The bathroom had been remodeled about 12 years prior using quality materials, but the homeowner’s priorities had shifted with time. The beautiful mahogany cabinetry and stone countertops were to remain in place; other elements in the room were going to be improved.
Goals included:
- A curbless shower, beautiful and functional for creating a home for life
- Freestanding tub
- Retain a privacy wall at the toilet
- A more contemporary aesthetic

Challenging elements of this project included finding the right compliment of new materials to the existing granite and plumbing fixtures.
- The granite was neutral in color with a nod to the warm side, we found that bold color blocks were the best fit to not fight with the character of the stone.
- We found plumbing fixtures with clean lines that complimented the existing faucets, while providing the features and details the homeowner was looking for.
Another hurdle faced during construction was creating the curbless shower. The goal was to have a bathroom floor absolutely level with the hardwood flooring in the master bedroom-we could not build up the bathroom floor. The mechanical room was directly below the shower, giving access to framing, but it was desperately crowded with necessary mechanical piping and venting-within inches of the subfloor. Placing the drain and achieving the correct slope of the shower was carefully choreographed.

Updating materials allowed for:
- more visual interest with bold color and contrast
- porcelain tile rather than natural stone for easier maintenance
- improved lighting at the vanity
- heated tile flooring, including the shower
The homeowners asked for bold color, yet hesitated in their choice to commit to such a rich deep blue across both the shower/tub wall as well as the vanity. After discussing the amount of natural and artificial light in the room we took the plunge! The result is a room with dramatic color blocks of light and dark, with careful detailing of the repetitive textural tile-a three dimensional wave from Sonoma Tile called Dahlia. Other precision elements in the room include the nearly floor to ceiling shower niche. The polished chrome trim from Schlueter pops against the tile, tying in the sparkle of the polished chrome shower fixtures and electrical trim. Details as minor as the shape of the shower valve were chosen to create crisp lines and follow the homeowner’s fine attention to detail.