We took on a huge bathroom in Marietta, GA, just North of Atlanta. It was a friend of a friend, who needed some help with her 1980s dated, builder-grade master bath. The bathroom really needed some design and upgrades–it had some big time structural issues and needed a more stylish appeal.
BEFORE: Whirlpool Tub in Beige Plastic
AFTER: Timeless Classic Bathroom
The shower was a flimsy gold-framed contraption that was falling apart and the shower floor was composed of some plastic pre-fab pieces held together with a dollop of caulking. And when I say “held together,” I actually mean “falling apart.”
In fact, that floor has been leaking for years and there was a good bit of rot and mold under the shower. It was definitely not an ideal situation for an upstairs bathroom. The leaking shower run-off had flowed back into the toilet room, rotting out both the stud wall that separated the two spaces, as well as the sub-flooring in that space. To top it off, the brassy shower enclosure was rusting badly and disintegrating.
It was a mess.
BEFORE: Brassy Flimsy Shower
AFTER: Custom Frameless Glass Door
The homeowner and I met at the tile store, to design the space. We chose marble to replace the biscuit-hued, builder-grade floor tile and chose a beveled ceramic subway tile for the shower. However, we brought the marble back into the shower with a mosaic border and used the marble hex-mosaic (honed finish) on the shower floor. To add a luxurious feel and to prevent mold on the sheetrock, we ran the tile to the ceiling. We enlarged the shower slightly, by coming out towards the art glass, allowing enough space for the antique cast iron clawfoot tub.
That brassy, rickety old shower unit was replaced with a custom frameless unit. And all chrome light fixtures, shower fixtures, and faucets were selected with a nod toward history and timeless, luxurious design.
Beautiful Reproduction Shower Faucet
Turn of the Century Restored Clawfoot Tub with Telephone Faucet
Honed hex-tiled shower floor
We made decisions to stay in budget. When you have such a massive bathroom, labor and tile pricing can run high. So, I sourced 80 year-old science lab slate table tops and had them cut to fit the existing vanity. Since the vanity was such a massive piece, we replaced the dated hinges and knobs with chrome hinges and glass knobs and kept the vanity. I painted the piece a neutral sage, then hand detailed it with black paint for a vintage, antiqued flair. We wanted someone to think it had been around the block a time or two.
BEFORE: Vanity From a Big-Box Outfit with Brass knobs and hinges
AFTER: Sage Green Paint with Antiqued Finish, Science Lab Counters
The tub was refinished with a black body to tie into the black of the slate and the detailing of the vanity. The walls were painted a soothing grey to bring the whole space into Zen alignment.
The goal was to make this a calm, clean retreat of a space, where slipping into a warm bath, with a glass of wine, would wash away the stress of the day.
