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.

A minimalist fall planter

I love the harvest-in-abundance aspect of fall decorating, but this season I am going with a more minimalist look on my front porch. I chose to fill a pair of planters with small-scale boxwoods, some scattered hay for texture, and for vertical interest I added miniature stalks of cat-tails. This will look seasonally-appropriate right through Thanksgiving, so I will not have to change it again until December. For the winter holidays, I will replace the hay with evergreen clippings and some red berries, both taken from my backyard. I will come up with something ornamental to replace the cat-tails. In the summer, I will move the boxwoods to the backyard where I am creating a small boxwood garden. I always try to use perennials in my container gardens, so that I can reuse them and get more design out of my landscaping dollars.

Total cost for fall-to-winter
planter makeover: $40

I have officially crossed #9
off my top 10 to-do-list!

Vacation fantasy ...

I am happy that my children are letting me sleep in
until 9 am during this school vacation week.

I am glad that they have been outdoors most of the
time, and that the weather has accommodated.

I feel fortunate that they have only slightly damaged two of our chairs (so far) and that they have learned an important lesson that climbing out the first floor window is only a good idea when there is a fire
(one bandage required).

I am thinking it is about time for a girl’s night out ...

I am remembering a time when vacation
was one girl’s night out after another.

A vacation where the chairs were pretty amazing.


And our surroundings were quite glamorous.


I could certainly use a little pampering about now.
How about you?



Delano Hotel at South Beach
in Miami, Florida
Designed by Phillipe Starck

All photos above are from the Delano website with the exception of my friends and I seated in the lobby on one of our girl’s nights out. File under “vacations I would most like to take again ... preferably soon!”