Mt. Vernon Spa Bath

Semi-Custom Vanity

JULY 2024

Serene Nature-inspired Simplistic

Mt. Vernon Spa Bath

Renovation, Primary Bathroom Concept Design

General Contractor: Darick Johnson 

The tales that an older home can tell, are numerous and unspoken. 

When I first met our homeowners, they had recently purchased this 1960s ranch style home, beautifully situated in the heart of the San Juan Islands and the famous Washington state tulip fields. The couple was excitedly retiring from city life in Seattle a couple hours south and ready to embark on a new phase of life. 

The home showed her age, but also her style. Having only had one previous owner, the time capsule of a home I entered instantly told the story of someone who loved design and had chosen the most elegant pieces at the time. A metallic gold and dusty blue wallpaper and Rococo style lighting ensconced the bathroom, custom cabinetry with the daintiest of rose carvings adorned the drawer fronts, and although functionally lacking for modern day, I nearly wished I could remove the previous homeowners’ selections and kept them safe as a testament to custom design in the sixties and seventies.

A panoramic of the 1970s primary bath

As I mentioned, these homeowners are native Washingtonians and love the PNW vibe of serene, nature-inspired spaces with a flair for practicality and no fluff. And earth tones abound!

The Concept Design Phase

We dig into our homeowners’ lifestyle, functional needs and aesthetics in our kick-off meeting, taking a comprehensive look at current and future needs, considering that they are planning to age in place. (A nice term for “you’ll have to bring us out of this house in a wooden box”). Therefore we made sure that all entrances and thresholds were ADA compliant and would be able to transition, serving them independently, for as long as possible. 

This meant widening shower entrances, utilizing a barn door hardware system that has a minimal floor level transition and appropriately sized space for showering that could include a shower seat or wheelchair, with adjustable handheld plumbing.

In the water closet, this meant removing the louvered closet doors for a slider door and updating the commode height and functionality to add a bidet. 

At the vanity, we took careful consideration in the height of the vanity and provided a wide space for seated grooming. 

The wife requested a free standing tub, and after two iterations of space planning with a bath outside of the shower enclosure, we decided the best use of space would be to create a graded wet room with ceiling height glass enclosures and appropriate ventilation for the steam shower. 

After taking into consideration the homeowners overall style, needs and investment (aka budget), we headed to our local tile store, knowing that we would need to prioritize a bulk of the investment to the cabinetry (as storage was seriously lacking) in this primary bath. 

Without going fully custom, we chose James Martin semi-custom vanity program and built out the various cabinet components with our JM representative. I loved that for a semi-custom option, we could add glass front cabinets, interior cabinet lighting, tilt-out faux drawers and that we had the option to add electrical outlets inside the drawers! We even had a custom cut slab for the vanity top (instead of using the existing sink vanities) so that our clients could have their preferred wall-mount faucet and vessel-mount sinks. 

Inspired: The Design Concept comes to life

We chose the beautiful Cloe Bedrosians tile as the statement tile for the wet room. The glazed ceramic wall tile has a brilliant color, smooth gloss finish, and interesting variations in hues and tones.

We chose the 2.5”x8” tile and installed it in a vertical brick set pattern. 

With the star of the space selected, next we paired a subtle penny tile inset to the niches and a hexagon tile for the shower floor that had hints of green marbled throughout. 

Outside of the wet room, the main floor consisted of a puzzle layout of 5 sizes of travertine tile, a beautiful and durable limestone. 

As always, we presented all selections to our clients in person for approval before rendering them.

Check out the renders below, this step always gets our clients attention and excitement for what’s coming after the mess of demolition! 

Semi-custom vanity that gave our clients ample storage, vanity bench and requested vessel sinks

The free standing soaker tub nestled into the wet room was the perfect compliment to making everything fit in one space.

Demolition & Renovation

From the time I presented the renderings - until it was complete- was a brief 3 months, which is fantastic news for the homeowners who lived among a bit of dust and debris. (See note at the end of this blog for the service these clients chose.)

 I checked in with them every week or two, depending on the progress expected each week, was available by phone or text as our client had pop-up questions, and overall loved being able to get project updates on this primary bath renovation (shown below), even though I had temporarily moved back to Florida (while Mr. Z was on deployment) to work alongside several of our southern clients.

It never ceases to amaze me at the transformation that our client’s homes take while we are hard at work.

I don’t take lightly that we are tasked with setting the backdrop of your lives and we're proud to share the reveal with you.

The Reveal

Although this bathroom was difficult to photograph due to the lack of natural light, our fabulous photographer (Lauryn Halley, Moments of Moxie) did a phenomenal job capturing this finished space.

My favorite element was keeping the original stained glass window in the water closet, and adding fresh wallpaper to the space.

Most importantly, our clients are absolutely loving this functional, spa-like retreat in their new home.

Service:

Our clients opted for the Primary Bath Concept Design service, which allows them to have all designer selections procured, elevations and renders ready to hand over to your contractor of choice for a flat fee. From there, we check in on progress but the General Contractor (or client) is in charge of project management (unlike with Full Service design, where we keep a larger presence in the process). 

Our Signature Concept Design services allow clients to have confidence in professional design and selections, while saving money overseeing the project themselves. This works out beautifully since it allows for a larger investment to be spent on materials.

Did you know we offer Concept Designs for kitchens, primary, secondary and half baths, as well as laundry and mudrooms? And these can easily be done virtually if you're not local to us

I hope you’ve enjoyed and been inspired by this beautiful primary bathroom renovation, and if you’re interested in learning more about our Signature Concept Design services, contact us for more information.