Master bathrooms are a funny thing. Clients either invest a lot of money into them because they see it as a retreat and value how much time they spend there. Or they put a master bathroom remodel at the very bottom of the list because no one but them will ever see/enjoy it. Well these homeowners took the first approach. With two stressful jobs, this was to be an oasis. A gift to themselves as they got ready for work everyday.

The existing bathroom was awkward, had an odd step in it, lacked privacy (no door to the bathroom and then glass blocks hiding the toilet!) and needed a facelift. Of course as my dad always says, when something is odd (like a step in the middle of the bathroom) it’s usually for a reason. And sure enough, during demolition, we found the reason!

But I’m jumping ahead. First we started out with a new floorplan. One that allowed for a freestanding tub, private water closet, spacious shower and no less storage/vanity than they had before. The image below on the left shows the existing floorplan, and to the right you can see how we proposed a new layout.

Then we added the pretty jewelry: the stained cabinetry, the Visual Comfort sconces, the limestone floor, wall-mounted towel dryer and the polished nickel fixtures.

When we got to construction we discovered that this house was framed in an unusual manner, with no where to run the mechanicals between floor joists; thus the step which had been built by the last contractor as a way to house all the pipes. So with some head-scratching and much debate among our team about all of our options we landed on the best possible alternative. We’d make do with a step, but move it to the doorway instead of plunking the step in the middle of the bathroom.

With crisis averted, the bathroom came together beautifully. And to add a cherry on top, they even sprung for a new California Closets system in their adjoining master closet. To make it as cohesive as possible our painter closely matched the stain of the California system to the stain of our custom vanity!