The author’s smaller-than-standard hall bathroom, tarted up with toile. / MyLittleBird photo,
THE ORIGINAL BATHROOM in my 1890 rowhouse is a bit smaller than the midcentury “standard” 5×8 feet. So I swathed it in black-and-white toile (wallpaper and fabric), installed sconces and a hanging light fixture, and basically treat it like a glorified powder room. I didn’t replace any of the major fixtures—sink, toilet or tub.
Would that I had seen this post from Houzz.com years ago! The homeowners and designers who tackled these basic baths breathed new life into out-of-date rooms, making them appealing as well as more practical.
Of course, none of this change comes cheap, and some costs were hard for the owners to calculate because their fix-up was part of a larger renovation. Nonetheless, next time I’ll know better.
—Nancy McKeon