wallpaper will make it feel more closed in, fine for a powder room, but for a full bath with daily use, it feels overwhelming. I am not a fan of floral paper for a main bath.

Have you considered papering the ceiling as a feature? How tall is it?

I would not use pink tile.

Polished Chrome is a great choice for a bathroom, all the same color and classic, clean and a bit of shimmer.

a large format shower wall tile in a light color will keep it from feeling closed in, like a cave.

a large format floor tile will make the room feel a bit larger.

Tone on tone with paint, tile and paper with texture rather than a color pattern and one dynamic feature will make for a calm/classic space.

@Lyn Nielson

Hi, thanks for chiming in! I get it's not for everyone, but to be honest, we always wanted to have florals in our bathroom. We noticed it's a consistent theme across the spaces we saved as inspiration when researching over the months, and loved the look of floral tiles at showrooms. Our other rooms will also lean into natural themes, we just wanted this one to be more airy/pastel, exactly so it wouldn't be too cave-like!

But a dual-tone paint would be an option to consider.

The floor tile we are considering is 60 cm / 23.6 inch. The ceiling is a standard 2.5 m / 8.2 feet.

I love your ideas, @plantsarefriends! I have a tiny pink and green primary bath, with floral wallpaper. The wallpaper does not make anything look smaller; it makes it look like my own special jewel box.

My personal preference is for tile part-way up the wall, and paper above that, but there's no one right way to do it. I considered papering my ceiling, but decided against it. Figuring out how to do the pattern matching seemed too complicated.

Are the wallpaper patterns you show in your Canva ideabook the ones you are actually considering? Or are they just ideas for the sort of wallpaper pattern that interests you? I had a lot of fun finding wallpaper. Mine is a reproduction of an original pattern from the 1940s.

I think keeping a silver tone for all metals is simplest.

You might want to wait till you have chosen your wallpaper before you pick your paint. I chose my "white" (it's a creamy color of some kind, I don't remember the name off-hand) by picking out the lightest color in my wallpaper. That way it doesn't jar, as a true white might against the paper.

You can see some photos of my primary bath here:

https://www.houzz.com/plans/primary-bath-pp~5420028?stepId=saved

If you have any questions about where I sourced anything, I'll be glad to share. If you have all that covered already (it looks like you might), then don't let naysayers put you off your vision.

Incidentally: A dilemma is a choice between two alternatives, which are, or appear to be, equally unfavorable. If you are on the horns of a dilemma, you cannot even choose the lesser of two evils—they are each as evil as the other.

Very few situations posted about on Houzz forums present actual dilemmas. Problems, choices, questions, ideas—any or all of these, yes. Dilemmas, no. And I wish the editors of Houzz had consulted a dictionary before misusing the term.

@tozmo1 Thank you for your feedback and encouragement! I really hope we can make the space our own <3

Thank you for sharing that, @amystoller!! I'm so glad someone with similar taste found this :D I adore your bathroom, it's lovely, and just a bit retro and whimsical – which is not too far from our vision. The soft green border is such a nice touch. <3

The wooden seat is great, too. I'll add that to our options. It won't be right next to the cabinets, so I suppose it wouldn't need to match perfectly.

Yes, this is a real selection of wallpapers we like from a local store! Though we might search further. As you say, there's just so many fun options. We'll be getting samples soon, to compare to the cabinets and tile irl :)

Did you have any problems with your wallpaper peeling or bubbling? These I showed have vinyl finish and are bathroom-approved, but we never had them before. (We are okay with redoing it if our vision fails, though. Tiles would be harder to fix haha.)

Thank you for the tip re: paint, btw!

You're very welcome for the tip on paint choice! I hope it serves you well.

I've had my wallpaper almost three years, and so far there are no signs of peeling or bubbling. Sadly, there was no way to install an exhaust fan (a structural issue with the entire building my unit is in; no way around it), and there is no window. So I shower with the door open, and I keep my showers pretty brief for the most part. That way the room doesn't steam up. But at least I shower in pleasant surroundings.

Just in case you haven't thought of this already, do make sure your contractor puts blocking in for grab bars in your shower. You don't have to put the grab bars in yet if you don't want to, but the blocking is essential if you don't want to have to tear down your shower and put a new one in when the time for grab bars is at hand.

All your wallpaper options are lovely. And I think it's great that you're trying to support a local business. Getting samples is smart. Seeing the real finishes (wallpaper and tile and paint chips) all together can save you from making a mistake—or confirm you in your initial brilliance!

Have fun! I hope you'll show us the completed bath when it's all done.

@amystoller Thank you again for so many good points! I'll make sure to share the result. :) Still a long way to go, but I'm excited.

We can get the tiles by the end of the week, so we'll probably test the layout with a few ones irl. The transition would be at corners – one wall cream, another wall small pinks.

I really like bottom left, but I think it wouldn't add up (since the vertical pinks would have 2 spaces between them).

Currently leaning towards these:

The tiles are the same ones shown here together.

I like the wallpaper in the upper left corner of your post with 4 wallpapers. It's light and airy, so won't make the room look dark or small. The classic thing to do with accent tile is to have rounded accent tile at the top of the tile. I have that, it looks good. I'm not sure I'd do a large format tile for the floor in a small space. It's much easier to have small tiles to go around corners and obstacles.

I have wallpaper in mymaster bathroom, including about a foot above the shower cubicle. It came with the house, which we bought 15 years ago. We shower in that bathroom daily. The wallpaper is a light green leaf design on white. The green is sparser than your chosen wallpaper, but, but it's light and looks great. We have small tiles on the floor, which allows a few green ones for a pattern.

The description says there are metallic highlights in your wallpaper Not sure that won't end up looking cheesy.

I think you could select a wallpaper that makes a stronger statement on the walls but still be light in color if that is important to you.

@Sigrid Thank you for the vote on wallpaper! May I ask what you mean by rounded accent tile? If you were comfortable sharing your bathroom, I'd love to see it! Real examples are the best inspiration and by description alone, it sounds lovely. And I am surprised the wallpaper had held up so well, that gives me hope!

@BeverlyFLADeziner No metallic bits on the wallpaper. Thank you for the visual options! I do enjoy the look of more watercolor-like ones.

I'm not Sigrid (obviously), but I believe the "rounded edge" refers to bullnose. I have bullnose (convex curve) at the top of my tile run, and coving (concave curve) where it meets the floor. I also have proper rounded corner pieces (which probably have names, too, but I don't know them). You can see these details in the ideabook I linked to earlier.

Yes, it's bullnose. My bathroom is a mess and I'm currently using the tub to quarantine plants with pests.

Ohh okay, thank you both! That makes sense. Our edge will be higher than eye level, so I suppose it could be okay without it..? I looked at the ideabook again and it certainly makes for a neat finish, same with the softened corners :)

By the way, if anyone felt like scrolling through gorgeous wallpapers (prefiltered to nature / abstract / art nouveau and our approximate range of colors), this one makes it hard to choose 😍

In my opinion, it won’t look right without the proper finishing tiles. I suppose you could use a Schluter edge, but it wouldn’t give you a harmonious final effect. If you can’t find matching bullnose, complementary bullnose will still look better than no proper edge finishing.

@amystoller So I went ahead and checked, and none of 3 wall tiles we considered have complementary tile edges :/ Or any matching parts, really, just different tiles from the same series. I think I saw the edge ones before, but it doesn't seem widespread. I don't believe I ever saw the outer corner or lower ground ones, though – which is a shame, it's brilliant.

I think this might be the usual solution here (forgive the state of it, it's an ancient rental), just a plain edge to cover the cut tile:

Another option might be extending the tile to the ceiling (in the shower stall, at least).

I must apologize! Until I clicked your wallpaper link, I thought you were based in the US or Canada. Are you actually in Czechia, and making all your purchases there?

The finish in your photo just above looks just fine to me. Alternatively, running tile to the ceiling is perfectly fine, especially in the area surrounding a shower or tub. What I was concerned about (on your behalf) was having raw, unglazed tile edges showing. That is what I had in my current home before I renovated; it looked horrible. The edging you show is much better than that! It looks similar to what I called Schluter, which is a brand name in the US. It is perhaps not so fancy as bullnose, but it definitely gives a finished appearance.

@amystoller No worries!! Yes, all in the Czech republic. I figured it wasn't relevant since I wasn't asking for specific product recs, but I should have probably mentioned it for clarity. (And yes, about 80% of our renovation so far had been finding gorgeous inspiration on Houzz/Pinterest/etc. and then scrambling to find acceptable alternatives :D)

I do appreciate the input! I'll consult it with our mason (alongside the handle bars prep) :)

For sure my wallpaper sources would have been more like sources of frustration. Life is complicated enough without paying for overseas shipping and tariffs on top of that.

My partner is leaning towards full wall coverage (either one or two walls). Also tried to change it up with a mirror we really liked in store. (Not sure how it would align with the doors and the long cabinet, it's not 100%.)

I'd do full wall coverage with wallpaper. I think it looks better than one wall of paint, one of paper, one of tile. But of course I love wallpaper to begin with.

:D I do appreciate the wallpaper enthusiasm! Thanks for chiming in again.

I'm thinking if we do full wall, we'd do the green sides (behind the sink + the wall next to it), but skip the red ones – the one with glass blocks might have tricky application, and the two behind water heater won't really be on display? Especially if we do end up putting the curtain there. Hm.

Ah, the issues just keep popping up.

Our contractor worries the walls aren't straight enough for baseboard (consistent problems across the flat).

I've also been looking around to see how tiles are handled in buildings in town, and it is quite dreadful. Our contractor is suggesting we do this, to bridge the space between tile and uneven wall with sealant and paint, but I really dislike the visuals. (And yes, this textured, washable paint was all the rage a few decades ago. It's everywhere.)

That is so disappointing! I would not want that texture on my walls either. But short of tearing down the walls and rebuilding them, I don't have any ideas for a fix. If your walls are drywall, that could perhaps be done. If they are lath and plaster, I wouldn't dare try it.

Is vinyl/rubber baseboard available in your country? Not sure how flexible it actually is but it might provide some opportunity to address the lack of straightness.

@tozmo1 Thank you for the idea! I did a quick search and we have PVC & vinyl baseboards. I assume it would be something like this? I'll float it by our contractor, thank you.

Yes! In the US they are of varying heights. It's usually in commercial construction but when I lived in California many years ago, it was used in bathrooms in houses. Here's one available in the US https://www.grainger.com/product/2RRX3?gucid=N:N:PS:Paid:GGL:CSM-2295:VH9MRN:20800606:APZ_1&gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22465808811&gclid=CjwKCAiAh5XNBhAAEiwA_Bu8Fcrs9uft_Zei7jRLh-kzJXgbNTO6TasVV_PS95-XDSflXxmQyI_3PRoCT2oQAvD_BwE

Just a small update this time. The wallpaper will look quite alright with the tile, I think. Reality is a bit less "cold" overall, it all leans more cream than grey! And we also picked the bathroom lights; they have settings for color, so we'll be able to pick one that flatters the wallpaper/tile the most. It's all slowly coming together