Home Hardware Redecorating Series - Bathroom Makeovers

How many times have you looked at your bathroom and thought it could use something new? It can be hard to know where to start. Certain aspects about a bathroom can feel restricting, especially if it's a very small apartment bathroom, or if it's a very old and grungy one.

A Small Bathroom

If you are renting, you might not be allowed to do anything drastic, or maybe you don't want to have to repaint it back to the original off-white that it came in when you decide to move. You can choose to install new hardware, or a few nice pieces of home hardware or bathroom accents that you can easily remove later and take with you when you move. Just don't forget to keep the original hardware, and put them back before you go!

Customize your bathroom and make it feel more like you, with some stylish cabinet hardware, like the beachy, sea life themed style.

  

You can also add some great organization and convenience to even the smallest bathroom with the right bathroom accessories. Double hooks, as well as mounted mirrors that swivel and mounted soap dishes are what you need. They come in many different styles and colors.

  

An Old Bathroom

You might not have the money to do the major bathroom renovation that you're dreaming of, but you can make some significant changes with bathroom accessories to spruce it up. A new shower system or a new shower head or sink faucet can make a big difference in the overall look of a bathroom.

  

What Home Hardware Brands are the Best to Shop for a New House?

Shopping for new home hardware can get complicated, if you are looking for hardware that matches with existing hardware, or if you're getting all new hardware and want it to blend seamlessly across the board. This means you should find brands with a wide selection of collections and finishes, so you can find your style, and find all the types of hardware and accessories you need – towel bars, tissue paper holders, cabinet knobs, appliance pulls, etc. – and have them all match.

This specific instance would be if you are remodeling or you've had your new house built, and now you need to start adding the useful and decorative hardware and home accents. Using the same style and/or finish across your home, from the doorbell to the hinges, can make it look much more polished and cohesive.

We've compiled some of the best brands for just this purpose. The following brands have a big variety, and don't specialize in just one style, like modern or vintage. The following are also examples of what to look for in other brands.

Note: It can be necessary match finishes from the same brand, even though another brand has the same type of finish. The shades and tones in the finish can vary greatly from one brand to another. For example, brass from one brand might be a little darker, or more yellow in tone from another brand's brass finish.

Brand: Hickory Hardware

Why They Are Great

They have a huge variety of collections with different styles and finishes. Let's say you just put the vintage -looking cabinet hardware from the Queen Anne collection throughout your home. The finish is a bright gold-toned brass with a little bit of a weathered texture. You can shop their other home hardware, right down to the door stops, and bathroom robe hooks in this finish.

Brand: Hawk Hill

Why They Are Great

You can do some one-stop shopping for your door bell button backplates, House numbers, cabinet knobs and appliance pulls in collections that cover these things, or collections that go well together. For example, you can grab house numbers in copper, a rustic-looking door bell backplate in weathered copper, your cabinet knobs, appliance pulls or cabinet pulls in the same rustic bronze that is signature of that brand.

Brand: Alno 

Why They Are Great

They have several different collections for bathroom accessories , which are versatile enough to match with any other cabinet hardware or home accent collections. They also offer a wide variety of finishes, to make the job of matching even easier. They have modern styles like the Contemporary 1, 2, and 3 collections, as well as Eclectic and the rustic Hammered or Mission collections.

Some other brands with a big variety of products: Top Knobs, Liberty Hardware, Laurey, Jeffery Alexander and Amerock.

Modern or Vintage - Is a "Dated" Home Hardware Look Right for You?

Do you love sleek lines and polished surfaces, or do faded paint and claw-footed bath tubs make your heart skip a beat? Maybe you like a combination of both, or you're on the fence about which direction you want to go with your home decor. Here is a guide to help you choose, or successfully combine the modern and vintage styles of home hardware.

Basics of a Modern Bathroom or Kitchen:

Modern styles are more sleek and polished, with more geometric shapes, straight or smoothly curved lines and clear-cut angles. They are much simpler, with solid colors that are often neutral. The neutral shades are often referred to as earth tones, and are not featured on the color wheel (black, white, gray, beige, tan, etc.).

   

1. Amerock  2. Siro Designs  3. Top Knobs 4. Atlas

Basics of a Vintage Bathroom or Kitchen:

Maybe you have a specific era in mind. Mid-20th Century retro, or Victorian, or just a general shabby chic/rustic vibe are just a few examples. If you want to do vintage, then you probably have a pretty specific genre in mind.

Vintage home hardware often comes in colors that are warm or cool (they can be found on the color wheel). Be sure to balance brighter colors with plenty of surrounding neutrals, to keep the colors from being too overwhelming.

   

1. Amerock 2. Hickory Hardware 3. Siro Designs 4. Richelieu

Tips for Combining the Two:

When the modern world and the vintage or rustic combine, it's usually because the existing home decor was already one or the other. If you moved into an older home and you want to give it an update without losing the old world charm, adding modern-styled home hardware or accessories would be a great idea.

When installing home hardware of the opposite side of the spectrum, try to find a matching finish that goes with existing hardware in the house, or choose a color/finish that goes well with the other colors in your bathroom or kitchen.

 

1. Brass Accents 2. Sugatsune

Since the colors of the modern style are often neutral, you shouldn't have a hard time finding vintage home hardware that goes well with the existing modern decor. Things that are harder to change, like wall treatments, carpets and indoor architecture can stay the same, while you add interest with inverse-styled light fixtures, cabinet hardware and bathroom accessories (things that are much easier to change).

Keeping Your Bathroom Organized in Style

Keeping your bathroom organized and neat is an important part of good housekeeping, and you should be able to do so in style. You might have unique tastes in home decor, and your bathroom should be able to reflect that.

If you have a certain image in your head of what you want your bathroom to look like, and you have all your decorations picked out, don't just settle for plain bathroom accessories and home hardware! If you have a specific style in mind, there are bathroom hooks, shelves and even toilet paper holders that will match. You might think these things are a little trivial, but they make a big difference in the grand scheme.

This bathroom hook is from Belwith Keeler and is in the style of art nouveau. It's so much more exciting and decorative than any standard, boring bathroom hook that you'd find in the your local store, and it will do the job of keeping your bath robe or towel off the floor.

Even something as utilitarian as a grab bar doesn't need to pass on the style of your bathroom. Add a lovely grab bar like this one from Alno Creations for safety by your shower or by the toilet.

Your bathroom probably had a very standard and plain mirror when you moved in, but you can replace it with one that will go well with the other decorations and hardware in the room. This beautiful mirror one by Jeffrey Alexander would fit in with a romantic, fanciful bathroom.

A toilet paper holder is easy to remove and install, so adding one to your newly redecorated bathroom wouldn't be a big deal. Especially not if it looks as nice as this one from Alno Creations. It would look best in a very modern and polished bathroom, with a slightly ultra-modern twist.

Do you want a medicine cabinet that isn't just like all the other medicine cabinets? This Pegasus beveled mirror also doubles as a place to store all of your medicines and other bathroom necessities.