French Quarter Finesse Bathroom Renovation

Tile is the inspiration for a French Quarter Finesse design in the second floor bathroom renovation. After thirty-three years the bathroom needs updating to become more ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant, to replace worn out fixtures, and to add more French Country style. 

The actual work on the second floor bathroom renovation should begin this summer, and several posts with progress updates will follow periodically. This first post shows the overall design ideas from the planning stage and details about the tile selection. 

F R E N C H   Q U A R T E R   F I N E S S E

B A T H R O O M   R E N O V A T I O N 

No. 1

After weeks, really months, of researching online for bathroom fixtures in stock, the search is over for everything except new tile for the bathroom floor. 

The search continues for white hexagon 1"x1" ceramic tiles I fell in love with when I saw this image in a clothing catalog in the summer of 2011. 

I tore the page out of the catalog even though there were no plans at that time for new tile floors anywhere in my house. 

The floor, not the adorable yellow sandals, was what captured my attention and made the image stay in mind all these years. The small accent blue tiles, in a ring shape and as a border near the edge of the room, are a special shade of my favorite periwinkle blue color.  

The tile pattern design has only a few scattered blue rings which is one of the things that makes this floor special. More blue rings would make the overall floor design 'busy.' 

The search is for more than white hexagon 1"x1" tiles. 
The search is also for hexagon 1"x1" blue tiles. 

safety

While ordering a shower system faucet online, I described to the company's representative what kind of tile flooring I wanted. He quickly searched their inventory for tile and came up with some possible blue and white hexagon options and sent samples with my order. 

One thing he suggested was to choose matte finished tiles since the tiles were for both the shower floor and the bathroom floor. The matte finish will not be as slippery as a high gloss finish and is ADA compliant, one of the primary reasons for updating the bathroom.  

The first samples that came were 2"x2" hexagon ceramic tiles instead of 1"x1". But, I am able to see the white matte tiles are beautiful and can be used together with a few glossy finish accent tiles without compromising safety. 

French  Country  Style

The bathroom renovation includes using items with French Country Style just like every new addition, repair, update, and remodel for the past ten years. With each change, whether small iron card holders, carved wood lamps, or new flooring, each is chosen to continue changing my decor style to French Country. 

The same tile collection as the 2"x2" dark blue and white tiles contains three more shades of blue tiles. I ordered more tile samples, but in the 1"x1" size. 

These small 1"x1" tiles are listed as Silk White in color, but close inspection in person reveals smatterings of dark blue with the creamy pale, pale greenish-blue solid surface color. This color will blend with the predominant periwinkle blue used throughout the house, but is not dark enough to replicate the combination of blue and white of the tile floor in the catalog. 

Frost Blue is another shade of blue in the tile collection. This larger 2"x2" sample of Frost Blue tiles, on the left, is closer to the shade of the blue tile in the catalog page. Compared side by side with the 1"x1" Silk White color tiles, the Frost Blue looks more blue, and the Silk White looks more green. 

On order is a fourth blue color sample, Periwinkle (not shown), from another online source. From online photos the blue is an intense medium blue that may be the closest to the blue in the catalog. Small 1"x1" white matte hexagon tile samples should arrive with the Periwinkle blue samples about a week from today.  

The final choice of which blue to use is between the Frost Blue and the Periwinkle. Since not all colors are available from the same online source, the search for tile has taken weeks. When the latest tile samples arrive, I should be able to reach a decision and order the tile for the bathroom renovation. Taking time to see the tile sizes, finishes, and colors in person before ordering is worth the wait. 

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All of the bathroom fixtures, other than the last tile samples, have arrived! In the next post about the French Quarter Finesse Bathroom Renovation I will share the fixtures, an update on the final tile choice, and a link to a Pinterest board that has the bathroom materials I chose. 

The final post in the Dream Sunspace Design series is also coming soon. 

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I am setting up a new email subscription service with MailerLite. Current subscribers do not have to do anything to continue receiving the latest posts direct in their email inboxes. Please excuse any hiccups over the next two weeks as the transition occurs.