Alexandria VA Bathroom Remodel | Black Herringbone Floor & White Subway Tile
Project Overview
Location:
Alexandria, VA
Project Type:
Full Bathroom Renovation - Tile, Vanity, Shower, Lighting, Fixtures
Service:
Primary Bathroom Remodel
Features:
Black herringbone floor tile, white subway tile with dark grout, walk-in shower with subway-tile pony wall, farmhouse-style wood vanity with Carrara marble top, apron-front sink, matte black fixtures, preserved cast iron radiator
The Client's Challenge
This Alexandria homeowner had a bathroom in an older home that hadn't been touched in decades. The original cast iron radiator still worked, the windows were original to the house, and the layout was workable. The finishes weren't.
What they wanted was a full update that respected the home's age rather than fighting it. A black-and-white palette that would have looked at home a century ago, executed with current materials, current fixtures, and current waterproofing. The radiator stays (it's period-correct and still does its job), the original six-over-six windows stay (part of why the room has character in the first place), and the bathroom gets treated as a small, hardworking space rather than something forced to feel bigger than it is.
Vale Construction handled the project from demo through final fixture install.
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The Renovation Process
Working in older Alexandria homes means accepting that nothing behind the walls will be standard. Old plumbing in unexpected places, framing that doesn't match modern dimensions, and electrical that needed bringing up to code before any new fixtures went in. The cast iron radiator was carefully detached and reinstalled after the floor and wall work was finished, so the period detail stayed where it belonged.
The floor was the design anchor. Black tile in a herringbone layout runs the length of the room, with a high-gloss finish that reads almost wet under the recessed lighting. Herringbone takes longer to set than a straight stack (more cuts, more layout planning, no margin for error at the perimeter), but the pattern carries the space. The same black herringbone shows up again inside the shower niche as an accent, which ties the two elements together without overdoing it.
Shower walls (and the half-wall pony divider between the shower and the toilet area) are finished in classic white subway tile with a dark grout. The dark grout is the move here. It gives the subway geometry that flat white grout would erase, and it ages better than light grout in a high-use bathroom.
The vanity is a freestanding farmhouse style in natural wood with a Carrara marble top, an apron-front white sink, and an open slatted bottom shelf. It's deliberately the warmest piece in the room. Everything else (tile, fixtures, mirror frame) is black or white, so the wood does the work of keeping the space from feeling cold.
Fixtures are matte black throughout - faucet, showerhead, valve trim, towel ring, mirror frame. Recessed lighting was reset on a clean grid, and the existing window openings were preserved without resizing.
Project Features
Design Features
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Black herringbone floor tile in high-gloss finish
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White subway tile shower walls with dark grout
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Subway tile half-wall pony divider between shower and toilet
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Walk-in shower with white acrylic base
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Built-in shower niche with black herringbone tile accent
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Matte black showerhead, valve trim, and widespread faucet
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Freestanding natural wood farmhouse vanity with open slatted bottom shelf
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Carrara marble vanity top
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White apron-front farmhouse sink
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Round black-framed mirror
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Matte black towel ring
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Recessed ceiling lighting
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Preserved cast iron column radiator
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Preserved original six-over-six windows
Looking for a Bathroom Remodel in Alexandria?
If you're planning a bathroom renovation in Alexandria, Old Town, Del Ray, or anywhere in the surrounding area, Vale Construction handles full bath remodels from demo through finish - including older homes where every project comes with the kind of surprises that show up once the walls are open.
