Room of the Day: Calm and Serene Master Bathroom
Tile inspired by Japanese brush painting brings a restful feeling to a new room
“I wanted my clients to be able to walk into their bathroom and feel Zen and happy,” interior designer Vani Sayeed says. This new master bathroom was a key part of an addition to a Shingle-style home, and architect Peter Sachs brought her onboard during the planning stages. The designer created a light-flooded room marked by a dazzling feature wall of hand-poured glass tile that’s watery and artful.
The design is updated but nods here and there to the home’s architectural style. Modern details blend with historic ones. For example, the tile is Asian-inspired and in an updated size of 1⅜ by 6 inches, but laid out in a traditional brick pattern. The trim around the windows matches that of the rest of the house, and the simple Shaker cabinet doors are classic, while clear knobs and streamlined sconces and mirrors are contemporary elements.
Sayeed was careful to keep the focus on the feature wall, choosing clean-lined mirrors that float out from the tile. Round brackets allow the tile to continue uninterrupted behind them. “Dotting the cabinetry with colored hardware would have distracted from the feature wall,” she says. Instead, the clear round knobs disappear into the cabinet faces.
Likewise, the floor tiles are calming and don’t distract. They are porcelain made to look like very light driftwood planks thanks to digital printing.
Tile: 1⅜-by-6-inch Sumi-e in Hokkaido Natural, Tile Showcase; Rider Bench: Jonathan Adler; 2-light sconces: Industrial Revolution series in polished nickel, Murray Feiss; counter: Silestone in Stellar Snow; sinks, Toto; Grayson crystal knobs: Emtek; medicine cabinet: Robern; floor tile: 4¾-by-24-inch Edilcuoghi-Bois Bianco, Roma Tile
Sayeed was careful to keep the focus on the feature wall, choosing clean-lined mirrors that float out from the tile. Round brackets allow the tile to continue uninterrupted behind them. “Dotting the cabinetry with colored hardware would have distracted from the feature wall,” she says. Instead, the clear round knobs disappear into the cabinet faces.
Likewise, the floor tiles are calming and don’t distract. They are porcelain made to look like very light driftwood planks thanks to digital printing.
Tile: 1⅜-by-6-inch Sumi-e in Hokkaido Natural, Tile Showcase; Rider Bench: Jonathan Adler; 2-light sconces: Industrial Revolution series in polished nickel, Murray Feiss; counter: Silestone in Stellar Snow; sinks, Toto; Grayson crystal knobs: Emtek; medicine cabinet: Robern; floor tile: 4¾-by-24-inch Edilcuoghi-Bois Bianco, Roma Tile
The designer picked up on the tile wall with this substantial accent in the shower, bordered by a raised and rounded blue tile edge that stands out a bit. “I really wanted it to be like a piece of art,” she says. Another detail she carried over from the vanity area is the Stellar Snow Silestone from the countertop, used in here on the niche shelves.
Accent border tile: Tile Showcase; shower field tile, including the ceiling: 6⅜-by-19-inch Bloom in Superwhite, Tile Showcase
Accent border tile: Tile Showcase; shower field tile, including the ceiling: 6⅜-by-19-inch Bloom in Superwhite, Tile Showcase
“Rather than taking up real estate with a bathtub they would never have time to use, my clients wanted to use the space for a large shower,” Sayeed says. “He’s tall and she’s petite, so there are faucets at either end, one adjustable and one fixed.” The frameless Starphire glass door keeps an open feeling in the room. There was a budget to balance; the designer spent money on tile that would have been spent on a bathtub.
Sayeed chose Hansgrohe for all the fixtures in the home, not only for their style but also for practical reasons. “All of their features use the same valve,” she says. “We renovated four bathrooms in this house at once, so it made things easy and clear to rough in.” She mixed finishes, choosing matte nickel for the fixtures and polished nickel for the sconces and other pieces in the room.
The shower floor is a pebbled tile. “The couple is very well-traveled, and I told them about Japanese gardens where you walk through pebbles,” she says. “It feels really nice on the nerve endings on the bottom of the feet.” Now they can enjoy the artful look of the tile, the large size of the shower stall and the nice feeling underfoot at the same time.
Where’s the toilet? There is a small separate water closet just past the left end of the vanity.
Architecture (for the overall addition): Peter Sachs Architect
Shower floor tile: Ivory Samoa Pebble Mosaic, Roma Tile
Browse more stories about bathrooms
Sayeed chose Hansgrohe for all the fixtures in the home, not only for their style but also for practical reasons. “All of their features use the same valve,” she says. “We renovated four bathrooms in this house at once, so it made things easy and clear to rough in.” She mixed finishes, choosing matte nickel for the fixtures and polished nickel for the sconces and other pieces in the room.
The shower floor is a pebbled tile. “The couple is very well-traveled, and I told them about Japanese gardens where you walk through pebbles,” she says. “It feels really nice on the nerve endings on the bottom of the feet.” Now they can enjoy the artful look of the tile, the large size of the shower stall and the nice feeling underfoot at the same time.
Where’s the toilet? There is a small separate water closet just past the left end of the vanity.
Architecture (for the overall addition): Peter Sachs Architect
Shower floor tile: Ivory Samoa Pebble Mosaic, Roma Tile
Browse more stories about bathrooms
Bathroom at a Glance
Who uses it: A couple with three teenagers
Location: Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts
Size: About 125 square feet (11.5 square meters)
The skylight was not originally part of the architectural plans, but Sayeed had the idea one day when they were visiting the site. The most important part of the new room is the feature wall, where handmade Japanese sumi-e glass tile extends from the countertop to the ceiling. Natural light floods down over the wall from the skylight and washes the room.
Sumi-e tiles are inspired by the tradition of Japanese brush painting. “The tiles are so beautiful because the color varies,” Sayeed says.