One Room Challenge: Master Bath Details

This Robern Medicine Cabinet with pencil edge and white interior

will be recessed in the wall above our Duravit Darling Vanity

When planning a new bath, there are a LOT of details that have to be taken into consideration before the walls go up. After the rough-ins for all of the plumbing have been determined with a licensed plumber based on the specifications of the selected fixtures, the electrical is probably the most critical step in designing an efficient bathroom. Creating a lighting plan that includes switch and outlet placement is essential.

Think about how you plan to use the space. How many lights will each area require? Do you want the lights to go on automatically when you enter, then turn off after exiting? What are your electrical requirements? Will there be multiple users who will each need an outlet at the same time? How about a USB charger? Does your medicine cabinet require wiring for lights or electrical? Where do you want the fan switch to go? Is there a towel warmer that will need wiring? How about inside the shower? Will there be steam functions, media options, or special lighting to plan for? Gathering all of this information before your electrician begins the install will make for a much smoother construction phase and your end result will look intentionally designed.

Currently we are in the electrical phase of our master bath build out. I was really hoping to have plastered walls to present by this date – which is halfway through the 6 week challenge – but living with a busy contractor often means that my projects at home get delayed while my husband takes care of his paying customers. Sigh. I am still optimistic, however, that progress will be made soon, so for now I will just share some of the accessory choices that are on our install list. 

Pop-Out Outlet by LeGrand

Outlets and switches will be from the Adorne Collection by LeGrand. We used these in our first floor powder room (picture below) and we really love their clean design and functionality.

The shower will have a hand-held shower sprayer from Grohe. Hand-held showers are a must in my opinion. Along with being able to direct the spray of water at various heights and pressures, they are also especially useful when it comes to rinsing the shower walls down when cleaning. And while the shower bar technically is not a grab bar, it can provide an extra bit of stability if needed. As you can see from this picture, there are many bits and pieces needed when it comes to ordering plumbing fixtures. Working with an experienced bath designer or through a showroom is the best way to make sure you have all the moving parts needed for your project. 

Two towel bars will be installed. An 18 inch polished chrome bar from the Ginger Kubic collection will be to the the left of the vanity and the 24 inch version will be on the wall outside of the shower. A matching toilet tissue holder from the collection will also be installed.

And since this bath will not have a linen closet, we will instead utilize a wall mounted hotel-style towel shelf above the toilet area. I chose to go with just a single shelf in order to keep this area looking neat and tidy. 

I can’t promise where we will be next week with our One Room Challenge progress, but I can promise to share more of what I have learned about bath design over the years. My husband and I have a new bath remodel project for a client that we hopefully will be starting soon. But I really, really hope that my bath gets done first!!! 

See how everyone else is doing with their ORC spaces by checking out these posts:

Featured Designers Week 3

Guest Participants Week 3

House Beautiful Week 2 Recap

Are you participating in this challenge or following along?

I would love to hear your thoughts!

One Room Challenge: A Modern Master Bath

ABOVE: our design plans for the new master bath

BELOW: visual reference of the master suite area:

bedroom carpet / stained oak floor in the hallway

I am SO excited to be sharing my design plans for our new and very modern master bath! With this being the second week of the One Room Challenge, set forth by Linda of the blog Calling it Home, I am feeling pretty good about where we are at this time around.

As I mentioned in my last post, we actually have all of the fixtures ready to be installed. This is very important when it comes to planning the install of a new bath project on a relatively short time line. Some plumbing fixtures can take months to receive after ordering them. This is what happened with my vanity which was a custom order of an import item. But fortunately, I ordered the entire room full of fixtures YEARS ago. Yup, they have been sitting in our house just waiting to be installed into a bathroom that was not built yet. I bought them when I worked full time for a bath showroom (yes, I saved some $$$!) after budgeting for them for some time.

After receiving them all, we were still in the planning stages of our new master bath. And then life just took us in some other directions for awhile (I mentioned we have four kids?)

I am a very patient person, but I admit it was wearing on me that we hadn’t gotten around to finishing what we started, even if we had accomplished other renovation related goals in the interim. Being ready to move forward at this point is a true blessing and I am super grateful that we can do so!

So the question is, are my selections from years ago still on trend for today?

As the marketing director for the showroom at the time, I was well versed in the latest trends in bath design from around the globe. We often advertised styles that were outside of the mainly traditional New England comfort zone.

With all the beautiful lifestyle shots of clean, sleek baths that came across my desk, I quickly fell in love with fixtures that had a minimalist look influenced by modern design. In a suburban farmhouse like ours, these streamlined pieces will provide a fresh look that I anticipate will age gracefully. And for a third floor private bath, we really can depart from what one might expect to see from the more public spaces in our home. Our recent first floor powder room is traditional in many ways, but there is definitely a touch of modern to keep it interesting. Guess that’s just how we roll around here! 

Below is what you will see installed in our house by the end of the One Room Challenge ...

Duravit Darling wall mount vanity with 3 hole tap ceramic sink top

Hansgrohe Metris S wide spread lavatory faucet in chrome

Norwell Sobe wall sconces in chrome with frosted glass

Toto Carlyle II high efficiency toilet

Grohe Tempesta Cosmopolitan chrome shower head

Jerusalem Heights Chevron Thassos + Crema Marfil tile

The newest addition to our design plan has been the tile selections. Years ago we never made an actual decision on what to install. Last week I went to a local tile resource known for their great prices. I easily found what I was looking for there, including this gorgeous chevron pattern that will be installed in our shower area. Next week I will share more about these selections, along with some bathroom accessories that will be included in the space. And hopefully I will be showing you the newly plastered walls!

In the meantime, be sure to follow the other One Room Challenge guest participants here and the 20 featured participants here. And how nice is it that House Beautiful is also part of the fun? Check in with them here.