In my last home, we definitely made a lot of decisions, especially in the kitchen and baths, thinking about resale (that probably should have been an indicator that we weren’t long for the house, but I digress). This time, it’s all about what we want.
(Note: the terms “master bathroom” and “master bedroom” are being phased out these days due to the racist and sexist undertones of the word “master.” It’s still on our plans as the former, but I’ll be referring to those rooms as “primary” rooms instead.)
Let me refresh your memory of our old-new primary bath:
I still love it. It was a perfect retreat (and, you should see the current bathrooms in our temporary rental *cry emoji*). But, I’m not sure I’m a polished-marble-everywhere girl anymore, or ever was. I’m also way more into stained or natural wood these days than painted wood, mostly because I’m just into more organic-looking stuff, but also because paint-grade wood is softer and gets dinged up much more easily than it’s stain-grade counterpart.
Inspiration
When we started the renovation process, I was really getting into the designs of Moore House Design (@moorehousedesign), which feel a little Leanne Ford with a New England twist. One element that they used a lot in their bathrooms is Tadelakt (rhymes with Cadillac). What is Tadelakt, you ask? Well, it’s this waterproof Moroccan lime plaster that is impervious to mold and mildew. As someone who hates the moldy grossness of grout, I was immediately intrigued, and as someone who has moved towards more simple design elements, the pared-down feel felt really good for a primary bath retreat. Then, I knew it was kismet when our interior design, Amy Hirsch (@amyhirsch_design) said to me at one of our first meetings on this house, “I’m thinking Tadelakt in your bathroom,” without me even mentioning my crush on it. Here are pictures of some of my favorite Tadelakt baths:
It’s just really clean, which I love for a bathroom. However, we’re not going as minimalist as these pictures because I want there to be a little bit more warmth in the room. One of my favorite designers is Amber Lewis of Amber Interiors (@amberinteriors), and the master bath she designed for her own home is a literal dream. I especially love the white oak cabinetry with the thick, mitered countertop, so we’re doing something very similar:
The design of our cabinetry is very similar, but oak will be rift sawn (the cut of the grain will look linear). The mitered edge of the 7″ marble top will be simple, like this beauty by Conrad Architects (I’m also really digging the reveal under the marble top, especially since it mirrors the design of our recessed baseboards elsewhere in the house but absent here, so might need to add that):
Finally, to go with the simple aesthetic of the room, we wanted to do an open curbless shower, with the flooring of the rest of the bathroom running into the shower, like these:
We initially wanted to frame the glass in brass, like this Amber Interior’s bathroom, but it’s super expensive and was one of the first things to go when we needed to get things to fit into our budget. Instead of being bummed, I’m going to tell myself that frameless means it’s easier to clean.
We haven’t decided on flooring yet. I’ve seen some images where Tadelakt is also used on the floor — kinda love the idea — but we need to talk to a plaster installer to discuss whether cracking is a concern as the house settles, and whether you can have radiant heating beneath because that’s non-negotiable for my husband. In addition, it’s a pretty smooth surface, so need to confirm that I won’t fall all the time on wet floors. Ultimately, we might just go with a larger-profile porcelain tile with a rectified edge for a clean, nearly grout-less look.
Floorplan and Elevations
The new bathroom is maybe a little smaller than our old bathroom, which makes sense because it’s a smaller house generally (although the primary bedroom is bigger so maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about). Anyway, we played around with where the primary suite would go — even thinking about making the massive area above the garage a suite away from the kids rooms — go but it made the most amount of sense to put it above the sunroom near the kids bedrooms, the laundry room, and the first guest suite:
This is the floorpan.
I really like when a bathtub is between two vanities, so was really happy with this design, especially with the bathtub centered in front of that large window. When you enter the bathroom, it’s the first thing you see. This is what we’re going for visually:
And here’s the elevation:
The water closet and shower elevation is a little boring in the bid set elevations, but here it is anyway (again, that brass frame is gone):
In order to make the open glass look work, we got rid of a bench and will put a cool teak or stone freestanding stool in the far left corner.
Hardware and Fixture Picks
In terms of hardware and other items, which are obviously all subject to change because we’re so far from installing hardware, we’ve picked Fantini low arc widespread faucets (left), in a Matte British Gold finish (see right pic for color) and corresponding items for the shower and bath (bath hardware will be floor mounted):
For cabinet hardware, we’re also going with a super simple look, this time from Top Knob’s Aspen collection (not sure we’ll even need the pulls or will do all knobs):
We were so happy with our Signature Hardware Winifred bathtub — my best memory was when my 7 college best friends and I piled in together (clothed) and drank rose — but we can’t fit something that big this time, so no more wine parties. Instead, we’ve picked the 65″ Ocala tub:
Funnily enough, we have to re-pick our toilet because it’s too tall for the window in the water closet. We’ll do that eventually, and it’ll probably be a Toto.
Lighting and mirrors (we’re doing wall medicine cabinets) are TBD. We also haven’t decided on towel hooks versus bars. I prefer hooks, but I think my husband prefers bars so we (he?) might have to compromise there. I guess we could do both.
That’s it for now.
