Start by looking through Houzz for various looks that could be built around a footed tub -- do you want to go all modern, with sleek grey tile and a supermodern vanity? Or old-fashioned with pinwheel tile and a pedestal sink? Or keep some wood and other natural elements? Once you have a sense of overall feel, it will be easier to pick the components... (Also, do you want a shower?)




https://www.houzz.com/photos/231-easton-way-farmhouse-bathroom-atlanta-phvw-vp~6565252

@acm,
Great advice!

Thanks for the advice! We know that we wouldn't like to exceed 2000 dollars for the bathroom, it's fairly small. And that we are keeping with the more traditional look of the rest of the house, it's about 100 years old. We were thinking of using the wood in the back as an accent, whether we left it as is or painted it, and made the rest of the walls a more muted neutral.

Lots of the footed tub photos show wood, although it's usually on the floor, but probably a wood floor in here would eat a lot of your budget. I'd remove the wallpaper and faux brick or tile or whatever is on that same wall, and drywall the whole thing in a quiet neutral paint like a light tan or grey. I'd also add some open shelves at the foot of the tub (wall or corner), and maybe a cabinet above the toilet (which I'd keep for budget reasons and because it seems fine). Also, maybe at least a hand shower for the tub hardware, or go the whole way and put a wall shower and a circular shower rod.

Then your creative choices. You might leave the wood natural and go with a traditional tile like a carrera marble mosaic. Then your main choice would be whether you want a pedestal sink (and give up the storage of a vanity for that historic feel) or a vanity that has a little rustic tie-in to the wood, blah blah. You might be able to get something white with a carrera top that would look historic in that way -- it's likely to be more practical. (Don't let Houzz prices scare you -- this is a popular enough combination that it can be found much cheaper.)

I like the wood, but I'm not sure you can get a farmhouse feel from this, nor a spa feel, so your're sort of left with a 1970s feel. Leave it til last, though, and you can always paint it to match the other walls if it feels like it's competing with the style of everything else.

Hello beastie9
We believe you should completely remove the wallpaper and paint that area a solid color to which ever suits your taste. We believe you have nice bathroom cabinets already, but if you want to change it up, you could never go wrong with Wood-Mode style cabinetry. We wish you the best of luck!

Here is one idea, a bathroom that we transformed into an underwater grotto by printing an image of dolphins swimming above on translucent stretch ceiling material, and then installing that on the ceiling with LED lighting behind it. The backlit soap and shampoo coves were done the same way.