A bathroom remodel feels like seventy decisions. It's really seven, and the reason it feels like seventy is the order.
You fall for a tile, then find the vanity you wanted doesn't fit. You choose a vanity color, and the countertop won't sit with the tile. Every choice reopens the last one, and at two in the morning there are forty tabs open and nothing is decided.
The rule: most expensive to change first
Make each decision in order, from the thing that costs most to change later to the thing that costs least.
- Layout and vanity width
- Main wall tile and grout
- Floor tile
- Vanity finish
- Countertop
- Metal finish
- Paint and accessories
Don't move on until the current one is settled. If a later choice makes you want to reopen an earlier one, change the later choice.
1. Layout first
Everything else sits on the layout. Tile is cut around the fixtures, the countertop is cut to the vanity, the mirror is sized to the vanity, and the lights are placed to the mirror. Moving a drain later can cost thousands.
Decide where each fixture goes, how wide the vanity is, and whether any drain moves, before anything is ordered.
2. Then the wall tile
The wall tile is the biggest color in the room, so it leads every finish after it. Choose the grout with it, not later. See a sample on the wall in daylight and at night.
3. Then the floor tile
Grip first, then looks. It has to work beside the wall tile sample, and it's tile two of a maximum of three.
4. Then the vanity finish
Hold the vanity sample against both tile samples. Warm tile wants wood or a warm paint. Cool tile wants pale oak, white or a gray-green.
5. Then the countertop
It shares a color family with the wall tile or the vanity, never a third. If the tile has a pattern, the counter stays plain.
6. Then the metal finish
Faucet, shower, mirror frame, lights and handles. One finish, or two with a simple rule (everything that touches water matches).
7. Paint last
Paint is the cheapest thing in the room to change, so it comes last, chosen once the tile is on the wall, in the room's own light.
What about the order of work?
This is the order of decisions. The order of work on site (demolition, plumbing and electrical, waterproofing, tile, fixtures, paint) is your contractor's job. Making your decisions in this order means everything is chosen before the work that needs it.
FAQ
What should you pick first in a bathroom remodel? The layout: where the fixtures go and how wide the vanity is. Then the wall tile.
Do you pick tile or vanity first? Tile first, then the vanity, matched to the tile. But the vanity's size is part of the layout, which comes before both.
When should you choose paint? Last, once the tile is on the wall.
The map, with a test for each stop
The Bathroom Decision Map, No. 05 in the Decorwick Measured Home Series, has the seven decisions as a map with a "done when" test for each, 30 finish palettes that already work together, and a spec sheet for your contractor. See The Bathroom Decision Map
