Bathrooms
In the en suite, Arteriors mirrors coordinate with a custom double vanity. Zoom in to see the smoky quartz detail on the sconces. Forina had the sconces customized in brass to coordinate with the brass plumbing fixtures. Lime wash on walls: Cumulus Cloud, Benjamin Moore; floor tile: Strada Bianco Waterjet mosaic, Artistic Tile; sconces: Matthew Studios
shower
single height counter with vanity
shower tile, recessed cubby, bench
vanity
brass, wall tile
vanity
Functional hardware is a bonus upgrade with one of the greatest rewards. Your drawers can be pulled out completely with full-extension slides, allowing an entire view of and access to the drawer. Items in your drawer won’t be hidden, and the drawer may be easier to clean as well. Even if your remodel includes keeping your existing drawers and cabinets, most can be easily retrofitted with full-extension slides. Soft-close slides and hinges prevent drawers and cabinet doors from slamming shut, instead closing them softly and silently. This not only reduces noise but also minimizes wear and tear on the drawers, doors and hinges and prevents contents from shifting too much. Additionally, soft-close slides can help keep children’s fingers from getting pinched by a fast-closing drawer. For deep cabinets, items stored in the back may be awkward to retrieve and therefore become lost and forgotten. I recommend rollout shelves (with full-extension slides, of course) in these spaces so you can see all the contents. Since access is much more convenient, you may be encouraged to put things away properly and more efficiently.
all, but would increase backsplash or enlarge mirrors, or wall will get wet
The countertops are a low-maintenance quartz with subtle marble-like veining. The faucets, like all the other plumbing fixtures in the room, are polished nickel. “The sleek gooseneck faucets and lever handles are so pretty,” Bula says. These fixtures and the mirror frames add soft curves to the space.
Lighting discussion, over sink fixtures.“We talked at length about what kind of storage they wanted and created vanities with two drawer banks for each of them,” Bula says. Also, look at the top drawers in the vanities — they have slab fronts rather than Shaker detailing. “I find that when the top drawer is smaller than the drawers below it, adding those 2¼-inch rails looks awkward because the space in the middle is too narrow,” Bula says. This alternative look also suits the transitional style of the room. Bula chooses LED bulb Kelvin (K) temperature on a room-by-room basis. The lower a Kelvin number is, the more yellow the light is. For reference, 2,700K is often recommended for typical warm home lighting. “For a bathroom that gets great natural light like this one, I like to lighten the color temperature of the bulbs,” she says. “Here I recommended 4,000K. It’s less yellow and better for putting on makeup. Of course, I put all the lights on dimmers so that they can adjust them for different tasks and times of day.”
The couple have their own vanity and storage towers in the new layout. The bottom of each tower has a double laundry pullout, and the upper portion includes an outlet for electric toothbrushes. Note the crown at the top of the towers and the paneling along the sides of the towers and vanities. These extra details add to the custom look of the vanities and to the traditional touches. Meanwhile, the minimalist style of the light fixtures, cabinet hardware and mirror frames are more modern touches in the transitional mix. The designer mixed matte black into the design through the hardware and the mirror frames; mixing metals also contributed to the room’s transitional style. The mirrors, at 34 by 34 inches, are oversize. (Standard size is 24 by 36.) “They had become used to the existing mirrors that covered the walls,” Bula says. “Giving them a larger-size mirror made things more special.” She says a significant number of her clients have been requesting larger bathroom mirrors lately.
Porcelain tiles in shower and floor (wood).The shower floor consists of small hexagonal tiles in the same marble look as the shower wall tile. The bathroom floor tile is also porcelain, but with a wood look. This is a fresh take on traditional hardwoods and another low-maintenance material. With the existing floor joists and flooring selections, a curbed shower stall was the best option for these clients. “A curbless shower can be great, but it can add a lot onto the budget because of the slope it requires,” Bula says. She notes several other benefits of a curbed shower stall: It creates an easy transition between different tiles on the shower floor and main floor. It provides a good water barrier. It allows the shower door to open without getting stuck on a bath mat. A curb is a good place to mount the shower enclosure glass. A curb has an easier installation process, especially in a remodel, than a curbless shower does, which also means it’s less expensive. (Curbless showers are easier to plan for and install during new construction.)
Foot niche.Backed in matching tiles, the niches add to the surround’s seamless, uninterrupted look. The lower niche is a shelf for propping a foot when shaving or washing a leg. This is a convenient and ergonomic addition that’s easy to add to a shower design. “I advise my clients to do one large niche for products rather than smaller multiple niches,” Bula says. “They wind up collecting so many different bottles that everything looks neater in one place.”
after.After: The new shower measures 3 feet, 10 inches by 6 feet, and the shower door swings both in and out. Bula placed the temperature controls within easy reach of the door so the homeowners don’t have to step inside and get wet before the water heats up. The designer recommends mounting a shower head 7 feet off the tiled floor. “A lot of times shower heads are too low for tall people. Mounting it at this height means almost everyone, except maybe [basketball player] Yao Ming, can shower comfortably under it,” she says. She also recommends placing a handheld shower on a slider like she did here. “This way you can position it as a second shower head if you want,” Bula says. “It’s also great to have a sprayer for rinsing soap and shampoo off the shower floor. And I even use mine to wash my dog.”
before
The soft gray-green color on the cabinets was the jumping-off point for the design. “The wife loved green, and they both wanted this bathroom to feel light, spa-like and very relaxing,” the designer says. “They also knew they wanted a natural stone look but that the maintenance involved in keeping it up would not be for them.” So Bula recommended a durable, easy-to-clean porcelain with a marble-like veining pattern. “This tile has lots of movement and there will be no watermarks or staining,” she says.
before
before
layout, after
after
Before
after, shower niche
After
Before
The single-function shower head with pressure-balancing valve has the same brushed brass finish as the vanity faucets. A niche keeps bathing products off the floor and has the same glossy blue tiles as the shower walls. The flooring is handmade white ceramic tile in a 2-by-2-inch size, which helps create a nonslip surface. Floor tiles: Frost, Fireclay; shower fixtures: Purist in Vibrant Brushed Moderne Brass, Kohler
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