Recently, I was working with someone who wanted to remodel their guest bathroom. It was your standard builder tub with drab tile in the shower area. She wanted a contemporary but not trendy look, and I decided it would be fun to share this experience with you and offer some tips. The dilemma is how to update a small old bathroom with no window to have a contemporary but not trendy look and easily compatible for resale. Here are a few ideas:

What size tile in the shower?

You will hear many differing opinions on tile sizes for a small bathroom, and a lot comes down to what you prefer. Many will tell you that you shouldn’t use large-scale tile and the reason is the grout lines. To solve this use rectified tile that has clean square edges, therefore, the distance between the tiles is minimal, and you would choose a grout color that matches the tile color, in this way, the surface looks like one piece with no chopped up pieces.

Example using longer subway tile in white for the shower walls, and a decorative pattern in black and white on the floor:

What size tile on the floor?

When you are talking about tiling the floor of a small bathroom, you can use large-scale tile there as well and place them at a diagonal to fool the eye into thinking the room is larger. Smaller tiles in patterns, think five or six-sided tiles or patterns of smaller tiles that create a larger motif adds nicely to a small bath.

Glass doors or Shower Curtain?

As the homeowner was keeping the tub for resale value, she wanted at least one tub in the home; she asked which would be better. Glass doors or a shower curtain? The answer to that could go either way; again it comes down to your personal taste and what you want.

Glass doors are overall more preferably looking however when you are dealing with bathing kids, etc. you want to lean over your bathtub and have easy access. If you decide to go the shower curtain route, use elegant fabrics in a solid color, use a shower curtain rod that matches your bathroom’s hardware. Or you can select a curtain mount that goes floor to ceiling, and use curtain tiebacks to offer an elegant look. There are many ceiling-mounted options that you can use, or go modern with easily installed Ikea options, or check out options at Bed, Bath & Beyond. Note:  In your remodel, make sure your ceiling fan works properly and moves the humid air out of the bathroom. If moisture stays in the air, your hardware will rust.

I checked with a glass installer that I know and found out that the most popular installed glass shower door enclosures are in the Serenity group, here is an example of how that door looks:

If you need help picking out a style or color combination for your bathroom remodel, give me a call 610.955.8202 or email for a consultation!

By Debbie Correale, founder and owner of Redesign Right, LLC. You can learn more about her at RedesignRight.com. Find her on Facebook.com/RedesignRight, Twitter @RedesignRight, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Houzz, Google+ and Instagram. Feature photo from Houzz:  Robby and Lisa Griffin Design.