Before
After
This guest bathroom in a Clermont, Florida home was as builder-grade as they come. A white laminate vanity with a drop-in oval sink and a basic chrome faucet sat beneath a frameless plate mirror and a Hollywood-style globe light bar. The tub-shower combination had a plain white square tile surrounded with a patterned fabric shower curtain, and the floor was beige ceramic tile. The walls were flat white. Nothing was broken — everything was simply generic. The homeowners wanted a guest bathroom makeover that would give the room real personality and make it feel intentional rather than ignored.
Marilou Stones built the redesign around one bold wallpaper choice that changed the entire character of the room. A black wallpaper with a metallic gold starburst pattern was installed on every wall surface above the tub tile line, wrapping the room in color and contrast for the first time. The repeat is graphic and mid-century in spirit — large enough to read clearly in a small space without overwhelming it.
With the wallpaper setting the tone, every fixture and fitting was upgraded to match. The old white laminate vanity was replaced with a dark charcoal cabinet featuring clean shaker-style doors and a white quartz countertop with an undermount rectangular sink — a more refined profile than the old drop-in bowl. The chrome faucet gave way to a brushed gold widespread model, and the Hollywood globe light bar was replaced with a three-light vanity fixture in brushed gold with frosted white shades. A gold-framed mirror with softly rounded corners replaced the frameless plate glass, giving the vanity wall a finished, composed look.
In the tub-shower, the white tile surround was kept clean and fresh, but the fixtures were fully swapped — a brushed gold hand shower on a slide bar, matching tub spout, and a gold grab bar replace the old chrome trim. The shower curtain was removed entirely, leaving the tub surround open and letting the wallpaper read continuously around the room. The beige floor tile was replaced with a light wood-look plank tile that warms the ground plane without competing with the black walls above. The toilet was upgraded to a modern profile with clean lines.
The guest bathroom now has more character than most master suites. The black starburst wallpaper gives the room a confident identity, and the brushed gold fixtures tie every element — mirror, faucet, shower trim, lighting — into a single cohesive palette. The dark vanity grounds the room at counter height while the white quartz top and white tub surround keep the space from feeling too enclosed. This is the kind of interior design project in Clermont, Florida where a small room with no distinguishing features becomes the one guests remember. To see how Marilou and the Stones Design team approach guest bath and small space transformations, explore the portfolio or get in touch.
Yes, provided it is installed away from direct water contact, and the room has proper ventilation. In this project, the black starburst wallpaper covers the walls above the tile line and outside the tub surround — areas that see humidity but not direct splashing. We recommend vinyl-coated or peel-resistant wallpaper for bathroom applications and ensure the exhaust fan is adequate for room size. Marilou specifies bathroom-rated products for every wet-adjacent wallpaper installation.
Brushed gold adds warmth and visual presence that chrome and nickel cannot match, especially against a black background. In this Clermont guest bath, the brushed gold faucet, shower trim, mirror frame, and light fixture read as deliberate design choices rather than standard hardware. The finish also picks up the metallic gold in the starburst wallpaper pattern, creating a connection between surfaces and fixtures that ties the room together.
A project of this scope — wallpaper installation, vanity replacement, new countertop, full fixture upgrade, flooring replacement, and toilet swap — typically takes three to four weeks from design approval. Wallpaper and fixture lead times are usually the schedule drivers. We coordinate all trades, so the wallpaper goes up after any tile or plumbing work is complete, protecting the finished surface.
A guest bathroom is one of the smallest rooms in the house, which means the material budget goes further per square foot than in any other space. Bold choices that might overwhelm a large room — like a full-wall patterned wallpaper — feel perfectly scaled in a compact guest bath. Marilou often recommends treating the guest bathroom as a design moment because the investment is relatively modest, and the impact is disproportionately high.
In a small room, the pattern needs to be large enough to read clearly — very small repeats can look busy and make the space feel cluttered. The starburst pattern in this project has a generous repeat that creates rhythm without visual noise. We also consider the color contrast: the black-and-gold combination is bold but limited to two tones, which keeps the room feeling cohesive rather than chaotic. Marilou selects a wallpaper scale based on wall dimensions and sightlines from the doorway.
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Marilou Stones is an award-winning, licensed interior designer and ASID member serving Winter Garden and Central Florida for over 40 years.
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