What are all of your ideas and cautions for updating a bathroom?

Would love to have photos, as well as more specific questions. Remodeling is fun!

I don't know your floor plan, but in remodeling, its all in the details. Guy buys on sinks, tubs and fixtures are the end of it. I highly recommend faucets direct.com. The prices and delivery are great. They sell all the top brands. You will spend more time shopping for the details than the actual remodel. Do decide on the type of stool, vanity and shower before you call the plumber. Keep in mind also, the quality of the product. Sometimes a cabinet can be cheaper at a cabinet builders shop than big box stores with particle board products. And a big help is to look on Houzz.com for a ton of ideas. Just put in the style of bathroom you want like rustic or modern.

Sounds like your bath might be laid out like this... When you walk into the room, the vanity is across from the tub and toilet at the end of the tub. Window at the end of the room?

Sounds like the shower plumbing is/was inside the wall you are removing. So the tub you will have is just a rectangle tub without surrounds and not a claw foot tub. And you are removing any and all tile in the room.

On this premise and since it is an old bathroom, replace any damaged wood. Use 'cement board' aka 'backer board'. Use around the tub, floor to ceiling. And the floor if you are putting down any tile which is not flexible (such are marble or slate). If the floor flexes with ridged tiles, the grout and/or the tiles will crack and break. (Personally, for my bathroom I would put backer board on the floor just because of water no matter what surface is going on top.)

Vanity... if there is enough room for a double vanity, do so. Don't make it so tight to the door that there is a jockeying around to close the door. If not, a single sink with as a fair amount of counter space will do great. AND find a vanity on legs. I'm not sure how to describe this, but it's a vanity which look like a small dresser. Basically, there is space under the bottom of the storage and plumbing area no matter how the rest of it looks and it's not a pedestal sink. This will allow light to bounce under the vanity giving the feeling of more room. (Do this even if you have a claw tub.)

Paint/colors.... do not go dark on the walls and tiles. It just closes in the room. Stay very light in tones. (A strip of color in the wall tiles, which is so popular now, is fine but light for the major part.) The floor should be the darkest in the room and not too dark at that. Say that you were putting in slate flooring. Go for the lighter shade of slate. I would avoid white on the floor since it'll make the room float. It just needs to be the darkest shade in the room but doesn't need to be a deep, dark color.

Vanity color... Nothing darker than the darkest shade in the flooring. A soft tone.

What I have been trying to say about the colors, is no high contrast.

But if you absolutely have to do white walls, tile and flooring, then try a wood vanity...say in the shade of cherry wood. Walnut would be too dark. Yellow oak or pecan just doesn't carry it off. A warm rich color is needed.

Paint is not set in stone. It is the easiest to replace in any redesign. The primary items to get right are the tub and tiles. Get samples if you can. Place them in the room. Look at them under the lights. Daylight and normal indoor lighting are so different that what you see at the store may not translate. Most stores have florescent lighting (green tone); homes generally tungsten lighting (orange tone), and daylight is a clean white tone. Look at the samples for a couple days when using the room in normal usage and one will raise it's hand and say "pick me, I'm it!"

The same applies to paint colors. Tape them to the wall and stare at them a couple days. Oh please don't do as in that commercial where they have 15 different shades of blue painted on a dark red wall. If your woodwork is going to be/is white, butt the paint swatches up to the woodwork.

Oh, BTW, If there is a window at the end of the room (many old bathrooms do), keep it simple. Try some shutters. Keeps clean lines without anything taking up wall space which keeps the room more open.

Ok. My long windedness is done. I hope you made it through all of it and it helps in your decisions. Oh, yeah. Almost forgot. Stay away from beiges. That is so 80's.