This Posh & Polished bathroom project came right after our last garage attic project, The Barbie Bathroom. Our garage attic space is basically a finished living space for our family & friends, but it also houses our bathroom mock-up. It can be confusing to a lot of our audience, but we basically have this space to create a cool bathroom, and then demo it out and do it all over again with a different design.

For this particular project, Steve & I had grown very tired of the pink tile, so it made us gravitate towards a darker bathroom design for our next project. The one major design consideration I had to work with was the Sterling Kohler tub surround (we got the Traverse) that was to be installed in this project. Steve really wanted to do a course on a tub surround, and Sterling Kohler was kind enough to send us one of their newer models at no cost to us. Tub surrounds are great for DIYers and those who don’t want to get into a ton of tiling. Plus, you can upgrade it and get safety bars and added structural blocking to install those safety bars for when you grow older or need that extra support. It is seriously an amazing tub for our aging generation (I wish I had installed one in my mom’s house!!).

With that tub surround in mind, I had the creative freedom to do whatever I wanted to the 5x9 space (with Steve’s input, of course!). Since the tub surround was such a bright white, and because we went with bubble gum pink before, I decided to go the moody route for this bathroom. I knew I wanted green (my favorite color) and I also wanted something trendy & fresh.

The Tile Club was happy to jump on board with us and provide the tile for this project. Their website made it so easy for me to find the perfect tile to match my mysterious design vibes. I basically filtered all the results to “green” and went from there.

Below is the design board I created once I found our gorgeous tile.

good-bye, barbie…hello, posh & polished!

I think Steve was more excited than anyone to demo out the Barbie Bathroom. He was so excited that he got a nasty cut on his leg from a broken piece of tile because he just didn’t want to slow down! (Thankfully, no stitches were required, and no infections occurred.) He was just so ready to start on this project so he could bring you guys another invaluable bathroom remodeling course- THE KOHLER TUB SURROUND BATHROOM REMODEL COURSE.

Since this bathroom is situated in our garage attic space, it makes for an easy demo and installation. It’s wide open and made for videoing. However, Steve still had to run up and down a flight of steps to remove the debris. He worked quickly and got the demo done in a day.

After the bathroom was gutted, the next step was to level everything out. Since this bathroom is basically new construction, Steve didn’t have to do to much to the space to even things up. However, since he was going to tile over the existing floor tile, he needed to add some floor leveler to bring the tub area up to match the existing floor.

I have to say, when the Emporio Green Onyx tile was delivered to our house, I was blown away. Steve said the floor tiles looked like pieces of art— and he was totally right! We are BEYOND fortunate to not have to pay for this tile (because we could not afford it!). The Tile Club gave us this opportunity to use such a high-end tile to promote their business, and to create a beautiful space using it. I now understand why some people WILL go ahead and break the bank on expensive tile. There is a massive difference in quality, and using something that high-end in a frequented room in your house will positively impact you on a daily basis, which is huge.

Installing the tub and surround was so easy. His course goes over every step of the installation. Honestly, the Sterling Kohler tub surround is a great choice for the following people:

• a timid DIYer

• someone who doesn’t want to do a ton of tile work

• someone working with a strict budget

• someone who wants to clean their bathroom shower in less than 10 minutes

• someone who wants to easily add support/stability bars in his/her shower

When it came to the waterproofing of the shower, Steve wanted to use something a) different from what he normally uses, and b) something with a great color impact! He was fully focused on using PermaBASE, and he was right to go with it. We got a lot of traction on social media by using it. I think he was right about the bright blue—it definitely draws your eye to it.

Slowly putting the bathroom back together, Steve installed the drywall and quickly began the mudding and sanding process. He was eager to paint so he could do his tile work.

The color story of the bathroom was incredibly important to me. I went to Sherwin Williams with my mosaic tile to find the perfect color to go with my Posh & Polished bathroom vision. The two colors I loved immediately were Riverway (SW 6222) and Still Water (SW 6223). They were both in the same family, so that made it a bit easier. I just needed to decide if I wanted to go really dark & dramatic, or stay safe with the slightly lighter color.

I’m glad I took the leap and went very dark. It set the perfect, dramatic tone I wanted in the bathroom. The color also managed to tone down the bright white from the tub surround, too.

When it came to the tile installation portion of the project, I wish I could say it was super simple. The actual setting of the tile is fast, but the layout takes some time. With large, stone-like tiles like these, you need to lay them out ahead of time so you can put the best looking tiles where you will directly see them all the time in the bathroom. This task isn’t easy because the tiles are heavy and awkward to move around. That’s where the Grabo really helped out!

The mosaic tiles Steve installed around the tub surround were also a bit problematic…because we didn’t order enough! Thankfully, The Tile Club sent another box out to us quickly so we could finish the tiling (it’s never fast enough for Steve!).

As for the grout, we went with the tinted flavor (Twilight Blue by Laticrete) to blend seamlessly into the green tile, which ended up being completely PERFECT! But, we ran into some issues with that, too. Once again, we didn’t order enough! Those mosaics really take up A LOT of grout, so make sure you order more grout than you think you need if you are working with mosaic tile.

Other than that, the tile itself is very well-made, easy to cut, and simple to install.

The finished product was flawless. Steve & I were so thrilled with how everything came together. Even the Fittes fancy vent fan elevated the whole bathroom! There are so many “hidden” bells & whistles in this bathroom that made it supremely comfortable. Steve installed a Warming Systems heated flooring, a Fluidmaster Spa Bidet toilet seat, soft LED undercabinet lighting, and an LED round cabinet mirror.

Once we finished the entire bathroom, decorated it, and took a bunch of Instagram perfect pictures, Steve installed the stability grab bars that came with our Kohler Sterling tub kit. The set up was truly awesome. I really wish when we were remodeling my mother’s bathroom years ago that we could have installed this system. It’s fabulous to grow old with! It has the perfect number of grab bars you would realistically need if you were injured or older, and the tub seat is amazing! Steve got a non-slip rug for the bathroom floor, and he also installed a handheld shower with an extension to make it easier for those who need the extra hand to reach!

Okay, so how much…?

The total material cost of this bathroom was $11,651. Why so expensive? The big ticket items were the tile ($2,000+) and the Kohler Tub/Shower Traverse Shower kit with the bench ($3,670). The extra little luxuries, such as the bidet toilet seat, make the costs go up, too. You can view the ENTIRE COST BREAKDOWN HERE. All of the links are also included of the products and tools Steve used to install them.

STYLING THe posh & polished bathroom

It was incredibly easy to style this bathroom because the tile and paint made it feel completely polished! But, of course I wanted to add a few items to make the bathroom complete.

Here is the list of the design materials I used to make this Posh & Polished bathroom…