Our Primary Bathroom Reveal: The Biggest Transformation This Year Leave a comment
We started renovating our primary bathroom in March, and while we’re still tweaking a few minor details, it truly feels like the most luxurious retreat to to use each day. It’s the bathroom that we always dreamed it would be. I recently told Chris, “Can you believe our bathroom was lime green for 4 years?!” And he honestly didn’t believe it until I showed him a before photo. And I get it. Because I KNOW that the countertops used to come to just above my knees but that is such a far cry from the perfectly proportional vanities we are enjoying now. This bathroom renovation was expensive and extensive and lengthy but really improved our lives and I’m so excited to share a bunch of photos with you!
(If you missed anything, here’s a trip down memory lane):
And here’s where we started:
And here’s the after of that angle:
But, every inch of this bathroom, from the angled ceilings to mirrored soffits, floors, and layout got a major makeover;
Creating the Primary Bathroom Layout
Any time Chris and I are tackling a new room, we usually draw up any layout changes in the Notability app. We knew we were going to make the closets bigger by taking some space from the primary bedroom, but the rest of the bathroom blueprint was a little in limbo. We had a few non-negotiables on our wishlist: larger closets, separate vanities, a toilet closet, a soaking tub and a sit-down vanity.
I believe that for any significant home project, getting a second opinion is a great idea. You want someone who will challenge your ideas and help you think outside the box. That’s exactly why we reached out to our friend, designer Jean Stoffer to get her take on our bathroom plans. Jean’s team not only found a way to tweak our plans to incorporate everything we wanted, but the final layout was better than we could have ever imagined. It was worth every penny to get their professional insight.
The Foundation of Our Design
Black and White Tile | Tub Nook Sconce | Tub Faucet | Tub | Bath Caddy (similar) | Stool | Towel Ring | Vanity Sconce | Vanity | Faucet | Vanity Hardware | Frame (from this gallery wall)
After the layout was finalized, I started choosing all the finishes. I knew I wanted the walls to be lighter, but warm, because our bedroom is connected and a rich dark brown–which we love. That meant I wanted to bring in contrast somewhere else. The entire bathroom design clicked into place once we chose the floor tile. We ended up finding this stunning black and white tile that echoed the flooring throughout the rest of our house, (fun fact: all of the tile floors in our home are a different black and white tile) but in a unique shape.
We also decided to have heated floors, which—if you can swing it—is a total game-changer. I thought floor heating was only for colder climates like when we lived in Idaho, but it’s been an absolute delight here in North Carolina. We’re on our feet a lot during the day, and it’s just like one extra luxurious comfort underfoot when we’re getting ready for the day or winding down.
When you look down the hall from the bedroom, the freestanding tub is the centerpiece of the room, and funny enough, it’s in the exact same spot as our old tub that was built in. We were worried about privacy because of the window, but we solved the problem by adding a café curtain with a privacy liner. Now, the tub is a beautiful focal point that doesn’t require any fuss.
We designed the entire bathroom space with “low-maintenance” sightlines in mind, meaning that when you peek into the room, it looks presentable at all times. Since the tub won’t collect clutter like a vanity or closet would, it’s an easy-to-maintain, beautiful view!
A Softer Palette
We chose the paint color Farrow & Ball’s Setting Plaster because it’s known for being one of the most complimentary colors to look at yourself in. It gives you a soft, rosy glow—and who doesn’t want that confidence booster everyday– and looks incredible paired with the brown paint in our bedroom. I’ll admit, from the beginning, Chris was not totally on board with this dusty pink hue. But he gets it in the context of the space and is fine with it now. We also brought in a darker wallpaper in the water closet, blueish-gray for the closets and the tile in the shower, as well as wood tones and black accents to add a more “masculine” counterbalance.
Pendant | Wallpaper | Smart Toilet | Toilet Paper Holder
Almost all of the rooms in our home balance masculine and feminine finishes and the bathroom in no different. The Setting Plaster shade has a soothing, calming effect that is a bit nostalgic, while still modern. I like to think of it as grounded elegance. The fabric on my vanity chair ties in the whole color palette beautifully (I repeated it on the new curtains in our room to further tie the rooms together).
Tub Nook Sconce | Vanity Sconce | Chandelier
Layering in all the Lighting
I talked through all the lighting in this post in depth, but suffice to say, I feel like we nailed the moody, modern, traditional look. One big thing about bathrooms is that light fixtures tend to go smaller for some reason, and we did the opposite—we went BIG. We anchored a chandelier just in front of the tub that feels so substantial framed in the arch, the sconces by our vanity mirrors are larger than life, and the details add so much charm.
Mixing and matching lighting is all about repeating elements and tones. I really locked in on clear and mercury glass, brass and vintage touches and all of them sing together. Although, turning them on and off is still something we’re tweaking. We switched to a Lutron lighting system in our bathroom so we can program different zones of lighting together and at this point, it has caused more frustration than satisfaction, but we’re hoping in time I have a better update for you.
The Trimmed out Shower
The shower is definitely one of the highlights of the room. Having designed many showers over the years, I feel like we finally got it perfect. We used this stunning Ann Sacks tile on the shower walls in about six or seven different profiles of the same color to create a dynamic look. One element I really love is the pencil tile in the middle echoes some the wall trim outside the room, which makes it feel more traditional even in that moody gray-green color. The floor is a Carrara marble in a small black & white pattern that echoes the larger black & white tile in the rest of the bathroom.
The tile is handmade, so the thickness of each piece varies—and it’s not meant to look flush. The way the light bounces around due to the different angles you’re seeing is part of the charm. It get that it may not be for everyone (especially those who love uniformity in all things tile).
Handheld Shower | Temperature Valve
Chris’s biggest wish for the new bathroom was a steam shower. All I could think of was that I only wash my hair once a week and could picture how nightmarish humidity would be to my hair between washings. But there’s a solve for that! The contractors installed a louvered window at the top that can be closed when he’s using the steam function.
Over the years, I’ve also learned a valuable lesson in shower design: you don’t need a massive glass enclosure. We used a single glass door to cut down on cleaning time, which makes the shower feel more low-maintenance. The hidden niche, bordered with marble that matches the bench, is one of my favorite features. I also can’t say enough amazing things about having a fixed shower head and a hand held shower in a different spot. I use both for different things all the time. We decided to put a towel bar handle on either side of the glass door so it call pull (and push!) double duty.
Attractive Bathroom Storage Solutions
Storage was a major priority since our previous bathroom lacked it. We only had small vanity drawers, and our countertops were always cluttered. We wanted our new vanities to be symmetrical on either side of the tub. The left side is a bit larger than the right, so we used this as an opportunity to build in wall storage to create a balanced look.
Here is my side:
Towel Ring | Vanity Sconce | Vanity | Faucet | Vanity Hardware
And here’s Chris’s side:
We originally planned for medicine cabinets behind the vanity mirrors, but decided to recess the entire wall for storage instead. My side is about nine inches deep, and Chris’s is a bit more shallow. We use his side as our “whole-house” medicine cabinet, and it’s freed up so much space in our drawers!
Frame (from this gallery wall)
The push-open doors give the space a clean, minimal look, though we may eventually switch them out for knobs because we are finding ourselves leaving the doors propped open slightly since the push motion, which has a slight spring delay to opening the doors, can feel little…unnecessarily complicated when doing it dozens of times a day.
Frame (from this gallery wall)
Our vanities are also taller than our last ones, which is perhaps the most welcome change. Our previous vanities came up to my knees (I wish I was kidding), so we made sure the new ones were a comfortable height. These vanities have legs, which keeps the space feeling airy, and we added a 3.5-inch Carrara marble stone countertop to make them even taller. The vanities (from Stoffer Cabinetry) added an outlet inside the center of each vanity, which is a great solution for my hair tools. I put some silicone mats down there, so I can just use the tools and then leave them to cool in the cabinet without scorching anything.
Behind the tub, we installed a Carrara marble tile with a small lip. It’s a beautiful look while also serving as a perfect little shelf for a few small items, although I haven’t had the heart to put anything there yet.
The Sit-Down Vanity
I’ve never had a dedicated space for my makeup before, but now that I have a sit-down vanity, I use it every day! There is a drawer here for makeup, and it makes me feel so put together to have it all in one place out of sight. There’s overflow makeup in the small wall cabinets on either side of the nook.
Vanity Mirror | Upholstered Stool (vintage – similar)
And get this, the mirror is hardwired! It is from Kohler and there’s a button underneath to turn on the light. It has 4 brightness settings and there hasn’t been one person who has seen it that hasn’t drooled over the function. A small, but magical part of the new bathroom.
My skincare, hair, and makeup products are now all in separate, organized places—skincare in the push-open wall storage, hair tools in my vanity, and makeup at the sit-down vanity—which helps keep everything tidy.
The vintage vanity chair was a birthday gift from Chris last year, and we made it feel more alive by having it reupholstered in a beautiful moody fabric (similar) that ties together all the colors in the bathroom. When you have a lot of hard surfaces like tile and stone, adding textiles is a great way to introduce softness and color. I’m already thinking I should add more textiles!
We’re still figuring out our towel storage. Directly behind my makeup vanity, there’s a push open drawer built into the wall molding that holds our towels (we left the back of the shower bench hollow for the purpose), but when it’s filled, it’s too heavy to pop open. Luckily, I think it will be easily remedied with a pull. During the design process, there’s this huge ideal and as the project finishes, there will always be some concessions to be made. I’m grateful ours feel very minor. The primary bathroom renovation has been such a long-time coming. Such a weight off to have a space we can truly relax in, shed the day, and feel truly pampered at every step of the way.
We have our dream bathroom, and I haven’t even showed you the closets yet!! Those are up next…
