Ugly Green Bathroom: Part 1

My sister Megan just moved into a new apartment with two of her closest friends and approached me for help with making their bathroom work. The girls need help with two things:

1. The bathroom is tiny. There is no cabinet space and very little wall space to store all of their items. 

2. The bathroom is adorned in an awkward 70's green tile that is difficult for them to decorate with. 

So for the next few weeks I will be brainstorming ways for them to make the space functional and cute.

First, take a look at this piece of work: 

Yep. I know. Many older apartments that have not been updated tend to have colorful tiles, such as pink, blue and green. So, basically you can either go with it or go against it. I've seen both work.

Go against it.

If you want a challenge. Try to go against the color by trying to camouflage it. 

If your landlord allows it, you can paint over your tile.

Instructions from e-how.com for painting your bathroom tile

how to paint over ceramic tile

You can also choose to purchase a large indoor-outdoor area rug to cover up the tile, but this would only work if your tile wasn't also in your shower and on half of your walls. 

However, it seems much more easy to just,

Go with it. 

Choose a color palette that works with the color. 

1. Use varying shades of the color (green in this case) to tone down the shade that is plastered all over your floors and walls. Go with a shade darker, a shade lighter, and a a neutral like white, tan, gray, or black. 

The trick is to make sure that the shades have a similar tint. So, if the green has a yellow tint, stick with other shades that have a tint of yellow or if the green has a hint of blue, stick with greens that have a blueish tint. That way they won't clash.

2. Use shades of a complimentary color to camouflage the intensity of your 70's tile and make it look put together.

The trick here is to make the complimentary color the main focus and just add bits and pieces of the tile color throughout the decor to make it flow and look intentional.

An example is this bathroom that has blue tile. The complimentary color is green and becomes the main color when it is used on a shower curtain and accessories. 

Here's a great rug from Target as an example of the blue/green example. Here, the blues overpower the green, but still incorporates the green making it flower, which is Megan's goal.

This rug would also work if you incorporated shades of blue and green.

3. Use multiple colors using a pattern as a focal point in either a shower curtain or fun throw rug to distract from the tile color. Adding more colors that work well with the tile color will draw attention to the pattern and the flow of the colors working together rather than the eyesore tile. 

Here is an example of a rug that would work in Megan's bathroom. It has green in it, but it's working alongside all the other bright colors and easily fades into the background.

Or,...

4. You can just embrace the color and match it with a neutral. Get neutral or matching linens and play as if you love the color. Who knows, matched with neutrals it could tone it down and work beautifully. Just stick with one or two neutrals to give it a monochromatic feel. 

Use linens, wall art, and accessories to achieve this look. 

You'd want to use neutral rugs here. You can absolutely keep a pattern as long as it is subdued and neutral. 

Once you have an idea for a color palette, it's time to decorate and find storage solutions that work with the space and color scheme. 

Come back for Part 2 and Part 3 of this series later this week and next week to see my storage solutions and decorating ideas for Megan's 1970's Ugly Green bathroom.

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