Return of the Ugly Bathroom

I am humbled. For many months now, I’ve believed that my upstairs bath—with its green tile and garish plaid wallpaper—has to be one of the ugliest bathrooms in the world. I was wrong.

After my column on ugly bathrooms appeared in the HGTV Ideas newsletter, I was inundated with hundreds of e-mails. Some complete with photos of truly ugly bathrooms.

Beth Ittleson's bathroom, in West Hartford, Conn., includes orange countertops and shiny, mirrored wallpaper all over. Even the ceiling is covered with the stuff. Nicole Kilcoin, in Kansas City, Mo., has a bathroom so small that she has to sit sideways on the toilet in order to avoid "knee-ing" the tub. Monee Gagliardo, in San Diego, has a bathroom that "looks like a bottle of Pepto Bismol exploded in the room." The bright pink tile even covers the ceiling. Believe me, my plaid bathroom looks positively polished and upscale next to some of these rooms. As I said, I am humbled.

Like me, most of the homeowners who wrote in don't have the budget to rip out their ugly baths and install the bathroom of their dreams. But a little paint and creativity can go a long way, design experts say. So we chose three ugly baths that seemed to represent common problems (dated tile colors, tacky countertops, bright colored fixtures) and asked design experts to give us some ideas for transforming these rooms with not much more than paint, fabric and accessories.

The Experts
Sue Adams, interior designer and owner, Sue Adams Interiors (www.sueadamsinteriors.com), Andover, Mass. See a collection Sue Adams' works in Designers' Portfolio.

Joan Kohn, host of HGTV’s Bed & Bath Design and author of It's Your Bed and Bath: Hundreds of Beautiful Design Ideas (Bulfinch, 2004).