Tweaking the Master Bathroom

It was so lovely to have the Before and After of our master bathroom featured on Apartment Therapy (one of my very favorite home decor sites) recently. Check out the feature here if you haven't seen it. It's great to hear feedback on the design choices I've made in the house, and I get a major thrill from possibly helping inspire others to create a home they love.

Of course, getting some press also reaffirms my love for much of the master bathroom design. As happy as I am with it though, there has been one area that I keep thinking doesn't look as good as it could, and I've been struggling for a while to put my finger on what exactly it needs. The WC: 

Sure, it's fine - clean and crisp, with the same marble and brass elements we have in the rest of the bathroom. We have the Cadillac of toilets in it. There's not a lot to complain about. But, even with the addition of a few decorative elements, including this handsome fellow who makes me smile every time I see him, I think it feels a little stark.

I wanted to keep the overall feel of the bathroom light, bright, and clean. I think I've achieved that in the larger open space, but the WC is a small, enclosed room with no natural light, so I think it can handle something a little more dramatic. 

When tasked with adding drama to small rooms, my mind immediately goes to wallpaper, so I've been looking at some of my favorite sources and have narrowed it down to a few favorites. All images are from Pinterest. 

First up, this floral stunner from Ellie Cashman: 

  

The amazing thing about this design is the scale of the florals is HUGE - the biggest flowers are like a foot across. It's fully Alice In Wonderland in the best possible way. But, let's be honest - B spends a lot more time in this particular room than I do, and I don't think he wants to be surrounded by enormous flowers while he is. If he did, though, this one would absolutely be a winner.

Also a floral, but I guess I'd call this a more masculine one:

I'm feeling the combination of metallic gold with charcoal grey, and think this would add a nice note of glam to a decidedly un-glamorous room. It is a little more traditional though, and I'm not sure I want to go trad in this space.  

Another floral I like is this one:

It feels sort of Japanese (you know, to match the toilet) to me, and I think the spare design is really pretty and modern. It reminds me of something you would see in an expensive hotel  bathroom (not a bad thing!). 

Another option is to go more geometric,which I haven't really done with any of the other wallpaper in the house. There are quite a few options in this style that I like:

I do like it, but if you read as many home design books/magazines/blogs as I do, you've seen this wallpaper a zillion times in a zillion different rooms, in a zillion different colorways. It makes sense, because it is super good, but I feel like it's a little expected and played out.

This one is cool, and is definitely not something you see everyday: 

I want to stay away from anything with too many right angles and straight lines, as I don't want it to compete with the strong grid design of the shower at all, but I think this one may complement it just right.

This next one is a MAJOR contender:

It reminds me of the design of my all-time favorite handbags, Goyard, and I love the combination of grey, black, and white. I also think it would play nicely with the floor and shower. 

This one is pretty darn amazing too:

Again, in the perfect mix of grey/black/white but in a super cool and unexpected way. 

However, this particular style of wallpaper also comes in the most AMAZING multi-color option and I might want to reserve the right to use it somewhere down the road:

Fornasetti can always be counted on to bring the pain, and there are a couple of their wallpapers that I think are insanely good for this sort of space. 

This malachite version is fantastic and love how abstract (and almost sort of hand-drawn) it looks in black and white:

If you were good with a sharpie (I am not), I'll bet you could DIY a version of this that looks legit.

I've also been dying to use the famous Fornasetti faces wallpaper somewhere and think they are so rad:

But, I value my sleep too much to run the risk of freaking myself out with a bunch of disembodied heads on my walls when I run to potty in the middle of the night!

So, a lot of these options are fairly aggressive in terms of their design, which I think is what I want. But, I also keep going back to this much quieter (but still SO sexy) option:

Ignore the random dress form in the image above, and focus on the detail in the wallpaper. It's all black, but has a crocodile skin design in a shinier black finish. I think it's so cool and would make me feel like I was inside a Birkin whenever I was in the room. Would it work in a WC? I don't know - it's probably more naturally suited for a closet, but I can't stop thinking about it.

I obviously haven't made up my mind yet, but of course I'll update when I do. And in the meantime, I'd love to know which wallpaper you would choose? 

Thank you for reading!