Bathroom of the Week: Elegant Finishes and a Soothing Palette

“After” photos by Margaret Rajic; photo styling by Brandi Evers

Bathroom at a Glance
Who lives here: A family of four
Location: Glen Ellyn, Illinois
Size: 140 square feet (13 square meters)
Designer: Susan Klimala of TKS Design Group

Before: The style of the bathroom was dated. The ceiling had a lot of odd angles and soffits that made the room feel chaotic. Two slanted portions, one of which can be seen here on the right, are angled dormer pockets that needed to stay. “Fixing the ceiling was the most important thing for me as a designer,” Klimala says.

The room felt like everything was jammed in. The homeowners never used the space-hogging bathtub in the corner and wanted to get rid of it. The existing shower was very small.

As for style, the owners appreciated a transitional look and wanted a peaceful and calming neutral palette. “They wanted a place that would feel serene while getting ready in the morning,” the designer says.

Find a local interior designer on Houzz

After: Klimala created a soothing new palette with light gray on the vanities, marble-look quartz for the countertop and backsplash, and polished nickel on the plumbing and light fixtures. The cabinets have crystal pulls.

She also brought a sense of calm to the room by using the right proportions. “I like to be thoughtful about a backsplash, and I look to things like the height of the faucet or other elements in the room I can match it up with,” she says. Instead of using the standard 4-inch backsplash height here, she extended it to 6 inches, lining it up with the adjacent shower’s half wall.

This vanity has a drawer with a built-in outlet and room for hair appliances. It also has a trash pullout.

There’s a matching vanity directly across the room from this one. They have the same mirror — curved at the top with an antiqued mirror glass frame.

Browse vanities in the Houzz Shop

Before: This was the view from the door between the primary bedroom and the bathroom.

After: With the tub gone, Klimala had room to install a good-size steam shower of 4 by 5 feet. It has a bench on the right that’s about 16 inches deep. Transoms at the top of the enclosure pop open to let the steam out after a shower.

“My clients really wanted a circular window in the shower,” Klimala says. “I riffed off the circular shape with a marble mosaic shower floor tile with a circular pattern.” She repeated the mosaic tile in the back of the shower niches. Also worth noting is that she had the trim around the window crafted of quartz to prevent water damage.

The designer opted for a large-format tile on the walls in and around the shower. “This minimized grout lines, making it easier to keep clean,” she says.

The bathroom floor is a porcelain tile in a herringbone pattern. Klimala layered in a vintage rug to add some color and warmth to the room. This photo also shows the way she flattened out as much of the ceiling as possible for a calmer look. The dormer pockets are the only angled portions that remain — one of them can be seen above the vanity on the right. You can see the one across the room in the mirror’s reflection.

Find a local tile professional

Before: The shower stall had been jammed in under one of the angled ceilings. Now the second vanity occupies this space.

New to home remodeling? Learn the basics

After: Look to the second “before” photo of the old tub and vanity. This beautiful custom-designed cabinet sits where the vanity in that photo is. The cabinet has a mix of doors, drawers and open shelving, and the feet on the bottom add to the freestanding furniture look.

“I wanted to use glass in the cabinetry to bounce the light around, but I didn’t want the products and appliances to show through, so I used antiqued mirror glass,” Klimala says. She repeated the use of the glass in the vanity mirror frames. She also played off the curves of the circular window and shower floor tile by adding curved molding on the mirrored cabinet doors.