Bathroom of the Week: High Style in a Tiny Powder Room
A homeowner’s love of all things green and botanical inspires a pleasing transitional style
“This client has fallen in love with the renovation process — we’ve worked through most of her house at this point,” contractor Thomas Murdock says. The homeowner, a retired woman, was looking to upgrade the finishes and freshen up her approximately 25-year-old home in Ottawa, Ontario. “She has an affinity for green, so we have shades of green all over her home now,” Murdock says. This eye-catching transitional powder room is no exception. Check out its careful balance of traditional and modern styles as well as the way large-scale elements work in the compact space.
The graceful arched shape of the mirror is traditional, but the thin black frame lends a clean and modern look. Murdock furred it out from the wall. This means he added wood to the wall and mounted the mirror to it, so the mirror rests right up against the wainscoting.
The bathroom door and trim around it are painted the same olive green as the wainscoting for a cohesive look.
A single sconce throws off the expected symmetry that a pair of sconces typically would provide. This allowed room for a mirror with proportions that worked well with the proportions of the sink — they are the same width. The sconce itself is a fresh take on a traditional fixture. Its simple geometry, lack of adornment, plain white shade and black finish are modern touches.
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The bathroom door and trim around it are painted the same olive green as the wainscoting for a cohesive look.
A single sconce throws off the expected symmetry that a pair of sconces typically would provide. This allowed room for a mirror with proportions that worked well with the proportions of the sink — they are the same width. The sconce itself is a fresh take on a traditional fixture. Its simple geometry, lack of adornment, plain white shade and black finish are modern touches.
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The design of this powder room is proof that you don’t have to shy away from large proportions in a small space. The tall flat-panel wainscoting meets the mirror in a pleasing spot.
Murdock added a horizontal piece behind the pedestal sink. “This was so the sink would meet the wall rather than having a gap there,” he says.
The room needed just a minimal amount of storage. A woven box on top of the toilet tank provides a spot for an extra roll of toilet paper or two.
Murdock added a horizontal piece behind the pedestal sink. “This was so the sink would meet the wall rather than having a gap there,” he says.
The room needed just a minimal amount of storage. A woven box on top of the toilet tank provides a spot for an extra roll of toilet paper or two.
The rest of the home has various shades of green and botanical wallpapers throughout, and this little gem of a powder room is cohesive with those spaces.
The wallpaper pattern is also a play on scale, adding large ginkgo leaves to the space. The height of the wainscoting provides a nice balance between the pattern and the olive green paint, keeping the pattern from overwhelming the room.
Paint: Tate Olive, Benjamin Moore; wallpaper: Ginkgo Leaves, York Wallcoverings
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The wallpaper pattern is also a play on scale, adding large ginkgo leaves to the space. The height of the wainscoting provides a nice balance between the pattern and the olive green paint, keeping the pattern from overwhelming the room.
Paint: Tate Olive, Benjamin Moore; wallpaper: Ginkgo Leaves, York Wallcoverings
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The accessories are matte black and simple. Limiting the palette helped create a pleasingly unified look for the room.
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The flooring is large-format porcelain tiles. The larger size requires less grout, making it easier to clean the floor. The subtle tint to the grout also means it’s easier to keep looking clean.
“This vent cover is by Fittes. It’s a vent cover you can put the tile into,” Murdock says. This makes for a more cohesive aesthetic than a typical metal floor vent would.
Any salvageable materials from the previous bathroom were donated to Habitat for Humanity for reuse.
Tile: Silver Grain 12 by 24 inches, Céragrès
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“This vent cover is by Fittes. It’s a vent cover you can put the tile into,” Murdock says. This makes for a more cohesive aesthetic than a typical metal floor vent would.
Any salvageable materials from the previous bathroom were donated to Habitat for Humanity for reuse.
Tile: Silver Grain 12 by 24 inches, Céragrès
More on Houzz
Read more bathroom stories
Browse bathroom photos
Find a bathroom designer
Shop for your bathroom
Bathroom at a Glance
Who lives here: A retired woman
Location: Ottawa, Ontario
Size: 25 square feet (2.3 square meters); 5 feet by 5 feet
Designer: VI Design Studio (interior design)
Builder: Murdock Construction
Murdock was the contractor on the project and VI Design Studio worked with the homeowner on the interior design.
Open the powder room’s new paneled door and this is the view of almost the entire 5-by-5-foot space. A pedestal sink makes the room feel more airy than the previous vanity cabinet did. The large mirror’s reflection also adds to the feeling of space.
The style is transitional, a traditional-meets-modern mix. The wainscoting is a traditional touch, but the clean lines of its flat panels lean modern. There are no extra details such as beveled panels, beading or other types of curved molding within it. The pedestal sink also has traditional style, but the matte black faucet adds a modern touch.
Sink and toilet: Memoirs collection, Kohler; faucet: Momenti, Riobel
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