Simply Chic
After eight years in her Sulgrave condo, owner Laura Greenbaum decided it was time to completely renovate the master bathroom. “When I moved in, I just put lipstick on it,” Greenbaum says. “I put in new countertops and a floor.” A few years ago Greenbaum had worked with Geri Higgins of Portfolio Kitchen & Home to redesign the kitchen. “I was so pleased with the result I decided to use her again,” she says.
“Laura wanted high functionality with clean, crisp, modern lines in a spa-like environment,” Higgins says. Portfolio accomplished that with a room wrapped in large-format European porcelain tiles from ceiling to floor. “The continuity of materials extends to the deck of the tub bridging into the shower as if piercing the glass to form the shower bench,” Higgins says.
“I wanted sleek, and I wanted good lighting,” Greenbaum says. So several sources of lighting around the room accomplished that. “Lighting is important,” Higgins says. “Not just for task lighting, but to bring out the clean, architectural interest of the room.” Lumens sconces flank the vanity mirror, and the two mirrors over the sinks are backed with lighting that both highlights the tile and is soft, even, flattering light.
“I’m so happy with the result,” Greenbaum says. “I wish I would have done it sooner!”
The Sky’s The Limit
The richly grained Palomino granite is the star of the show in Jeffrey Byrne’s 18th-floor One Park Place master bathroom. “He loves color and pattern,” designer Brian Morley of Bergamot and Ivy Design says of his client. The bookmatched granite slabs “are like natural art, and increase the luxe factor,” he says.
Morley and Byrne together shopped for the stone. “I didn’t want to have anything pre-selected, I wanted to look at everything,” Byrne says. “We both saw this and I loved it and he loved it.” It became the starting point for the room’s design.
“I wanted a larger shower,” says Byrne of the main instruction he gave Morley. So an unused, outdated tub was ripped out to make room for the commodious shower.
Morley designed the bench wrapped in granite to go the full width of the wall through the glass. “It gives the illusion of breaking through space,” Morley says of the design. Westport Glass and Dimensional Stoneworks fabricated the shower glass and the stone.
Other luxe details include a heated floor and a hidden shade system that at the touch of a button can provide black-out privacy, the effect of twilight, or be completely open.
“It’s awe-inspiring,” Byrne says of the completed space. “I never want to leave!”
Small is Beautiful
Designer Sara Noble of Noble Designs managed to fit two full-sized vanities, a generous soaking tub, and a spacious shower into a fairly small footprint.
What was originally a Jack and Jill bathroom that homeowners David Rose and Amy Hawley Rose shared with their daughter was reconfigured into a master bathroom. “The difference between the old bathroom and this is the difference between the 1970s and 2018,” says Hawley Rose with a laugh.
“The layout didn’t change,” Noble says, “but the room was taken down to the studs.” The reeded cabinet vanities are the heart of the room, and the cabinet detail was the inspiration for the design. Noble employed a high/low mix too, with simple round mirrors from Target flanked by striking brass Hudson Valley sconces. Brushed brass fixtures from Ferguson adorn the sinks, tub and shower.
“We tried to play with the pattern of the tile to create subtle, rich detail,” Noble says of the herringbone floor tile (which is heated) and the shower tile. A subtly colored “Avalanche” marble tops the vanities and also creates a shelf next to the tub.
“I wanted it to be timeless,” Hawley Rose says of the room. “It’s totally efficient and elegant, and we got everything we wanted without having a huge bathroom. I don’t think bigger is always better.”
Refreshed, Renewed, Reimagined
As a young designer, Jan Kyle of Jan Kyle Design designed the house of her dreams for herself and her husband, veterinarian Wayne Hunthausen. Fast forward a few years, and she decided it was time for a major update. She knew what she wanted to keep (the double-sided fireplace that can be viewed from both the tub and the master bedroom), and she knew what needed to be replaced (out-of-date tile, to name one thing).
“The bones are the same, it still has a vaulted roof with a skylight,” Kyle says. Carrara marble replaced the tile on the floor and walls, and Kyle designed the shower flush with the floor without a curb, so the marble runs continuously throughout the room. Mirrored finishes abound. “I love light, and mirror is so great for expanding the space,” she says. Sconces from Wilson Lighting are mounted on the mirror above the vanity. “It’s better to have lighting around the room rather than above you,” Kyle notes.
She designed the vanity to be a furniture piece, rather than a built-in, and she used her signature X-motif to front the sinks and the jetted tub.
“We love it,” she says of the finished room. “The fireplace makes the space especially inviting, and I had a heated floor installed so it’s so cozy against bare feet in the morning.
