a glass tile that we liked and that was also different from the glass mosaic we used in the studio.  After a lot of searching we hit the jackpot at the mother of all tile stores, Daltile!  They have an amazing showroom in San Diego with very knowledgeable and helpful staff.

Here are a few tiles we ended up ordering.  

I will share more details in the next post!

For now here are a few pics of Mr. Finn taking a bath in the clawfoot tub when he was much smaller.

What a cutie!