When this client came to me, her goals were to lighten and brighten her primary bathroom. She wanted to move away from the brown "Tuscan" style from the early 2000s. She used words like "traditional, classic, and timeless" when envisioning the space. Of course, these words created the vibes I'd use in the design. Because we had recently completed another full bath remodel in her condo, I also knew she liked elements of fun (which is just part of the reason we are such a good fit for one another). Read on as I take you through the journey it took to get her bath space from these before pictures to the after.
I knew from the start that we'd start this design with a navy vanity. She also liked green, but we'd had a lot of conversations about how timeless navy is and how we consider it to be a neutral. She needed the vanity to be timeless. In ten years, she may choose to switch out the chandelier or the mirrors, but she wanted to be able to keep the vanity longterm. My client wanted a vanity that was more like a piece of furniture. Think detailed legs, vs. a piece that rested on the floor or was built-in. What I could have done next is picked a white paint color to lighten the space as desired and it would have looked like every navy and white bathroom you see on Pinterest. But that wouldn't be interesting and it wouldn't be her. One of the things she emphasized was that she isn't afraid of color. Or pattern. And I already mentioned she likes fun. "Color, pattern, fun." We could achieve this with wallcovering, or even fabric. But how would you use fabric in a bath space? Well, it just so happened that we needed to come up with a solution for her mirrored closet doors. She actually used them all the time, and because they were so functional, we wanted to keep them. They needed dressed up, though. My idea? Window treatments! After talking with my seamstress, we thought a box pleat would be perfect for the top of the mirrors.
I went on a hunt for fabric that would pull in the navy from the vanity. I found this fabric and fell in love. Technically I found the wallcovering first, but more about that later. The box pleat wouldn't be enough to truly showcase this beautiful fabric, so we framed the fabric to use as art above the tub as well.
From the fabric, I pulled a lighter blue color for the wall color using my color matching tool. Sherwin Williams Adrift would saturate the room with color. The fabric then became the anchor that tied everything together in the space.
Next, we needed tile: shower walls, shower floor, main floor. I wanted something light, but with enough movement in it to keep things interesting. I also knew we could make the space appear bigger if we selected the same tile for the walls as the floors. So we did just that with this onyx look.
We worked with her contractor to figure out a solution for opening her shower up. It was so dark before, and yet there was some plumbing that couldn't be removed or redirected. He was able to take out half of a wall and we had glass installed which made things so much more open and bright. Huge difference!
I picked out gold mirrors with lots of fun detail along with some gold plumbing fixtures. We did discuss possibly mixing metals by adding some chrome--if we would have done this, it would have been with the shower glass door hinges or the shower plumbing. We also could have mixed metals with the light over the tub.
Instead, we stuck with the gold and chose this super fun bubbles-like chandelier! My client wanted a funky light and she got one.
After I'm done with the design stage of full service decorating, I do an in-person design presentation to show clients the design, selections, and any relevant samples. In this case, I brought fabric, tile, and paint samples to show my client. I also show moodboards and renderings to help show what their redesigned space will look like. For this project, I also used the renderings to show what wallcovering would look like in the water closet area. She opted out of that for now, but it's something that is easy to add later on if she changes her mind. Once the client is 100% happy with the design, we start the project management of the phase, which includes ordering product, etc. Then the client sits back and waits for the magic of seeing the space come together.
I hope you enjoyed seeing this design from concept through to completion.
For me, seeing a space come to life is everything. Getting it photographed highlights all the special details we curated and I love being able to share it all with you!
Check out all the photos of this project from Hailey Bollinger.
