Bathroom Remodel: Soothing Modern

This bathroom is one of my favorites projects to date! It’s incredibly satisfying to see a dramatic transformation come to life after creating material boards, reconfiguring the floor plan, and creating renderings for a proposed space. The before pictures show just how dated this bathroom was - from the frosted square glass tiles, to the beige square diagonal set tiles on the floor. Before I started the design for this project the clients gave me their specific “wish list” for what they wanted to see in the space. At times this can be challenging because often what clients want verse the reality of the space and budget they have can get in the way of achieving these goals. I always try to get as close as I can to the clients dream wishlist. In this case they wanted a linen tower, double vanity, free standing tub, heated towel rack, shower system with a hand shower along with a rain shower-head, a new smaller picture window for privacy, a separate water closet for the toilet, and heated floors.

Once I have the floor plan drawn out I begin to work on the space planning and create a proposed layout. Because this is a small bathroom I knew I would either have to compromise on the linen tower or the water closet. Knowing how important extra storage was for them, I didn’t want to take the linen tower away so I came up with the solution of getting rid of the door into the closet from the bathroom. There was already an access point to the closet from the bedroom and the clients didn’t need two access points, so I closed up the door and recessed the linen tower into the wall completely reducing the space it would have taken up. Recessing the linen tower also gave the bathroom a custom look. From there I found a furniture style vanity that came with a beautiful pre-fabricated quartz countertop with pre-drilled 8” widespread faucet holes and matching mirror frames that fit perfectly in the space. I then sized out a 60” free standing bath tub with a floor mounted tub filler. The flow of a bathroom is essential, so in this space I put the bath tub and vanity on the same wall while having the shower and toilet on the opposite wall.

The next challenge was to size out a shower while still having enough room to meet code for the toilet. Unfortunately with the size of the bathroom there was not enough room for a fully enclosed water closet, so as a solution I designed a pony wall in the shower to create privacy for the toilet in the corner. I also made sure when I was sizing the new window on the construction drawings that it did not reach the corner where the toilet was so that there was privacy to the outside. In the shower, I found a system with a regular shower head, a hand shower, and a rain shower-head. With this many water flows in a shower if you live in California you have to make sure that you are getting a compliant product because of the regulations of the water flow rate. It’s also important to make sure you are getting the correct diverters and rough-in valves so that your shower system works seamlessly between each function. I added a free standing shower bench as well as a niche in the shower for the clients to tuck away their shampoo bottles.

Now came the fun part - the finishes! I did a mix of champagne bronze and black in this bathroom. The towel hooks, toilet lever, toilet paper holder, heated towel rack, floor mounted tub filler, shower hinges, and cabinet hardware are all black and the faucets, accent lights, and shower system are champagne bronze. I chose to use a hexagon floor tile with the same color tile in a 12x24 format for the tile baseboards as well as the shower curb tile and I added heated floors underneath the tile because the clients were always cold in the space. For the shower pan I used a smaller format hexagon tile and for the shower back wall and pony wall I used a matte 12x24 marble look alike tile in a straight set layout. The grain in the shower wall tile has a gold/warm tone to it that ties into the champagne bronze. Once all of the layout and design elements are approved and the permit set drawings are submitted to the city and materials are ordered and on site then the construction can begin!

And just like that, we have a bathroom design and a finished product! The process of picking everything out and designing a space is a lot to juggle, especially when you take into consideration building codes, California compliancy, and tile quantities. The finished product is so worth all the hard work and I love giving people their dream spaces. I can’t wait to share more projects that I have finished with you!