Bathroom of the Week: A Spacious Feel in 50 Square Feet
Geometric tile, earth tones and teak update a midcentury modern-inspired design in Massachusetts
In the process of remodeling the first floor of this split-level house in Brookline, Massachusetts, design-build firm New England Design & Construction did some smart bathroom rearranging. The homeowners wanted to expand an existing half bath off a bedroom into a full bathroom and turn the existing adjacent full bath off the hallway into a powder room. Swapping space between the two bathrooms resulted in a 50-square-foot full bathroom that looks much larger than it is. Here’s how they did it.
To save space and make the 5-foot-wide space feel more open, the team took a wall-mount approach. “Nothing in here touches the floor,” Supple says. The vanity and the toilet float above it. The wall-mounted toilet tank is hidden behind the wall and accessible for repairs through a panel. And wall-mounted faucets free up inches of depth on the vanity.
A graphic encaustic cement tile accent wall provides a focal point in the long, narrow room. Matte black faucets and accessories pick up on the dark tiles and provide contrast to the white subway tile. “Often a shower floor tile is different than the tile on the rest of a bathroom floor,” Supple says. “But we made the space feel larger by continuing the bathroom floor tile across the shower floor in here. And there is no shower door, so as to keep an open feel. The shower head arm is up high at 90 degrees to keep a great majority of the water within the fixed glass panel area.”
The vanity is teak, and the homeowners liked the design team’s suggestion of adding matching minimalist teak open shelves along the wall. The combination of the wood and the geometric dandelion pattern of the tile is an updated take on midcentury modern style, which suits the split-level ranch’s architecture.
Attention to small details reduced visual clutter, making the compact space feel larger. For example, Supple hid a linear drain out of sight behind the quartz shower curb. And he recessed the mirror in a niche with a strip of LED downlights tucked into the top, eliminating the need for sconces. Black caulk lines where the tile meets the ceiling and underneath the shelves emphasize the perspective toward the accent wall.
Browse wall-mounted vanities in the Houzz Shop
A graphic encaustic cement tile accent wall provides a focal point in the long, narrow room. Matte black faucets and accessories pick up on the dark tiles and provide contrast to the white subway tile. “Often a shower floor tile is different than the tile on the rest of a bathroom floor,” Supple says. “But we made the space feel larger by continuing the bathroom floor tile across the shower floor in here. And there is no shower door, so as to keep an open feel. The shower head arm is up high at 90 degrees to keep a great majority of the water within the fixed glass panel area.”
The vanity is teak, and the homeowners liked the design team’s suggestion of adding matching minimalist teak open shelves along the wall. The combination of the wood and the geometric dandelion pattern of the tile is an updated take on midcentury modern style, which suits the split-level ranch’s architecture.
Attention to small details reduced visual clutter, making the compact space feel larger. For example, Supple hid a linear drain out of sight behind the quartz shower curb. And he recessed the mirror in a niche with a strip of LED downlights tucked into the top, eliminating the need for sconces. Black caulk lines where the tile meets the ceiling and underneath the shelves emphasize the perspective toward the accent wall.
Browse wall-mounted vanities in the Houzz Shop
Before: Look to the bottom center of this floor plan to see where the bathroom-space swaps took place. This bathroom was the small half bath located next to the room marked “Bedroom 1.” The homeowners decided Bedroom 1 would become a first-floor guest suite and that Bedroom 2, at the top left of the plan, would serve another purpose. So it made sense to locate the full bathroom off the only bedroom on this floor and to turn the bathroom off the hall into a powder room.
After: “They decided they didn’t need a bathtub down here, so it left room for a nice shower stall,” Supple says.
The renovation also included replacing a lot of the existing windows, which were inefficient and, in the case of the bathroom window, leaky and water-damaged. “This window is on the front of the house, so block or opaque glass would have looked odd,” Supple says. “We were able to place it high enough for privacy and to line it up with a second-story window above it so that it made sense on the facade.”
Find a local design-build firm on Houzz
The renovation also included replacing a lot of the existing windows, which were inefficient and, in the case of the bathroom window, leaky and water-damaged. “This window is on the front of the house, so block or opaque glass would have looked odd,” Supple says. “We were able to place it high enough for privacy and to line it up with a second-story window above it so that it made sense on the facade.”
Find a local design-build firm on Houzz
Supple tucked the shower niche, which mimics the recessed mirror, out of sight on a side wall. The frame around it is the same quartz used on the countertop and shower curb. Its long dimensions cleverly accommodate a necessity that comes with a clear glass shower enclosure: a squeegee.
Gray grout picks up on the dark accent tile wall and is easier to keep looking clean than white grout.
Hire a local tile professional
Gray grout picks up on the dark accent tile wall and is easier to keep looking clean than white grout.
Hire a local tile professional
The large-format (12-by-24-inch) floor tile is porcelain digitally printed to look like concrete. “These homeowners like clean and modern and they also like earth tones,” Supple says. The tile grounds the room with warm hues.
Matte black bath accessories such as the toilet paper holder and towel bar pick up on the accent wall and match the matte black faucets.
See more of this first-floor renovation
More on Houzz
Read more bathroom stories
Find a bathroom designer
Shop for your bathroom
Matte black bath accessories such as the toilet paper holder and towel bar pick up on the accent wall and match the matte black faucets.
See more of this first-floor renovation
More on Houzz
Read more bathroom stories
Find a bathroom designer
Shop for your bathroom
Bathroom at a Glance
Who uses it: Overnight guests
Location: Brookline, Massachusetts
Size: 50 square feet (4.6 square meters); 5 by 10 feet
Designer-builders: David Supple, owner of New England Design & Construction, and his team
Before: The existing half bath off the bedroom was in bad shape. Tiles were missing and there was water damage around the window. David Supple, owner of New England Design & Construction, removed the wall just past the toilet to take over space from the adjacent full bathroom.
Supple had his clients create an ideabook on Houzz to share spaces and design elements they liked. “We had our clients create an ideabook to help understand their style and taste, as we do with all our clients,” he says.
How to Create and Use Ideabooks