HOME TOUR

It’s been awhile since we had a room reveal! I’m excited to finally share our attic bathroom addition. It is my favorite bathroom in the whole house. Ruthie from Ruth Eileen Photography captured it beautifully over the summer. I poured a lot of my design-loving heart into this space and worked with some wonderful artisans to pull it off. I’m thrilled to finally show you all the lovely details–from that scallop curtain to antique mirrors and the marble wall of my dreams.

A PEEK BACK

First, let’s take a peek back to see how far we’ve come and boy have we come far!  This all started as a cobweb-ladden storage space directly off the large third floor guest bedroom. The goal was not just to add a bathroom to our third floor and create a lovely bathroom for our guests but to be a possible primary suite option down the road. You could easily turn our whole third floor into a primary suite. I would loooove to see the second bedroom on our third floor (currently Matt’s office on his work-from-home days / storage space) turned into a gorgeous walk-in closet / office space. Stay tuned, I’ve got some ideas.

You can see from the before pictures that the roofline was quite sloped. Our town building department required us to dormer the shower stall for head height. This added about 5k to the project cost but couldn’t have been more worth it in the end. The only option to avoid breaking into our historic slate roof was to put the shower right in front of the single window (which we replaced with a new window and relocated up off the ground) and have it be a rain shower head positioned at the highest peek of the ceiling. But I couldn’t get on board with that design because I wanted to make the vanity wall the focus of the room and it is hard to hang mirrors on an angled roof. I doodled it out, like I do for all projects but am not an artist.

PICKING TILE

I have wanted to do a stripe pattern with tile for a loooong time.  I opted for a subtle, tone-on-tone stripe using Zellige tile for the imperfection of it and the texture it adds.  The goal was for all the details in the room to come together without any one part being overpowering. That meant a lot of laying tile out on the floor to figure out the stripe pattern and being really intentional with grout color. Off set vertical, lined up horizontal, big stripes, little stripes…it can be overwhelming to say the least. In the end, the effect is beautiful, subtle and oh-so-lovely. Zellige tile is usually much thicker than your normal subway tile and you need to know that in advance because it effects how the tile installer preps your space. But I specifically used Riad’s Thin Bejmat Tile in 2×6 and hex shape for ease of installation. The light color stripe is the Snow White color way and the darker stripe is the Natural White color way. The floor is Riad’s 4″ hex Zellige in Snow White. We used Laticrete grout in color Light Pewter for the shower wall and shower floor and their color Frosty for the bathroom floor which was a white calacutta marble 6″ hex from Tiles Plus More in Natick. We did do radiant floor heat because we live in New England and winters are long and cold.

CUSTOM VANITIES

I reached out to Melinda at Bespoke of Winchester to make a custom double vanity for me. Given the winding staircase up to the third floor, I knew it would be a trick to get large vanities up there and was anticipating the need for some assembly on site. I also wanted them to look like furniture with carved legs and lovely drawer fronts.

VANITY DETAILS

Bespoke of Winchester took my doodling and created the most beautiful pair of vanities connected in the middle. We had the marble installed all the way across and up the back wall creating a lovely design moment. The space behind the vanity curtain could store a makeup stool but we keep a trashcan in there. I love the rich wood color and turned legs. The gorgeous scalloped brass drawer pulls are by Unearthen and available here. The scallop edge baskets underneath add a softness to the vanities that I really love. And the custom pleated curtain in Lee Jofa Althea linen in Stone was made by the talented Makkas Drapery. The same material is on the scallop panel above. The pull down roman is Hartmann & Forbes Plaid in Marceio.

THE CABINET AND PAINT COLORS

Bespoke of Winchester also made the custom built in cabinet next to the shower. I love the design and how functional it is. We store the guest room towels and sheets in the drawers. It is painted in Farrow & Ball Dropcloth in their modern eggshell finish to match the trim color used around the bathroom. While we’re talking about paint, the walls are Farrow & Ball Wimborne White.

The towel bar is the Stratford Towel Rail by Jim Lawerence in antique brass. I also used their Stratford Loo Roll Holder next to the toilet and the Farnborough Coat Hook next to the shower.

The lovely stripe towels are by Garnet Hill and in the birch color. I love these towels and can’t recommend them enough. I’d love to use the bright stripe colors in a beach house down the road.

THAT MARBLE WALL & SCONCE SOURCES

Hand-drawn out on brown paper, the marble is from The Granite Exchange in West Bridgewater. I searched high and low for a marble with warm veining. The fabricator, LA Tiles did a great job creating and installing the design. I believe the marble is an Arabescato Vagli in a honed finish. The sconces are available here at McGee and Co and I chose the antique brass.

The plumbing fixtures are by Perrin & Rowe in polished nickel finish and I had my rep at Waterspot in Natick order them for me. There are a lot of pieces to order including the right valves that I didn’t want to order incorrectly. But I did find them online and linked them here. I chose the wall mounted faucets for the vanities. I used the Edwardian fixtures for the shower round trim and the shower head.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this room reveal. Designing this Attic Bathroom Addition was a creative joy for me. It took forever to get it finished post-covid and with three little kids but the results are lovely. I’m honored by the trades that came alongside me and helped this design come together. You can’t do any of this without the hard work and talent of others and you know you’ve hit a design home run when the building inspector asks, mouth agaped, to take a photo to “show his wife.” From Adam at Jade Star Builders who never questions me, to Bespoke of Winchester, Makkas Workroom and Landry & Arcari, I know I am not the fanciest designer out there and a one woman show but I appreciate the willingness to create something lovely for lovely’s sake.

 

DETAILS AT A GLANCE

Contractor: Jade Star Builders

Photographer: Ruth Eileen Photography

Custom Vanities & Cabinetry: Bespoke of Winchester

Drapery: Makkas Workroom

Design & Styling: Me

Marble: Boston Granite Exchange (specifically their West Bridgewater location but I hear the Haverhill location is bigger)

Fabricator: LA Tiles Stone Design

Tile: Riad Zellige Thin Bejmat Tiles in 2×6 and 4″ hex (two colors: Snow White and Natural White); Marble Floor Tile from Tiles Plus More

Plumbing Fixtures: Perrin & Rowe from Waterspot in Natick

Vintage Runner: Landry & Arcari

Sconces: McGee & Co

Paint Colors: Farrow & Ball, trim–Dropcloth and walls–Wimborne White