Before and After: 4 Bathrooms With Curbless or Low-Curb Showers

After: Using Houzz Pro software to manage the project, Oron set out to create a modern farmhouse style that bridged one of the homeowner’s preference for a soft and gentle style and the other’s rougher, Western-style sensibilities.

That involved stripping the finishes, adding white shiplap to the walls and installing Calacatta marble mosaic tile flooring and matching slabs around the tub.

The oak vanities are topped with Pietra del Cardoso marble, and the faucets are polished nickel.

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“After” photos by Tiffany Ringwald

2. Frilly and Tubby to Streamlined and Accessible

Bathroom at a Glance
Who lives here: A couple with young children
Location: Charlotte, North Carolina
Size: 160 square feet (15 square meters)
Designer: Jena Bula of Delphinium Design
Contractor: Ekren Construction

Before: In a traditional-style home, this existing bathroom offered plenty of space for the owners, but they weren’t fans of its ornate cabinetry and yellowish look. Plus, they never used the bathtub, which took up a huge amount of real estate in the room.

After: The couple found Jena Bula of Delphinium Design on Houzz and shared with her the inspiration photos they’d saved in their ideabooks.

The first step was to give the huge tub and the separate curbed shower stall the heave-ho. Doing so allowed Bula to create the expansive, curbless wet-room area her clients desired.

To better suit their modern-leaning taste, she replaced the ornate cabinetry with custom-designed, streamlined bleached white oak cabinets with quartzite countertops.

Greige walls (Benjamin Moore’s Edgecomb Gray) coordinate with 12-by-12-inch marble tiles and the marble mosaic floor. Paired with the clean-lined cabinets, the more traditional material gives the room a fresh transitional style.

How to Choose a Bathroom Vanity

The mosaic floor flows right into the shower, which has a 4-foot-wide glass panel to protect the rest of the bathroom from splashing water. While some homeowners worry about drafts in open showers, these clients knew their bathroom stays toasty, so they omitted the door for a more airy look and feel.

To achieve the curbless shower entry, the floor was sloped toward the drain (concealed by the mosaic tile) — something that isn’t possible in every bathroom.

The shower fixtures include a rain shower head that tilts and a handheld wand that, when used with the bench, is suitable for aging in place.

The existing arched window already had privacy glass. Bula just streamlined its trim and had it painted with a mold- and mildew-resistant paint. The feature works beautifully with the new design.

Read more about this bathroom remodel

Photos by Kate Falconer Photography

3. Basically Beige to Family-Friendly

Bathroom at a Glance
Who uses it: Two little girls
Location: Scotts Valley, California
Size: 92 square feet (8.6 square meters); 7 feet, 9 inches by 11 feet, 10 inches
Designer: Christie Hausmann

Before: Up close, this California bathroom was looking a little dingy, and it felt dark despite the window. The homeowners wanted to make it light, bright and appealing to their kids as well as to adults. They searched Houzz for help and found local interior designer Christie Hausmann.

10 Bathroom Design Features Pros Always Recommend

After: Hausmann had the couple share inspiration photos in Houzz ideabooks to get an idea of the look they were after. Turns out they were on the same page: streamlined and modern.

One tough decision was whether to replace the small shower stall, which had a fairly high curb, with a tub-shower combo or an open or closed shower. After discussing the pros and cons with Hausmann, the couple chose an open curbless shower with a linear drain — a feature that makes it versatile and accessible for all ages and physical capabilities.

Between the shower and the nearby tub, Hausmann placed a handheld shower head for washing a child’s hair in the tub, washing the dog in the shower and cleaning. Classic subway tile covers the wet area’s walls.

Hausmann also installed a new solar tube — a kind of skylight with a dome on the roof that captures the light and sends it through a highly reflective tube to the ceiling. It provides so much light that the homeowners rarely need to turn on the lights during the daytime, despite the fact that Hausmann replaced the existing window with a smaller one for privacy.

The entire room, including the shower floor, features hexagonal tiles with a linen-like texture.

The countertop coordinates with the floors, and niches backed with blue hexagonal tiles match the blue custom-made vanity. Its slab-front doors and the room’s squared-off edges have the modern and streamlined look the homeowners wanted. For the kids, the blue color adds a little perkiness to the white-and-gray palette.

Read more about this bathroom remodel

After: Butler drew from spas for inspiration, creating an earthy modern bathroom with an emphasis on natural materials, per the homeowner’s request.

Two-by-10-inch Midori green matte ceramic tiles in a contemporary stacked pattern cover the walls of a spacious shower enclosed in glass. Two-inch matte black hexagonal porcelain floor tiles stop at the shower’s curb, which, like the built-in bench and shower niche, features honed black granite.

The main flooring is 24-by-24-inch light gray terrazzo-look porcelain tiles with a matte finish. In the background, you can see a 36-inch-wide floating vanity, which was handmade from salvaged barnwood and has a clear matte, VOC-free finish. The 1½ -inch-thick floating concrete countertop was sealed to be water-resistant.