What do you get when you combine a Type A personality with the most gorgeous marble and glass tile you’ve ever seen?
A bathroom makeover that took me more than a year to complete!
This marble and glass tile bathroom is the biggest DIY project I’ve ever tackled, and my goodness she turned out so pretty. This is the hallway bathroom of our house we recently sold, and here’s a look at how it looked before I ripped it out and gave it a beautiful facelift:
Brown, beige and boring.
And after!
Bright, shiny and beautiful.
I was so excited to partner up with The Tile Shop again for this project. We last worked together on my DIY kitchen backsplash which was such a huge transformation to my “builder basic” kitchen, and now they’ve helped bring that same magic to our builder basic bathroom!
For this project, I knew I wanted to do something that would stand the test of time (read: not look dated anytime soon) but I also wanted to bring in just a smidge of color. This was Kate’s bathroom and, at 5 years old, she’s pretty interested in pretty things.
I worked with Lisa Cayer, the manager of my local Tile Shop, to select samples to bring home and see in the space. One of my favorite parts of that process was when I picked out a dark blue and green mosaic tile that was pretty colorful, but I wasn’t in love with it. Lisa looked at it, looked at me, and then very kindly remarked, “I think we can do better than this,” as she took it from my hands, put it back on the shelf, and steered me in another direction.
I love that kind of honest and helpful customer service!
I was envisioning doing a colorful tile on just the back wall of the shower, so Lisa introduced me to their beautiful glass subway tile which comes in a variety of colors and has a high-gloss sheen for a more modern look. The color I chose is “Water” which is a soft, grey-ish blue. I also love the look of The Tile Shop’s mosaic tiles that use a mixture of stone and glass, so I decided to add a strip of their Mischiare Biltmore with Snow Glass mosaic as an accent. It’s a mixture of marble, shiny white glass, and frosted white glass, and it ties the glass subway tiles in with the marble in the rest of the room so beautifully!
Marble and glass mosaic tile paired with glass subway tiles.
With a splash of color and mixed materials on the back shower wall (the focal point of the room) I decided to keep the rest of the bathroom nice and neutral with The Tile Shop’s beautiful Hampton Carrara Marble. I went with 12 x 12″ square marble on the right and left sides of the shower walls, and 8 x 19.5″ rectangles for the floor.
8 x 19.5″ rectangular floor tiles – a great option to elongate small spaces.
I am crazy about this rectangle shape! It adds more interest to the space than traditional 12×12″ square tile, and it also helped our little bathroom feel a lot larger.
Ooh, I should mention something else I love about these little rectangular beauties…they’re heated underneath! Prior to tiling the floor I laid down a radiant heating system to keep Kate’s toes nice and toasty during our cold Wisconsin winters. After I laid the coils (and before I laid the tile) I had an electrician come out to test the set up and hook it up, including the installation of a programmable thermostat. There are multiple programs built into the thermostat, or you can customize it however you’d like it. During the winter months we kept the heating system on at all times, but programmed it to turn down low during the day (when Kate wasn’t home) and warm up prior to her wake up time and bath/bedtime. Of all the beautiful parts of this bathroom makeover, that heated tile floor is definitely at the top of my list!
Here’s a look at the 12 x 12″ squares on the sides of the shower wall, and the recessed tile shelf I added for bath storage:
This little bathroom took me a long time to complete and A LOT of sweat equity, but I’m so thrilled with how it turned out. So long boring, builder basic bath – hello bright and beautiful bath time retreat!
Disclosure: This project was a partnership with The Tile Shop. All opinions are 100% my own.
Want to see more of our bathroom makeover? Check out the kid friendly bathroom fixtures we installed that make bath time and bedtime a breeze!
My favorite kid friendly bath faucet – click to find out why!
Like this post? Check out the transformation a DIY tile backsplash had on our builder basic kitchen!
Gorgeous!! I have always wanted to update our builder grade showers too. Was it hard taking the original shower sides out to replace with the tile? You did a phenomenal job!!
Thank you so much, Pam! That part was actually pretty easy – I hired out, haha. I wasn’t about to mess with plumbing so I hired a professional to remove our old plastic shower surround and install the new tub and valves (and then to later add the faucets).
Smart!! Well it turned out so amazing!
Thank you so much! We’re so proud of it.
Oh Dusty – this is simple beautiful -clean, sparkling, and bright! I love it!!! I’m currently looking for tile for my kitchen reno (oh my, kitchen renos are no joke, I am so OVER IT already). My budget is super tight – and I just discovered there is a Tile Shop in Towson, MD, not too far from me. Do you think they can help me? I’m getting my granite installed in a couple of weeks and then I’m onto this backsplash choice. Everything I like on their website is way out of my price range – and I get overwhelmed so easily with all the choices lol.
GREAT JOB!!!!
~dt~
Thank you so much, Diane! And congrats on your kitchen renno – how exciting! Your local Tile Shop can definitely help you out. I’ve been all over the place with choosing tile for our new house but went to our local Tile Shop and the customer service I received was amazing as always. I told them my budget and some of the things I had in mind, and my overall style. She steered me in the direction of some tile choices that were in my budget and even BETTER options for me than what I was looking at online. Plus I’ve noticed that tile looks so much different in the store than it does online. I was linking up to some of the tile I used for this bathroom makeover and it doesn’t even look the same to me on the website! So yes, definitely give your local store a try!
OR…if you’d prefer my awesome tile guru at my local Tile Shop she was telling me today that she’s happy to help out any of my readers – no matter where you live! She can do consultations over the phone and send you samples. If you’d like to be in touch with her her name is Lisa Cayer and she can be reached at lcayer@tileshop.com.
Good luck, Diane! I hope you find something that you totally love!
Wow! That tile is gorgeous – I love the strip of marble and the mix of tiles. Just beautiful and well-done.
Thank you so much, Kim! It was so fun and easy to pick out tile for this space knowing it wasn’t our “forever home” but now that we’re looking at tile for our new house I’m all sorts of stressed! #fearofcommitment
The bathroom turned out great! Love the Carrara marble. Where is that towel hook from though?!
Thank you so much, Sara! I found the towel hook on Amazon and it’s one of my favorites! Here’s a link (my Amazon affiliate link, FYI): 18″ Hook Rail/ Rack. I had two of these in our entryway as well for coats. I love using hooks in a bathroom (versus a towel bar) b/c it’s so much easier to hang up your towels! (And takes up less space.)
I agree! And it’s much easier for my boys (the big one and the littles) to use. Thanks for the link!
That’s so great to hear, Sara! My pleasure!