Half bath remodel

my personal opinion is not to put in a pedestal sink.

When I had one I found it to be a hassle, what with no storage space under the sink.

Even in a half bath you need some storage.

They are pretty, but not practical.

A pedestal sink is cool and would fit in a house that is anywhere from colonial to art deco.(They make several styles of pedestals). My only admonition is to avoid KOHLER products . Theyve cheapened up what used to be the best faucets and tubs on the market.

Iike a look of chair rail and wainscotting with an antique wall hung mirror in a bathroom with a pedestal sink.

Its a look that My wife and I both like.

That sounds nice - we were thinking as Chai mentioned to put in some sort of storage thingy that would hang on the wall behind the door. Would something like that look good? I was also going to mention that we have lots of storage in our unit - even though we have a condo, it is about 11 years old with lots of storage. The half bath is right next to a laundry room that is pretty large - we had cabints put in over the washer and dryer and then floor to ceiling cabinets put in on one side of a wall because the room is so big. That alone would provide lots of storage.

But thinking of TP for emergencies and maybe a storage spot for extra hand towels, we thought we could put in a small hanging type of storage thingy on the wall against behind the door.

How about sinks - one of those fancy things that sits up? Not sure the extact style - not really modern or contemporary, but we have clean hard wood floors with an open look - you come into the main area where there is an open living room (good size) that opens into the dining room that is large enough for a formal dining table and chairs and nice big china cabinet - there is a small hallway off the dining room area, the half bath is to the right and then straight down the hallway is the laundry room. Not sure if that helps to envision the area.

something like this? Without the crap in the background - how would wainscotting go with that? I am terrible with decorating - I need to visualize it first to see if I like it. My toliet would be across from the sink not next to it.

I'd suggest talking to a realtor about what the return would be on improvements in your market.

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I just got a flyer from one of our local guys where he shows the comparative value of different upgrades (and what the upper limit on those upgrades should be - for our market).

In our market - cleaning and decluttering ($190 - 318) gives a 578% increase (house price increase $1505 - 1937). Landscaping ($378 - 546) gives a 319% increase (adds $1718 - 2158 to value of house). Update kitchen/bath ($1404 - 1828) brings a 121% increase ($3216 - 3934) increase in house value).

Spending $568 - $864 on gardening and cleaning up provides a house value increase of $3200 - $4100, while twice that investment in kitchen or bath gives the same amount of house value increase.

Their note is "may vary based on climate of the market, region of the country or condition of home in question".

I like this vanity...hides the pipes and for $399 it includes the granite top.

Sorry pan but I think that is perhaps the fuckin ugliest sink Ive ever seen outside of a baptismal fount in a CAtholic Church.
Linkat, that pedestal and sink combo is probably a Kohler product because they make em. I guess I dont have anything negative about their porcelain, its the plumbing fixtures that Im at war with.

i agree , fm .
imo simple and uncluttered sinks look good almost everywhere .
just thinking of all the gunk that might collect on the sink shown , makes me ...

real estate agent just told me what ehbeth posted .
a clean house sells well .
major improvements beyond about 5 % of price hardly ever pay off because
" the buyer expected it " - but won't pay extra .

Contemporary bathrooms are selling points now. There seems to be a formula look: Dark wood, silver/nickel/chrome hardware, and stone or marble countertops. Vessel sinks (like the one you pictured, Linkat) are very popular and available in all sorts of materials including glass. Pedestal sinks are somewhat passe'. If you want your new half-bath to look like it's brand new, I'd avoid them...along with oak cabinetry and brass hardware. That look is outdated now.

Take a look at the Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware sites. They've got several good examples of the "look" I described.

I've mixed feelings, given that you have intentions to sell. I've idiosyncratic tastes of my own, but can like designs of many kinds - you can get that way as a designer even though I never specialized in interiors - so I appreciate cool modern about as much as I do the right pedestal sink, etc. (hah, not Panz's). The sinks with the bowls set in stone or other counters - I'm wondering when they're going to go out of style. Maybe never, but I'm personally a little 'eh!' to them now. As with much else, buyers may have their own idea. I seem to remember that your condo is fairly modern in a charming way, Linkat, with fairly light though not totally light wood. I'd stay with choices that harmonize with the rest of the place and are of moderate quality, not break the bank level and not badly made junk. Less is more, or something like that. An interesting rug and nice towels, enough electrical outlets, lighting that doesn't blind or confuse.

I don't understand about shelving behind the door re how much room there is. Are you going to put shelves between the studs, or in front of the wall? Will the door hit the shelving?

To respond re Eva's post, I'm not all that against a vessel sink, and a new owner can always change it, and I do like Restoration Hardware as a store in general. The original one was down the block from our studio. Very dangerous and I tried not to go in there routinely (money leak), but they had fabulous sales.

Something like this is neutral and nice looking

That single framed an hanging mirror is a nice look, as is the pedestal. The painted on wainscotting is a look that I dont care for. (MAkes it look like a gym).

How bout some whimsy. I alwaus like signs like
"DO NOT FLUSH TOILET WHILE TRAIN IS STANDING IN THE STATION"

I really like your idea, Jane.

Frankly, I'm piggybacking because eventually (not this year; too many other expenses going on) we're going to have to do some serious renovation work with our downstairs half bath.

But let's concentrate on Linkat.

One thing I know -- buyers want to visualize themselves and their stuff in your house. If they can do that, that's half the battle. So, not too clutter-y and not too personalized can help to goose a sale. Dunno if a vessel sink would qualify for too personalized. I find them odd, but that's me.

Is this a bathroom that would be near a mud room or otherwise used for some heavy duty stuff, versus just for company? I'm just visualizing my father coming in with motor oil on his hands after working on the car. Does he wash up in this bathroom, or do you send him to another one? If he washes up in this one, then things that are somewhat delicate-looking (even if they aren't delicate for real) could detract from that usage.

In a sense, I'm not as concerned about increasing the value as making our home sell, period. We had it on the market before when we were going to relocate. It was about the time the housing market began to fall (price wasn't too much of a concern because we had purchased it so long ago). Any way it was on the market for a year and only one offer which was so low it would have been like giving it away.

Now with some financial changes in our life, we figure we are ready to buy a home in a town we obsolutely love. So personally we wanted to do some upgrades any way for our own purposes, but also hoping it would make our place stand out a bit from our neighbors. We live in a higher end condo assoc. It has 100 units - with different styles. Ours is unique any way as there is only two like it in the complex. It is very large 2 bedroom 2 and half baths, the one downside of our unit is that it is one level and it is built on a hill so when you enter you walk down stairs and the back is ground level so you walk out the back and have a patio and nice big grassy private area.

So we are more looking to have a bathroom upgrade for us (and some other stuff), but also would like it to assist our sale. I am looking for a little bit of a wow factor.

We do have a good friend that is a plumber - plan on hiring him for the plumbing work so hopefully he can help us too with good suggestions. I will keep my eye on product (Kohler crap - yeah I can remember that)

Fortunately, we've already done the re-cluttering thing from the prior attempt at selling (and personally we have a very clutter free open clean look to our place). We hired a stager to help us out with that part of things.

Thanks - that the stuff I need - what is popular and will appeal to most. I made note.