“After” photos by Square Foot Photography

Bathroom at a Glance
Who lives here: A couple with two kids and another on the way
Location: Austin, Texas
Size: 100 square feet (9.3 square meters)
Design: Samantha Bailey of Samantha Kate Design

Before: The bathroom leaned traditional, with cream-colored walls, beige tile floors and a dark brown double vanity topped in black granite. A bulky corner shower crowded the vanity, making the whole area feel tight and uninviting. “The shower was a funny shape,” Bailey says.

Across the room, a built-in tub with matching dark finishes sat under a window the homeowners hoped to keep. An awkward step-up led to the primary bedroom door. “When we got into construction, the general contractor said we could remove it,” Bailey says.

After: Bailey stripped the bathroom to the studs, removed the awkward step-up and shifted the bedroom door for better flow. (See before-and-after floor plans below.) The built-in tub gave way to a new wet room, where a 67-inch freestanding tub and open shower share a sleek glass enclosure with champagne bronze hardware. “Wet rooms are so space-efficient and give you that wow factor,” Bailey says. Creamy white ceramic tiles cover the walls and arched entry. “I loved their handmade look and the variety of color,” Bailey says.

The tub’s high-gloss acrylic design and wall-mounted bronze filler bring comfort and style. A Calacatta Viola marble shelf and low curb complement the vanity countertop and, paired with a limestone mosaic floor, add texture. The existing window brings in natural light from the wooded lot outside. When the bedroom door is open, more natural light spills into the room, enhancing the bright, airy feel of this rejuvenated retreat.

Wall tile: Cloe in Creme, Bedrosians Tile and Stone; tub: Zoey, Vintage Tub & Bath; tub filler: Broderick, Delta

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Removing the corner shower made room for a longer stained white oak double vanity to the right of the bedroom door, with a tower cabinet taking the shower’s former spot. “We wanted that whole vanity wall to be unique with lots of texture and pattern,” Bailey says. “We added a fluted detail to the toekick that adds another unexpected touch.”

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This view looks toward the bedroom door from the updated closet entrance. The door on the left leads to the water closet. The wet room is on the left. The homeowners were initially concerned the bathroom would feel smaller because of how much the wet room would extend into the floor space. “But because the wet room has that entire glass wall, it didn’t turn out feeling as small as they were concerned it would,” Bailey says.

The floor now consists of sand-colored, large-format (24-by-48-inch) porcelain tiles with almond-colored grout, a matte finish and a limestone look. “We wanted the floor to be the supporting player in the space,” Bailey says.

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The vanity top and short backsplash are polished Calacatta Viola marble with bold burgundy veining. “I presented it early in the design, because it would be such a striking look here,” Bailey says. “It was almost like the price didn’t matter, because she had to have it.”

Wall-mounted champagne bronze faucets were also a client must-have, Bailey says. Brass cabinet pulls in two sizes add texture, while bronze and hand-rubbed antique brass sconces flank dark-framed mirrors. The wall behind the mirrors features the same creamy white ceramic tile used in the wet room. “There’s nothing basic about this bathroom,” Bailey says. “All of the details in here are organic-looking, and we wanted to keep the mirrors organic-looking too.”

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The wet room’s shower has two champagne bronze multifunction heads with pressure-balanced valves, plus a niche lined in matching ceramic tile for easy access to products.

A new pocket door opens to the expanded walk-in primary closet, while a slim paneled door behind the shower leads to the water closet. Rotating the toilet footprint 90 degrees made room for the larger closet. “We needed to keep the toilet in place for plumbing purposes but rotated it so we could keep a larger primary closet footprint as well,” Bailey says.

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Before: This floor plan shows the former bathroom layout at the top right. The built-in tub sat in the upper right corner, with the angled shower below it. The bedroom door swung out between the two, while the double vanity was positioned to the left of the shower. The water closet sat to the left of the tub, and two doors on the left opened to separate closets the homeowners wanted to consolidate.

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After: The updated layout merges the tub and shower into a wet room in the former tub’s location. Rotating the toilet created space for a larger primary closet. A new double vanity spans the opposite wall, with a storage tower where the corner shower once stood. A single pocket door on the left connects the bathroom to the spacious walk-in closet. “I’m happy I was able to solve the flow and access issues and give them everything they wanted in their bathroom,” Bailey says.

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