Building A Bathroom Through Virtual Design
Bathroom renovations are challenging at best and foolishly attempted in the absence of qualified professionals. When a bathroom renovation takes place nearly 5,000 miles away in another country, those challenges increase exponentially.
A slow plumbing leak between a bathroom and bedroom wall prompted the complete renovation of a bathroom in this seaside villa built by the client's grandmother nearly forty years ago on Milos Island, Greece. Featuring butter yellow tiled walls, a tired terrazzo floor and little used bathtub, this bathroom is one of three in the house. Its urgent need of an update predated the leak prompting the renovation this past winter to formulate a wish list and devise a plan for accomplishing the bathroom's renovation in advance of the client's June arrival.
We began with email discussions in early March, and combined with my Greek fluency, their excellent English language skills played an important role in our ability to express ideas. The design industry, after all, has its own lexicon. To communicate ideas visually, I turned to web resources like Houzz and Pinterest. Dedicated to residential design and renovation, Houzz enabled me to organize key elements for this bathroom remodel in a personal Ideabook which the contractor could then access via a forwarded link.
Once we were able to review the architect's CAD drawings of a proposed floor plan based on our expressed wants, the Houzz Ideabook became an incredibly efficient way in which to select fixtures, lights, tiles and other key design elements. The architect was able to make recommendations based on what she saw in the Ideabook for our consideration and approval.
The process was further enabled by the architect's ability to email photos of past projects as examples of key design elements like the concrete sink I chose in keeping with the low-maintenance, carefree aesthetic for the space. The concrete sink and the large format, neutral color floor tiles were chosen for their ability to stand up to aggregate use by the numerous friends and relatives who share the house.
A slow plumbing leak between a bathroom and bedroom wall prompted the complete renovation of a bathroom in this seaside villa built by the client's grandmother nearly forty years ago on Milos Island, Greece. Featuring butter yellow tiled walls, a tired terrazzo floor and little used bathtub, this bathroom is one of three in the house. Its urgent need of an update predated the leak prompting the renovation this past winter to formulate a wish list and devise a plan for accomplishing the bathroom's renovation in advance of the client's June arrival.
We began with email discussions in early March, and combined with my Greek fluency, their excellent English language skills played an important role in our ability to express ideas. The design industry, after all, has its own lexicon. To communicate ideas visually, I turned to web resources like Houzz and Pinterest. Dedicated to residential design and renovation, Houzz enabled me to organize key elements for this bathroom remodel in a personal Ideabook which the contractor could then access via a forwarded link.
Once we were able to review the architect's CAD drawings of a proposed floor plan based on our expressed wants, the Houzz Ideabook became an incredibly efficient way in which to select fixtures, lights, tiles and other key design elements. The architect was able to make recommendations based on what she saw in the Ideabook for our consideration and approval.
The process was further enabled by the architect's ability to email photos of past projects as examples of key design elements like the concrete sink I chose in keeping with the low-maintenance, carefree aesthetic for the space. The concrete sink and the large format, neutral color floor tiles were chosen for their ability to stand up to aggregate use by the numerous friends and relatives who share the house.
Project Year: 2013
Country: Greece
