Remodel of 8×10 master bath into fabulousity

Video with iPhone — why must my hand shake so??? Sorry!

We bought a house that we loved with one room we hated: the master bath! It had an 8×10 master bath segmented into a 5×10 space and a 3×10 space, with a full wall and door between them. The 3×10 space housed a dank pre-fab 3×3 shower, a window with blinds always closed because it opened onto the driveway/garage of the neighbors, a extra short potty that we would drop sit on at night, and a headknocker cabinet. The 5×10 area housed a 42 x 60 inch tub with a big surround and a big step, but no jets. The cabinet top was white and stained. The 5×10 space had full mirrors on both 5′ walls. The fixtures were flaking chrome. The lights over the vanity were in a “box” built to hold electrical etc. And the very, very very worst part???? There was no hot water. The contractor had switched the hot and cold lines. We have tankless gas hot water, so it should have been awesome but instead was ice. Couldn’t be fixed (and we had 3 plumbers in to diagnose) without ripping out the tub, shower, and tile, and that point, you have to start over anyway. The only nice thing in the bathroom was the marble floor tile. And we were able to get some hot water by turning the tub cold tap on full blast to bleed it off the line to let a trickle of hot through to the shower, which by turns was scolding and icy, besides expensive and wasteful. We endured this for 5 years, because we didn’t have the cash to do a remodel.

We did not have the ability to enlarge the space as the master needed all its size and my office was on the other side — a really nice one with wood floors and built in cabinetry. So we made do with what we had — an 8×10 room with everything pulled out, and I mean everything. We wanted to create a feeling of light, openness, and rich earth tones with brushed nickel finishes. Oh yeah, and I wanted hot water 🙂

Along the way with the remodel, we encountered floor leveling nightmares and electrical emergencies that tooks DAYS and nearly 1000 dollars to fix. And the normal plethora of tiny “hmmmmm” moments when deciding how to best use the space. Our contractor took 8 weeks to finish, which was too long by about 3 b/c he did too much without help, had too much rework, and forgot too many damn things when he did work. However, the end result is beautiful. Luckily one of us was able to work from home nearly every day of the project or we would be singing a different tune. Usually it was me, because I work from home anyway, although the remodel forced me to move to an upstairs spare bedroom from my normal office adjacent the master bath. Oh well.

Here’s what we ended up with, at least here it is 95% of the way through, pre installation of frameless shower glass and finishing up the stain on a few cabinets. And installation of a cap to the half wall to watch the vanity top. Oh, and we have to put up the towel and hand towel racks after the wall top and shower glass are installed.

But it’s still beautiful, functional, light, and working! If we had more space, we might have done a few things differently, but with the space we had, we are 100% satisfied with our choices. We did our own design and selections (b/c we’ve done this in several houses before), but we hired a GC to do the work. My husband is doing some of the detail finish himself, though, so that we can get it just right (ie, staining cabinets to match). The one problem we were unable to solve was how to eliminate the effect of the giant door encroaching into the space. We tried to design a pocket door, but did not have the space in the walls. We thought about reversing the door, but there was inadequate space outside the bathroom. Ultimately, we installed a door stop on the side of the tall cabinet you’ll see in the video, and we’ll just make do. It crowds the tower cabinet when the door is open, as a result, but we needed the cabinet space, and it looks perfect when the door is shut. Hey, 8×10, what can I say 🙂

Take a look and see what we picked/did…inspired? I’ll post final pictures/video in 2 weeks on my blog, including a shot of the bathroom interior with the door CLOSED. And I’ll try to hold that damn iPhone still, ha ha.

We spent $15,000.
Elements:
Marble countertops, created from recycled marble scraps
Travertine 13×13 floor tile
1×1 travertine shower floor
16×16 scabos travertine shower and bath walls
Glass block window
Moen brushed nickel fixtures
Custom stained cabinetry
32×60 jetted tub