Bathroom Design
Before and Afters
Bathroom of the Week: Refined Remodel for a Family of 5
Natural light and modern touches create bright and easy-to-clean spaces in this San Francisco home
The driving force for the renovations in this San Francisco home was the family’s need to add a bathroom. There were 1½ baths, including a full bathroom shared by all five family members. The homeowners enlisted design-build firm building Lab to transform the dated full bath into a sophisticated space for the three boys and create a master bath for the parents. The team also remade a tiny half bath into a comfortable powder room for visitors and students of mom Ann Jones, a singer who coaches students at home.
After: The gut remodel of the full bath resulted in a sleek new space for the boys. The designers kept in mind their ages, making an attractive, sophisticated and functional bathroom for kids in their teenage years. Shimmering blue 8-inch-square terrazzo tiles from France provide a smart contrast to bright white walls and cabinetry. Floating vanities and toilet contribute to the room’s airy feel and make it easier to clean.
The designers also included many modern features. A hinged shower door makes it easier to get in and out and facilitates cleaning. It covers half the tub area, allowing the striking blue wall tile to show. The handheld shower head slides on a vertical bar to accommodate users of different heights, and the controls are on the opposite wall to avoid water that’s too hot or cold when turned on. A horizontal niche extends the width of the wall, providing plenty of room for bath items. Another nice convenience is a pullout laundry bin in one of the vanity cabinets.
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The designers also included many modern features. A hinged shower door makes it easier to get in and out and facilitates cleaning. It covers half the tub area, allowing the striking blue wall tile to show. The handheld shower head slides on a vertical bar to accommodate users of different heights, and the controls are on the opposite wall to avoid water that’s too hot or cold when turned on. A horizontal niche extends the width of the wall, providing plenty of room for bath items. Another nice convenience is a pullout laundry bin in one of the vanity cabinets.
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The remodeled bathroom features floating vanities and two mirrored medicine cabinets hanging from a header. The room is bathed in natural light through a translucent window of satin etched glass behind the cabinets and through a new horizontal skylight above the vanities. A strip of LED lights runs along one side of the ceiling alcove housing the skylight, to provide light on the mirrors at night.
This angle more clearly shows the light coming through the new skylight. The blue terrazzo tile stretches up the wall behind the wall-mount dual-flush toilet. The cabinets are custom, with wood panels and a white opaque conversion varnish, a type of varnish commonly used by pros on cabinets for durability and ease of cleaning. The countertops are a solid-surface material called Krion, fabricated to include the two integrated trough sinks.
Here are the before-and-after layouts for the upper level. The top diagram shows the original configuration, with only one full bathroom, labeled “hall bath.” The second diagram shows the remodeled spaces, in which building Lab redid the full bath and raised the master bedroom ceiling 15 inches, making it 9 feet, 3 inches high, to help create a new retreat for the parents. A new dressing area and master bath were constructed on the existing roof, giving that space ceilings that are 10 feet, 3 inches high.
Master Bath
The designers used a gentle color palette, earthy materials and natural light to make the master bathroom and dressing area a retreat for the parents. The bathroom’s vanities with Krion solid-surface counters float below a window with a view of the city and surrounding hills. A unique L-shaped mirror elegantly frames the window. Gray-veined Carrara marble walls complement the 24-by-48-inch matte gray porcelain floor tiles. A new oversize skylight stretches across the master suite dressing area and bath to connect the areas and provide dramatic lighting and shadows.
The designers used a gentle color palette, earthy materials and natural light to make the master bathroom and dressing area a retreat for the parents. The bathroom’s vanities with Krion solid-surface counters float below a window with a view of the city and surrounding hills. A unique L-shaped mirror elegantly frames the window. Gray-veined Carrara marble walls complement the 24-by-48-inch matte gray porcelain floor tiles. A new oversize skylight stretches across the master suite dressing area and bath to connect the areas and provide dramatic lighting and shadows.
Half Bath
Before: This was the tiny half bath on the main floor, adjacent to the home’s entry. There was an adjacent light well behind the wall with a window that let light into the entry area.
Before: This was the tiny half bath on the main floor, adjacent to the home’s entry. There was an adjacent light well behind the wall with a window that let light into the entry area.
After: The building Lab team expanded the half bath by taking space away from the light well and blocking the window to create a dramatic two-story vertical chute topped with a skylight directly above the sink. The walls were refinished in white oak to match the new floating vanity with integrated sink. The homeowners now have a guest-friendly powder room as elegant and refined as their other new baths.
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Bathrooms at a Glance
Who lives here: Ann Jones, Jonathan Witt and their three sons, ages 11, 14 and 16
Location: Miraloma Park neighborhood of San Francisco
Sizes: Kids’ bath: 60 square feet (5.6 square meters); master bath: 70 square feet (6.5 square meters); powder room: 30 square feet (2.8 square meters)
Designers: Hideaki Kawato (lead designer and project manager) and Stephen Shoup (principal) of building Lab
Kids’ Bath
Before: Previously, the full bathroom on the second level was used as the main bathroom by the whole family. The hardworking space wasn’t well lit and didn’t have much to distinguish it design-wise.
A previous remodel introduced natural light via skylights to the kitchen of the 1941 traditional home. The team at building Lab carried the light-and-bright scheme into the bathroom remodels. “We honored their love of natural light in every decision we made in our design,” says Hideaki Kawato, lead designer on the project.
Work was done during the pandemic, and the crew worked quickly to get the family back home safely. The homeowners were more interested in efficient use of space rather than expansion. “We relate closely to this sense of restraint and translate it into the challenge of expanding the experience of space beyond a simple quantity of square feet,” principal Stephen Shoup says. “Light, view and integration of built-in elements became our tools of expression.”