Two Bathing Beauties (#anotherbathroomremodel)

First published July 23, 2018

I'm not exaggerating in the least when I tell you that I have designed 15 bathrooms since the start of 2018. To say that I'm burned out on bathrooms is an understatement - give me a kitchen or nursery to design, pretty please with a cherry on top. But now that I'm getting to photograph the bathrooms one by one, it's not so bad. Take a look at these two black and white beauties. I will never tire of black and white and brass. Glamorous and clean. 

These two bathrooms were pretty easy to design in that all the plumbing locations stayed put. It involved swapping out fixtures and updating finishes. The bigger bathroom was for the boys. The husband and the 5 year old son. It is toned down and minimal. A tad brutalist. The smaller bathroom was for the mama bear to use so I added more brass and glam elements. Just a touch. And got rid of one of the baths in exchange for a walk in shower. Because I believe a modern house these days only really needs one bath tub for the littles. Showers are more convenient and water efficient for all. 

We started from a sad place. I actually hate these kinds of bathrooms more than outdated 60s or 70s bathrooms. I hate them because a remodel was done fairly recently, on the cheap with little imagination. A quick fix with the items available in stock and on sale at Home Depot. It feels wasteful to tear it out and start again when everything functions. But such an eyesore. (Note: Old and outdated bathrooms usually have broken cabinets and tile, mold issues, and water wasting plumbing fixtures so I feel justified in the remodel. )

I worked out how I wanted the new design to look through Sketchup renderings and design boards before placing material orders. The key to this guy was extending the walnut floating cabinet to the wall corner to maximize storage. And the wishbone floors. 

Now let's take a look at the humble beginnings of the smaller bathroom. Pretty yucky.

Studying the function and proportions of a walk in shower.

And bam, a stunning little bathroom due to that funky floor.

One of my favorite details was the wall to wall tiled niche with the clean mitered corners. It looks so bad ass. Doncha think?

These two bathrooms goes to show you that you can get funky with floor tile if you stick to an understated palette and details count. Let's talk about process, because I know you need that. 

Going over the tile layout with the builder and the client is really important before it goes in. I laid out the floor tile floor both bathrooms to see if my concept worked. The wishbone pattern is Mosa Terra Tones tile available through Walker Zanger. We used 4 different tones of grey and black so it was important to distribute the tones randomly and evenly.  With the Cle hex cement tile, I had an idea of doing a mix of clip and half black and white tile to create an origami like pattern. The client did not like it and preferred a heavier amount of the half and half. They have to look at it every day so I was happy to do it their way. 

To keep the bathrooms from reading too harsh with all that black and white, I wanted walnut cabinetry to maximize storage and bring in warm midcentury vibes. They were custom designed and fabricated for both. And a sophisticated mix of brass and black hardware and fixtures. 

Get the look: Cle Tile clip and half hex tile, Brizo widespread faucet in luxe gold, wall sconce, Ceaserstone countertop in Pure White, matte white subway tile, mirror, finger pull.