Bathroom Redo

Or....having to redo a bathroom I already had to rehab ONCE!!!!!

Hi!!!!!

I have been away from you guys!!!!!

Working my little tush to the bone.....

I have ACTUALLY SOLD SOME FABRIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(i don't know if those were enough exclamation marks.)

(i tend to underdo my punctuation.)

My first collection has been selling and I am getting ready to launch my 2017 designs this summer.

Then we will branch out into wallpaper.

What the hell have I started?????

This feels suspiciously like work.

BUT I AM LOVING IT.

go figure.

anyway.

enough about my wonderful stuff.

let's talk about my buddy Kris.

Kris lives in an old old old old old old old house.

Not one of these new fangled homes with bathrooms for each bedroom.

This house was lucky if it had a bathroom on each floor.

When we remodeled the downstairs, we enlarged the back of the house, enabling us to change the power room from a tiny closet to a normal size half bath.

When I say tiny,

 I mean so small that the door had to have a half circle cut out of it so it could swing open and get past the sink.

I wish I had a picture of this.

I do not.

My life is full of regrets.

Sigh.

ANYWAY.

On the second floor, 

years ago,

 when I first started working for Kris,

 and she was my client,

 and not my friend, 

and those were the good old days and I made money off of her and her falling down old old old house.........

I designed a remodel of her second floor bathroom.

This bathroom serviced the four second floor bedrooms.

These were all the bedrooms for the family.

Well.....

one of those rooms we turned into the TV room, so it really was for three bedrooms.

BUT IT WAS FOR 4 PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!

We were able to enlarge the bathroom to create a separate toilet room, 

which is a really nice detail..

 when you have 4 people sharing one bathroom.....

Now, before you feel too sorry for her family,

 they did have another loo on the third floor,

 thus the kids got plenty of exercise,

 and to this very day are fit and healthy.

Kris wanted a bathtub/shower,

 so that's what I gave her.

Later on, it was changed to a shower stall.

Here are the shots of how it looked before it was all gutted for this new remodel.

I had a half wall built to separate the tub from the vanity, 

adding beadboard wainscoting to all the walls.

This was 20 years ago, before everyone and his dog was using beadboard.

Anyway, I don't care, 

I still love it.

beadboard beadboard beadboard beadboard.

Love it.

So Kris ripped it all out.

Below are all the before shots.

First is looking in from the hall past the vanity and what later became the shower stall back towards the toilet room, with its pocket door.

After 20 years, the wallpaper is starting to peal off.......

We used hardware and faucets from Waterworks, and Carrara marble.

These pictures are courtesy of Kris. 

She took them for me before the room was demoed.

Shot towards the door out to the hall.

We used subway tile 20 years ago, because I've always used it.

I found Mexican mirrors that had been metal worked in silver, so the tone of the metal was similar to the nickel of the fixtures.

The wallpaper was a classic Brunschwig & Fils all over leaf pattern in green.

So

That is what was, this is what is:

As you know, if you've been paying attention.....

we gutted the room.

Started from scratch.

Clean slate.

We still kept the subway tile look, but Kris wanted something less stark than white, so we went with a creamy marble.

Below is the wall that runs behind the vanity and shower.

I decided to tile the whole wall.

It's only money, and it's not mine.

For the top of the tile we installed a crown of the same marble.

I worked with the carpenters to create a similar profile in wood to continue around the room.

They also recreated the details for the windows and doors that the rest of the house had.

Below is a shot of the molding painted. See how nicely the shape blends with the tile.

We had the beautiful basket weave tile in the same marble installed on the floor of the room and the shower.

We were lucky

 (I found it.....) 

and found a small slab of the same marble that we could use for the shower curb.

We didn't want to have to buy a 4 x 8 size piece of marble for this little area.

It took us hours to find the right wallpaper.

We wanted one that was simple,

to work with the tile,

but that had a little glitz, 

since Kris was going glam.

 This wallpaper (it's hard to see in the pictures) is printed in metallic gold.

Very subtle, but glittery in the morning sun,

when an old biddy is getting up and attum!

This is the way it looks at this point in the renovation.

It's all creamy.

I will be keeping you up to date on its progress.

I promise.

I have been missing in action, but will be better.

That's it for today, campers.

Oh, wait!!!!!

we need one of my fabulous side by sides!!!!!

The new way is going to feel much larger because I am not going to have a half wall.

OH!!!

and a teaser.

the vanity is an amazing antique we picked up at auction.

On that note,

Latah, Gatah