From the Designer
A room may be beautiful, but the design is a failure if it doesn’t meet the client’s needs and desires. This particular client was a very satisfied former customer and called us because she wanted her master bath remodeled. It didn’t fit her lifestyle and was finished with builder-grade products. The bath still operated properly, but had very little in the way of style.
At our initial meeting, our client showed us her bathroom. There was a soaking tub which was never used, a small shower and a double sink vanity with minimal counter space and a toilet enclosed in a small, claustrophobic room placed at the entrance to the bathroom. There was also limited closet space and dated furnishings in the master suite. After a long talk, we decided with the client to tackle all the problems of the suite simultaneously. To redo the bath and make it into a room that suited her taste and needs, walls and plumbing would have to be removed and if we were doing that much in the bath we might as well go ahead and do the necessary reconstruction in the bedroom also. Our job was to give her the rich, encompassing suite that would fit her lifestyle. After a quick look at her downstairs rooms we had a strong feeling about what colors and style would create a suite that would be most comfortable to her. She wanted a transitional décor with deep, rich enveloping colors. So we had the bedroom walls painted a milk chocolate brown with touches of claret in the furnishings. We needed to continue those colors in the bath, which, out of necessity, had to be a brighter room. First, we had the soaking tub removed, which was in a back corner. This allowed the shower to expand from 4 x 3 feet to 4 x 6 feet. Also, though our client liked the privacy afforded by the toilet closet, it was uncomfortably small. To maintain that sense of privacy, the toilet was moved to the back corner where the view of it would be blocked by the shower. This had the added benefit that we could remove the toilet closet walls and have a cherry vanity cabinetry custom-made by Holiday Kitchens on 2 walls. The seating area of the vanity was placed in the corner of the vanity by having a wall built at a 45 degree angle to the vanity walls. From that vantage point, the client had more viewing angles while seated there. There was also a practical piece to this project that had been achieved. We needed to make our client feel pampered in the space by making it rich and elegant. The shower has 2 body sprays and a hand-held shower head in addition to the multi spray shower head. To add to the luxury-factor, a hot water recirculating pump was installed so that hot water would be almost instantly available when needed. The shower door used was a frameless French door and covered the full width of the shower. Next to the shower, we added a tall, free standing cherry cabinet, again by Holiday Kitchens, for storage that added to the warmth of the room. Additional lighting was installed by way of recessed lights, and a chandelier with silk shades upped the lighting plan. The walls were faux-painted with asymmetrical stripes incorporating the chocolate brown of the bedroom along with champagne. The champagne echoed the tones of the tile floor and ceiling, floor and walls of the shower. With an accent marble mosaic that coordinated with the vanity top the bath was beginning to have the elegant look we were trying to create. Throw in a large custom area rug of claret with a chocolate brown border like those used in the bedroom, add thick towels in those colors, a silk window treatment and art for the walls and finish with accessories for the vanity that were beautiful as well as useful and the bath is rich and luxurious and blends perfectly with the bedroom. We knew we had reached our goal and created a great design when we saw our client’s reaction to the completed space. This particular client was a past customer who wanted a new space to call her own. The cabinets were custom-made by Holiday Kitchens. Everything in this project was custom-made from the lampshades to the carpets. DLC Inc. removed every interior wall in this entire suite even altering one exterior wall adding window and a door out to the new roof top deck. The amount of detail that Leesa put into this project in the design stage and our carpenters put into during construction paid off. This award-winning project was designed by Leesa Johnson of Annapolis Kitchen and Bath. It won Bath of the Year in Annapolis Home Magazine.