A dated bathroom goes bright and beautiful

Sometimes you get called in to consult on a job and you're not sure how you are going to update this room because the bones are challenging. This job was one of those. The couple who hired me for this job had just purchased a home that was built in the late '90's and had a master bath that had been half-way torn up when they moved in. The previous owners had started a remodel on the room but stopped after ripping out the drop-in tub. I think those owners got overwhelmed because they discovered a leaky shower which led to rotted subfloors and probably a can of worms that they weren't ready to deal with. So their solution was to sell the house with the bathroom as is, and let the lucky buyers deal with the bathroom remodel. Truthfully this was a blessing for my clients as they had no excuse not to make over this bathroom, and make it function for their life style. Let's start with how it looked in the beginning:

Alright, let's talk about the problems we wanted to remedy with this remodel. First, clearly all the finishes in the room were dated. Easy fix to update cabinetry, flooring, lighting, and plumbing fixtures. Second, there were so many doors and angles making this room feel cramped. There were two closets, with the second closet being the smaller one you see in the picture above right next to the shower. This closet had the shower leaking into it and is where we had subfloor rot. Third, the shower in the bathroom was small and didn't feel luxurious or like it belonged in a master bathroom. The husband that lives here is a tall guy, around 6'4" and his wife is about 5'10". So they needed a shower that could accommodate their height and perhaps even make it so the husband didn't have to bend down under the shower head. The clients also requested that we do a stand-alone tub in the room, which of course I happily obliged to. We just had to find a tub that was big enough to accommodate the husband, which is not an easy task since we didn't have a lot of space for the tub.

The plan for the space was to move around a few of the pieces in the room to try and eliminate as many doors and angles as possible. The old shower area was going to become the water closet with a pocket door to save on space by the vanity. The second closet (the one that lived next to the old shower) would become a walk-in shower with a large glass door to open up the space visually. The room where the toilet used to live would be demo'd and we would take half of that space and add it to the master closet and half of the space would be used to accommodate a tall cabinet next to the tub. The vanity would be made smaller but still hold two sinks. And radiant heat would be put under all flooring, including the shower and closet. I mean, can you imagine? Warm floors under your feet in the shower?!?! Heaven right there.

Here's a floor plan for the next space:

As far as finishes in the space, we wanted to use a neutral palette and keep things pretty traditional for the couple.

Custom cabinetry was built and included bun feet on the vanity to mimic a piece of furniture. Chrome hardware throughout, two separate mirrors as opposed to one long mirror above sinks, sconces on the side of the mirrors for more favorable lighting, and sconces flanking the tub. Originally I wanted to put a chandelier over the bathtub but that goes against code here and the couple didn't want to break code. So we sub'd in sconces for that chandelier to still have some task lighting on that wall. And perhaps the star of the room, those cement tiles! With such a neutral palette I knew that we could go with a floor that stole the show. And these cement tiles did just that. They radiate heat beautifully and the couple chose to have them carried throughout the bathroom and master closet which was such a great decision. Let's cut all the talking and get to the pictures. And the amazing photography of Kelli Kroneberger makes this bathroom shine on the screen. Kelli even painted the abstract art you see in the bathroom. She is one talented lady!