Hello Nancy! You can search for a designer locally starting with the "Find Professionals" tab above.

@Barnhart Gallery, thank you. Are you interested? Cheers - Nancy

You will never get contemporary and timeless with that shower.

Thank you Nancy, but I think you'll want someone close by for the best service. Houzz is a great place to start both in finding a local pro and building ideabooks to help convey your design aesthetic to the person you work with.

As I struggle to think how I might work with the existing tile, the first idea that comes to mind is to go all white with flooring and fixtures, but select other ombre bath accessories. Or maybe hit up the clearance section for single boxes of flooring and ombre the floor...?

Certainly no one else will have a semi-updated TJ Martin bath like yours! Would love for you to post back with the results.

You are awesome! Love your creativity. I'm going look at where you're located. I really, really appreciate your taking the time to make such suggestion.

Cheers - Nancy

I'm not clear why you are insisting on help from a designer but most people designers or not cannot work with such a dated tile. It doesn't make sense to do a redo like this.

@wmacvinnie, I appreciate what you're saying, but did you see the creative idea Barnhart Gallery in MA came up with? I would have hired her/him in a heart beat if only they're located closer.

@Sophie Wheeler, isn't it human nature that we all like to be led to water but not forced to drink? I would rather come to the conclusion of redoing the shower myself instead of being told it's a non-starter. I really like Barnhart Gallery of MA's suggestion---so creative.

OK, what you are basically saying is you don't want to gut this bathroom, you want to "fix" it up and make it more interesting, so here is what I would do if I was your designer. I would remove all the wood things on the walls such as toilet holder, and towel holders, etc. I would select a new toilet "comfort height" in white. Here is the palette I would go for and it would work with the existing shower and draw the eye away from it.

Notice the tile on the countertop. Looks like your shower tile! OK, a nice sea green or even deeper color. You could replace the corner sink unit, if it is in bad condition, but I would replace the faucet with a new chrome one and then paint the cabinet a deeper green/blue color to keep the focus on the new color not the tile of the shower. I would replace the shower doors with frosted shower doors that look kind of green glass to block out more of the tile look. Then I would add loads of mirrors to reflect light around the space. I would add new funky light fixtures and some deep teal towels and little flower arrangements like on this countertop and viola! New bathroom with minimal cost. I wouldn't replace the floor at this point, because eventually, the whole bathroom will need to be gutted so minimize costs now and save for total redo later. Here is another use of color to distract the eye from all the mid-century features that were not replaced. Use satin finish paint on the walls. So you get a bit more reflective qualities.

Glass like this and notice the color palette. Love the scones here too. Lighting can make a big statement for a more contemporary look as well.

Yes I like Barnhart's idea. It is a create solution but I just can't get past the tile. Ultimately it's your space and you can do whatever you like! You will have to be creative to "hide/minimize" the eye from the tile.

Nancy, here is another deep color that would really help shift the look of your bathroom. Strong deep colors in small bathrooms are a great way to bring interest and in your case, draw eyes away from the tile you don't like, but in fact kind of make it look "intentional".

This is more to the blue side but I wanted you to see that just because you hae a small bathroom, you can still do big and make it look better.

Flo's green scheme is probably the best solution here, but I don't think anything is going to help that tile. If this were my bath, I'd gut it and start over.

It ain't just the horrific tile. It's that equally bad door. It's that old plumbing behind the wall that has a limited lifespan. It's how the floor and wall intersects with that tile, etc.

A gut needs to be a total gut or it's MORE expensive by far in the end, and lipstick on a pig in the mean time.

The green color suggested by Flo is probably what would work best. I assume you just want to make it prettier for now. If you are selling anytime soon, then I would probably just paint the wall, vanity, remove the wooden holders, replace the faucet and clean the floor grout. I know houses there are crazy expensive, old and tiny, so anyone who is buying will probably gut the bathroom.
If you are staying, then change the floor tile as well

Y'know I'm home sick this weekend and flying on ZyrtecD. I meant to come back with a color option last night (zzz!) and Flo picked a gorgeous one in that smoky near navy tone of blue.

So here's Flo's suggestion with your existing shower...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/traveller2020/4118039375

Barnhart's suggestion is great, Grover's work too. That would give you an effect looking intentional and complimentary. It will not, however, look contemporary. The tile is not a minor feature you can detract from and work around; it's something dominating the entire space. Either work with it as suggested, which will give you a good, not contemporary design, or gut it and get a contemporary design.

If you have to split projects due to cost, do the shower first. It's the real problem, and will make the most difference when it's done. Yeah, you will still have issues where it joins the rest of the room, but not as bad as the other way around.

Thx all. If I forgot to mention it, for sure I'll replace the shower door. In fact, a better way is to say, I'm open to replacing EVERYTHING from top to bottom EXCEPT the shower tiles to start. I have a couple of reasons: 1. the previous owner invested in quality. I bought the house in '92, because everything they did had a quality feel. (I also learned the original builder T. J. Martin had a reputation for building quality homes back in the '50s) 2. I'm a meticulous, single person whose housekeeper has kept the shower/tiles/my whole house meticulous 3. I have a friend whose gorgeous Portola Valley house was sooooooo meticulously designed with a "rustic elegance" theme that though he didn't replace his shower tiles in his master bath, everyone who's seen his house have fallen in love with it. Realtors tell him all the time, when he's ready to sell, don't bother to stage it, because it can't be improved. Everything about his house is quality through and through. It's well designed/decorated but in a very livable manner. It's not a "look but don't sit/use" type of house at all. In the back of my mind, I'm resistant to tearing down the shower, because fundamentally, there's absolutely nothing wrong with it. Even the caulking is in perfect condition Everything else could go, because the toilet is not water efficient, the floor tiles have 1 long crack across several tiles, the walls were painted 2 years ago with the wrong color, and all the wooden stuff are not in perfect condition like the shower tiles. I haven't investigated the cost difference btw complete teardown vs designed and partial remodel based on keeping the shower. No matter, Barnhart Gallery's ombre look really intrigues me.

To do your shower right, using good quality materials, the flooring using good quality, etc., etc. figure $20K-30K. It can be done for less if you are handy, but showers require very good approaches to water containment and that costs. Materials would include new plumbing (and you might run into code issues that will raise the cost as well) and fixtures plus the toilet and corner sink and cabinet, etc. Figure labor will be about 120% of the cost of materials. Lowest 5-6K for materials double plus gets you to 20K plus for minimum effort. Bathrooms are second only to kitchens in cost. btw, if your floor tiling is cracked like you described, you have a potential foundation problem if this is on a slab. As a minimum, that tile wasn't installed properly or is poor quality. Might be ceramic which cracks easily. Anyway, good luck.

@Nancy Chou what is the size of your bathroom

Claire, it's about 65" long x 58" wide i.e., measuring from the floor tiles, not including the shower alcove.

So your shower is about 3 feet overall your bathroom is an 8x4

@Claire, you might be right about my shower being 3sq ft. I didn't measure. But adding 3' to my dimensions, it would be 65" (5' 5") L x 94" (7'8") W. Note, my initial floor measurement of 65 L x 58" W matters, because the shower is just an alcove. On the other side of the shower/alcove is my hallway closet. I'm not willing to knock out my hallway closet to make the shower potentially twice as large, because closets are a premium in an house built in the 50s. For a single, minimalist adult, my master bath works for me from a functional point of view.

It is a functional shower and by no means would I suggest to knock the walls down to make the shower bigger...the reason for asking is that the vanity is cornered and to me it makes the bathroom seem smaller. I would place it frontal and install ceramic wood flooring, open shelves above the toilet. Maybe wallpaper

the additional information helps understand this. If the quality is great, keep the tiles, you can work with them, and get a good design, but don't try for a distinctly contemporary design, it will clash badly

Nancy, does this friend have the exact same tile as yours? If he does and you like it, then do something similar.

Nancy, I'm also in Silicon Valley and your home is in a red hot real estate market. Spending money on the bathroom to update it will only add multiples of value. But if you're single and staying, then don't spend money beyond paint and new towel bars until you come to terms with that shower tile. A new water efficient toilet in white is a cheap update that you can reuse when you redo the tile in that bathroom. The designers are correct in this case. It's a case of spending significant money and then having to spend money again because you didn't get rid of the dated tile. White bathrooms tend to withstand the test of time. I might suggest a dual flush ultra low flow toilet for this market given our water bills. They make a comfort height elongated bowl 1 piece that goes nicely in those mid century homes.

First of all, I want to thank the many people on House who shared with me their opinions before I started my master bath remodel on my Silicon Valley, 1272 sq ft, 3Bd/2Ba home built in the '50s.

Although most of you advised me to tear down my outdated 25+ yr old shower tiles and warned I would regret not doing so, I considered this possibility seriously, and decided to go with my gut of keeping the shower in tact for the following reasons:

1. 1. It would have doubled my remodeling cost. As is, I can replace my shower any time w/o impacting the rest of the bathroom. At most, I’ll need to custom reorder the small pane of glass shower door for $300, if the new shower doesn’t accommodate my shower glass perfectly.

3. 2. My shower is in perfect condition in every way, even the grout is perfect. My contractor said, “Wow, no one does tilework like that anymore” and proceeded to point out to me the attn to details/mastery demonstrated by the people who installed the tiles originally.

5. 3. The tiles never did and still doesn’t bother me. Plus, once I had the room paint matched, and all the accessories from the shower door knob to towel bars to my clothes hamper carefully selected, I love the overall effect. This is a home that I will likely make into a rental in a few years. I created luxury by investing in Porcelanosa vanity and flooring. Procelanosa is normally rather expensive, but I bought everything at 40% off during its once a yr sale over Thxgiving. At that price, it’s only 2X as expensive as other brands. Therefore, I could afford and justify the splurge.

Bottom line is, I learned creating a harmonious flow is the key. When you are trying to remodel judiciously and money is a consideration, these are the questions I had to ask myself:

1. What I'm thinking of keeping, is it still of quality? Is it worth keeping? In my case, my shower tiles are not just in good shape, they're in exceptional shape. So they were worth keeping.

2. What design elements are musts? Given my tiny bathroom, storage is critical. This is why I chose a free standing vanity that has 3 functional drawers and a tall storage. I added electrical outlets in my medicine cabinet and in my drawer to hide my electric toothbrush and hair dryer respectively.

3. What would I need to do and what compromises would I be willing to make in order to create the necessary flow if I combined the old shower with everything else new? I decided the key is to add quality new, because quality old + quality new speak volume. In addition, I was willing to work around the color scheme dictated by my shower. Although it's not necessarily my first choice, all else equal, when I finally pulled all the elements together, I LOVED the overall effect and was relieved that I didn't have to fuss with color selection if I had gutted the bathroom and started from scratch.

What else made me happy with my remodel?

1. My contractor, Tim Hanuschik of Commstruction Maxx, 650-814-5052, constructionmaxx@me.com. His work ethics, atten to details (including cleaning up so I didn't find my room full of dust at the end of the project), very reasonably priced turnkey proposal, and all the little advice/suggestions he brought up along the way that made a HUGE difference made my bathroom remodel experience one that I couldn't have asked to be better. Tim and his partner, Abi, completed my 2-week remodeling job on time and on budget!

2. My ability to be decisive and get organized. Just before Thxgiving, I decided I wanted my bathroom remodeled. So, it took me 2 weeks to shop all the parts before deciding to go with Porcelanosa all the way. It took 2 more weeks to get 3 bids. I waited 2 weeks for Tim to begin constructions. And, it took him 2 weeks to complete the job.

It feels amazing to start 2018 with a new master bath that I've waited 25 yrs since the last owner remodeled to suit my taste!

Forgot to show the paint was color matched to the tiles with the darker shade on the accent wall behine the vanity. Rest of the bathroom is in the lighter shade which made the room feel more spacious.

Couldn't resist "Sparkle More" decor, above my Toto UltraMax toilet (opposite from my vanity wall), which was on clearance at Bed Bath and Beyond for $6! At that price, I can always replace it with something cooler with the mood strikes me.

Great results! Good for you!

Looks good! Glad you kept the shower as it was.

Hello Nancy -- I got your message; thank you for inviting us back to see what you've done! You've managed to squeeze a good amount of storage into a small space and bring a modern touch to your old tile shower. Thank you for sharing!

Dare I say your "Sparkle more" piece made me smile, because of a funny thing we say around my house. I have a sweet and perfectly behaved 2-y-o very girlie dog Alaska, who is a Great Pyrenees/Husky/Golden/Lab/Eskie mix rescue, but when she was a puppy, she got into all kinds of mischief. I'm also famous for doing a dog voice-over, a leftover habit from when I was trying to teach my son about animal body language -- I'm constantly translating for them. So one day, when my husband caught little Alaska trying to sneak a ball of tin foil out of the recycling, she "said," "I sorry Daddy! I is eating tin foil to make my poop sparkly!" And ever since, when she wants to go out, we ask her if she needs to go sparkly poops. Is that TMI? Sorry, but it made me love what you put on the wall for my own reasons. I'm guessing your reason is to encourage you to spend as much time as you can dressed to the nines on dance floor -- impressive!