Working designer tells all!
Posts tagged small baths
Suburban baths: Job security!
Aug 4th
I have lamented to my staff repeatedly ,we really should go around to some of the older homes and paper the neighborhood with our cards. Not so old that the baths are actually kind of charming…but the abundance of work in the middle class suburban neighborhoods, much like I grew up in, is good job security I think. Why is this so? Because the 70′s and 80′s really stunk in terms of design. I cannot think of much that came out of these decades that has any lasting style. Oh I am sure someone will email me about a lava lamp they loved or that avocado green really IS coming back. I will not hold my breath.
So along these lines, here is a simple redo of one of those baths. I think it might even be a bit older but I cannot recall. All I know is that it had a cramped physical feel to it, had materials that were dated the day they were installed and not much in the way of style. I would not call this a glamourous bath, but it is a good example of what can be done to update a bath on a creative budget and truly transform it. We used rectified porcelain tile on the floor in a large format, same tile in the shower, great custom mosaic glass behind the vanity and in niches and a painted taupe vanity. The countertops are quartz and the sinks are kohler and faucets are from Delta. The Blue dog painting is from their living room. ( I tend to scour the house when staging for a photo shoot…I am sure clients later go WHERE did she find THAT?)
Light and airy and....updated!
Long and narrow..typical of the time. Small shower before...we eliminated the tiny claustrophobic potty room to make more space for shower
Great Hansgrohe raindance system! Great look for the price. Used Shluter trim on the niches and edges as this is rectified porcelain tile
slender pullouts are great storage in a bath
The "Before"...does anyone have one like this?
Powder Bath Wow
Feb 9th
- 2010 NKBA Design Competition Honorable Mention in Powder Bath category Designed by In Detail
Ok, let’s face it. Every single person who visits your home, except maybe those guys who pedal “The Watchtower” religious thingies, will visit your powder bathroom. Let’s not get personal here, but it is a true statement. So, why does the powder bath so often get neglected? It perplexes me . I feel the powder bath rates right up there with the kitchen and the master in terms of importance. I think sometimes clients simply think because it is usually small in size that a white pedestal sink and a mirror from Kirklands, ( this is store that is home to all things tacky) will be just fine.
Nope.
Not in my book. I want a powder bath we design to be an experience. Can be wow, can be subtle, can be monochromatic, can be tastefully simple. But, needs to be treated with care and given proper design attention!
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Stone Forest Sink with Sigma Nuance Faucet
Stone Forest Sink with Sigma Nuance Faucet
This powder bath was executed by myself and my assistant at In Detail. We left it to the end, after designing all the other baths in the house because we knew it needed to be perfect…and needed to evolve. This homeowner is a fantastic woman who loves serious design detail as well as has a penchant for gorgeous artwork and a flair for the dramatic. This bath has very high celings, 12 1/2 feet tall! Yet is only 6ft in width and not much longer. So, it was a challenge. We wanted to clad the back wall in something textural but not tile. We chose mirrors and a dark walnut custom cut in our prescribed sizes.We accented with mirrored strip “tile”.
In fact, my assistant, Stacy Snowden and I spent a day taping out all sorts of combinations on the wall to get just the exact right proportions of mirrors and wood panels. It was painstaking and tight quarters too but worth it. Once we had it the way we liked, we measured our rough outline and drew it out for client approval. Voila! The budget came back a bit on high side so we did end up using less of the Mixed up Mosaics mirror strips and more of the cut mirror.
- Soaring ceilings are gorgeous but tough sometimes to work with!! The panels of wood and mirror are varying sizes and placement
The pictures really do not do this bath justice
Small baths are tough to photograph and one of the reasons you do not see as many in magazines as you might think. The wood panels and mirror had a small 1/4 inch shadow line built in to give us some slack room. The stunning black granite sink is from Stone Forest and the faucet is the “Nuance” in Orb from Sigma Faucets. I like this faucet because it had the traditional finish but yet very sleek modern design. The sconces are from Stonegate Designs and is one of my favorites. The wall paint is a Valspar metallics color that is quite subtle. Gray tones with just a hint of shimmer. The red color was a key factor in adding more warmth to the overall look.
The oversized and bold details were chosen for this small bath to give the visitor a dramatic sensory experience that we hope will long be remembered.
- We were hoping for more than the HM award but the powder bath category was tight this year! So pleased to be included. Most of the other baths this year were really not up to par with year’s past.
