COMMON DESIGN MISTAKES | Bathroom Mistakes and How to Fix Them | Julie Khuu

hello everyone and welcome back to my channel i'm julie interior design expert and really i say that in jess because the only thing i am an expert at is making interior design mistakes today's video is all about bathroom mistakes these are the common mistakes that i see when renovating or remodeling a bathroom i've been in the industry now for 16 years 11 of which i've owned my own business so you can imagine how many design mistakes i've seen and made when it comes to bathrooms and renovations so before we get into the most common design mistakes that i see in bathrooms i would love for you to take a minute to give this video a thumbs up if you love this type of interior design content comment below with any design dilemmas you might be having when it comes to your own bathroom and subscribe to my channel if you haven't already [Music] one of the most common mistakes i see when designing a bathroom is not coming up with a plan as you remember from my interior design 101 video i always start every process with a mood board a mood board serves as a jumping off point to gather all of my inspiration my images my samples all the finishes and the materials that i want to put in the space with all of the endless selections there are out there there are just too many options for them all to swim around in your head the mood board acts as a visual guide to help you collate all of your ideas into one place you can start to shop all of your materials online and either print them out or put them together on a digital board in photoshop mock up your lighting options so you can see what works with the different vanities you've chosen don't just blindly pick out materials and hope that they go together that is a recipe for disaster before you even begin do your research put in the legwork and your bathroom will look well thought out and cohesive every time while we're on the subject of mocking up the rooms the next design mistake i see is not getting samples everything looks completely warped online especially when it comes to color and pattern you can't be sure that everything that you see on the internet looks exactly like you see on a physical sample it really helps for you to reach out to the vendor or the manufacturer and order these samples online to be mailed directly to you once you have all of the physical samples in place you can start messing around with all the trim work and the paint hardware and accessories so everything goes together as you intend i remember one of my custom home projects where the client had already sourced some materials they loved these materials so much they found it online and they purchased the entire lot and had the contractor install it once i was hired on the job we took one look at this bathroom and knew that everything was really off the shower pan didn't match the shower tile the floor tile was just too large for the space and the scale seemed totally off the result we ended up ripping out the entire shower pan the entire floor and installed brand new tiles that went better with the entire bathroom design a lot of the times you just need to do a little bit of leg work so you don't make these costly mistakes down the line and now for the fun part the materials let's talk about tile and stone how do you know what materials to pick shower tile or full slabs i love the look of full height stone slabs installed to a shower wall or a bathtub wall of course tile is less expensive but with the full height slab there's less grout lines which means it's easier to clean if your budget doesn't permit installing natural stone slabs there are some really cool alternatives on the market right now they make porcelain veneer slabs which is basically full height slabs with a really thin sheet of porcelain on the face of it the back is a thick substrate that gets installed directly onto the shower or bathtub wall so when you're facing the wall you're met with a really beautiful natural stone looking finish but really it's made out of inexpensive porcelain one of the biggest mistakes i see is a shower with really weird angles now if you have a lot of really weird angles installing small pieces of tile looks really cheap especially when you're trying to match the edges up together however if you have a rectangular shaped enclosure you can choose either full slabs or smaller tiles in this case let's move on to edge details what is an edge detail one of the biggest mistakes i see homeowners make is choosing the wrong material or furthermore choosing the right material and not designing how they want the edges detailed if you're choosing a natural stone or slab you don't have to worry about the edges clearly natural stone is a stone material the whole way through if you cut right into it the first half will look very similar to the second half now if you're dealing with an inexpensive material like ceramic tile or porcelain tile you'll know that it comes with an unfinished edge what does that mean well porcelain and ceramic are both manufactured so they're a man-made material typical edges are unfinished where you can see the unfinished clay edge if you are specifying ceramic or porcelain tile make sure that it comes with a bull nose which is basically the tile that you see with a little curved edge so once you're laying your ceramic or porcelain tile onto your shower walls you can then install the bull nose at the edge and there you will have a finished edge where your regular tile meets the bullnose unfinished exposed edges are one of the top common designer rookie mistakes that a lot of homeowners make if they don't do their research beforehand if you've specified a stone without an unfinished edge and it doesn't have a bonus tile to go with it you can also specify a schluter strip what is a schluter strip i'm sure you've seen it installed before schluter strips are metal trim to install on the edge of an unfinished tile they're really the exposed band that you see when you're facing the bathroom or shower wall and they give those unfinished porcelain and ceramic edges a nice crisp finish the strips come in a variety of finishes and colors so you can get the option that best suits your hardware and just to warn you your contractor is not your designer your contractor will pretty much install whatever you ask him to but it is up to you to go into detail about how you want your bathroom finished let's talk about niches what is a niche a niche is that little rectangular cutout that you see in showers that's designed to put your shampoo conditioner soap and bath products the niche cutout is designed before you install anything on the walls one of the most common mistakes i see is no clear direction or no design when it comes to niches when it's not thought out it could look like a complete mistake i've seen niches that are cut too short i've seen niches kind of popped up all over the place on every single portion of the wall i've even seen it where they had one niche on one wall and then like another niche on an adjacent wall and it was like completely out of place and totally offset now if you don't want it to look like a design mistake it's really simple just center the niche on the wall it's even a good rule of thumb to take out your larger shampoo container measure the height of the container and give it about four to five inches of breathing room and let your contractor know the size you can then install a single centered one or one niche is not enough for your products you can do a double niche centered and spaced out or my favorite look a really long linear modern niche that spans the width of the shower walls let's talk about patterns one of the most common mistakes i see is putting that accent tile right in the middle of your shower wall i think you guys know how i feel about accent walls at this point i really do love an accent wall when it's done right don't just throw a contrasting accent tile in the middle of a wall and call it design a lot of the times it can look really cheap especially when it's in a contrasting tile that has no visual dialogue to everything else that's going on in the bathroom that's why your mood board is so important sometimes that accent wall looks like hey the shower wall looks so plain so let me just throw on some accent tile over there and then you know that will spruce it up that just doesn't look high-end guys i mean i know it's a personal preference but let me just help steer you in the right direction when it comes to accent walls you can play with patterns by using the stone that you've already sourced create a pattern with that specific tile maybe you want to run it in a herringbone pattern you might even want to create a runner-type pattern on the floor if you have offset subway tile maybe you can change the direction put it in a vertical portrait orientation and line that with a really cool border you can also create a striped effect and run it wall-to-wall which actually leads me to one of my previous projects i have specified this really beautiful glass mosaic i know what you're thinking i mean glass mosaic is so passe but it was just really gorgeous it came in both a glaze iridescent finish and like a matte hone finish i thought to create this really cool pattern on the wall with the glaze and the matte and the glazed and the matte where when the light hits it you can see all of the iridescent tiles shining through and the matte tile just anchors the look of the wall i love that variation between a matte honed finish which is just a fancy way of saying not glossy and an iridescent glossy finish so try thinking about using the same material that you love and just switching up the finishes between the two for variation let's talk about grout make sure once you receive your physical samples of tile that you go out and get your samples of grout to lay right next to it grout always changes the look of the tile so a hot tip if you want the grout to disappear get the closest match you can to the tile moving on to common mistakes i see when choosing paint or wallpaper you'll remember from my favorite neutral paint video that i always advise getting samples before committing to the paint you want to paint samples on every single wall in that bathroom remember that natural daylight and your synthetic overhead lights always changes the color of the walls remember to specify your paint color last after you've specified all the materials finishes and hardware in the space you can choose your wall color to help enhance the materials or choose a contrasting color to give it a bold look don't forget to paint the ceilings you can give it that unexpected pop-up color that your room deserves wallpaper is one of my favorite things to install in a powder bathroom it's a perfect space to make a really huge impact because of its size it's generally on the smaller side and the perfect spot to make a really wow moment but a common mistake i've seen with wallpaper is that really hideous wallpaper border don't be afraid to use wallpaper to line all of the walls if you feel that that's too much of a commitment they make peel and stick wallpaper that's temporary before you decide to commit to the real thing [Music] do you hate those builder grade mirrors that came with your home you know the ones that span the entire width of the vanity with no frame no edges and you can even see those little plastic fasteners that hold the mirror in place while that is not necessarily a design mistake i'd like to offer you some really cool inspiration when it comes to upgrading those basic mirrors my first tip is to install your lighting directly over the mirror of course in this case you'll need to have holes already cut out but the end result looks really elegant and luxurious in a small space imagine having a bathroom with really little natural lighting since the vanity sconce is now installed directly over the mirror you've just doubled the amount of light filtering through another trick i like to use is placing a mirror directly over that builder grade mirror in this case you can source a smaller size mirror or something really decorative and if it's not too heavy you can simply use double stick mounting tape to secure it right on the mirror i also love installing freestanding mirrors with really beautiful frames do you have a bathroom with really weird windows awkwardly placed on the walls freestanding mirrors are the perfect solution to those awkward window walls they don't need to spend the entire width of your vanity try just using your sink to gauge the size if you're still confused about the correct mirror size use painters tape or masking tape to mask out the section right on your walls that will give you a good idea to scale the size of the mirror in proportion to your lavatory and finally let's talk about decor and accessories keep the core simple so there's not a lot of fuss the focus of your bathroom should be all of the beautiful materials and finish that you've sourced don't neglect those bare walls those bare walls can become a design opportunity for you to place artwork on the walls you can even flank a ladder that then becomes a makeshift towel bar or purchase a little garden stool that you can place right next to your bathtub so you can place your phone on it to listen to music or even put a fresh vase of flowers ancient feng shui techniques actually advise against decorating the bathroom but i am a modern designer so of course i'm going to want to spruce the bathroom up and you always have to remember to put that toilet seat down a little disclaimer to my common mistakes video do what you guys love of course if your design was intentional it could never be considered a mistake all of my tips are simply given as a result of seeing what drives property values down i've made a lot of these common mistakes early in my career and it was only through a lot of experience a lot of trial and error and seeing what clients are doing wrong in order to get it right some of the things i discussed are one of the first things that homeowners go in and rip out when they're endeavoring on a renovation or remodel but if you love it you can make a case for it please disregard anything i say and go with your gut your bathroom like any other room in your home should feel inspiring and inviting and just energizes you to tackle your day i want you to think about the bathroom that you spend the most time in what can you do right now to make a space more functional and inviting i would love to hear your answers comment below and let me know if you have any other questions when it comes to your own bathroom or model give this video a thumbs up if you love this type of content and of course don't forget to subscribe to my channel i am so excited to share with you guys that i recently did a poll on my instagram make sure you're following me on instagram at julie underscore cube you aren't already i gave viewers a sneak peek into one of the bathrooms that i absolutely hate in my home it is the guest bathroom the bathroom that i never used before kamari it is the only room with a bathtub in it so now that we're actually bathing her in a tub i can't stand this bathroom i'm seeing it so much it has this really hideous like black and white checkered like retro tile on the walls and at first i was like oh you know what honey let's just keep it because you know she needs that for her brain development the contrasting colors is gonna you know make her smarter but anyways now that she's getting a little bit older like i hate it i want to rip it out and do this like complete transformation i took a poll on my instagram and i asked you guys what you would rather see if you wanted to see a big budget full-scale renovation from top to bottom with contractors plumbers electricians basically any professionals that i would hire to get the job done and with a bigger budget versus a diy renovation where clearly i would do it myself i mean with the help of my husband of course and the results were so close it was probably by like a really small margin 10 but the majority ruled and you guys want to see a diy renovation so i am so excited to tell you that that is coming up this summer i don't know where i'm gonna find the time or the effort or the energy to do it with an infant but i'm gonna do it guys i'm so excited to take you on this journey with me so if you have any ideas of what you would like to see in a diy bathroom renovation leave me a comment below and i will be sure to address it thank you so much for watching i'll see you guys in the next one [Music] you

Channel: Julie Khuu

Views: 1,216,438

Keywords: bathroom remodel, bathroom makeover, bathroom tips, bathroom, bathroom tile, stone and tile, common mistakes, design mistakes, bathroom design ideas, bathroom design 2022, bathroom design 2021, bathroom design fails, bathroom design ideas 2022, bathroom design small size, bathroom design mistakes, common design mistakes julie khuu, common design mistakes bathroom, common interior design mistakes, bathroom design 2021 bathroom trends, bathroom design ideas 2021

Id: c7vSxoMpi14

Length: 15min 39sec (939 seconds)

Published: Tue May 26 2020