Decorating and Design - Bathroom design

Hi,
I have a really small bathroom with two entrances. The floor is a cream colored ceramic tile. The cabinet/vanity and sink/counter is from 1967. There is a mirror along the whole wall behind the sink. We would like to make this a really beautiful bathroom, if possible being so small. We are thinking about a cherry wood vanity, white marble top. And also thinking about taking the huge mirror down and putting up a smaller trimmed mirror. Do you think this would look better than the whole wall mirror?
Also our doors and the trim around them are white, would this look all right with the cherry wood vanity or would a wood color look better? Any ideas?

I live in a rental that has a little bathroom with a dark vanity that drives me nuts. The dark color accentuates the smallness of the room and the vanity sticks out like a sore thumb.

You need to visit some bath and cabinet shops to see what is available. The trend is to go with something that looks like a piece of furniture, i.e., a three-drawer chest or a taller cabinet that has legs or bun feet. A painted finish might give you the illusion of greater space. Lighter colors tend to make smaller spaces seem larger.

Even better, perhaps a pedestal sink! These come in a variety of sizes and some have large surface spaces on both sides of the bowl. Pedestal sinks take up little visual space because of the openess beneath them. An elegantly framed mirror and updated light fixtures over a new vanity would certainly update your bathroom.

If trim in rest of the home is painted, you should go with painted trim in the bathroom for the sake of continuity. If trim is stained, then go with stained trim. You will also need to carry your color scheme from the rest of your home into your bathroom. This can be done with wall color, towels, and accessories. The key is to have some continuity and flow of your color scheme, theme, and decor.

if this is your master bath, and your bedroom furniture is cherry, then i think a cherry vanity would be beautiful with white woodwork. that's a current look i see a lot, then paint the walls a grayed pastel color, like sage or robin's egg blue or a light taupe/tan or very muted gold/camel.

a smaller framed mirror is a nicer touch than the big unframed piece of glass, but be practical too. if this is the mirror you get ready in front of, make sure it's big enough, especially if 2 people need to use it at the same time. it must be functional.

don't forget to get a really fabulous faucet for the new vanity. the vanity & faucet are the focal point.

Our current master bathroom is somewhat smallish, with a window facing the vanity. We replaced the small medicine cabinet mirror with a large african-style wood framed one and it made the room look HUGE. (Luckilly our remodeling plans changed such that this will be a permanent thing.) Maybe go for a large but framed mirror? I am no decorator or expert, just our experience!

Hi All - I just discovered this site, & joined because it looks like there's some great info here.

I'm remodelling a smallish bath myself (9.5 x 4.5) & just bought a dark-red wood vanity that I love the looks of, thinking I would refinish it & possibly paint it white. But when I brought home a sample of white marble for the vanity top, I loved the look, so I'm thinking I might leave the original finish, which puts me in the same position as logcabin.

I'm thinking of touches of the same color wood - perhaps the medicine cabinet &/or a cabinet above the toilet, & I might repaint the current mirror frame to match as well.

I would definitely leave the other woodwork (door frame, molding above the wainscoting, etc.) white & paint the walls & wainscoting some as-yet-to-be-determined color.

The flooring still has me baffled though. The ancient linoleum currently there has GOT to go!