Room of the Day: Sophisticated Schoolhouse Style for a Kids’ Bathroom
A renovated bathroom gets smaller, but the easier-to-navigate open plan and old-school finishes pass with flying colors
Most families aim to create more space during a bathroom renovation. This couple wanted a smaller and simpler space for their four kids. They hired designer Leigha Heydt to reconfigure the chopped-up layout and combine a separate tub and shower for a simplified, open plan that would allow leftover space to be used for a new separate laundry room.
AFTER: Heydt reconfigured the layout into a squarish configuration with an open plan. She combined what was once a hall closet and the former bathtub area to create a small laundry room (see floor plans below).
Aesthetically, the bathroom was remodeled in keeping with the rest of the traditional Shingle-style home. Despite being a kids’ bathroom, the homeowners didn’t want the space to look too child-like. The schoolhouse-feeling design lightly touches on a kids’ theme, but has a conservative, timeless look that can grow with them.
Heydt changed the window placement and used two new enlarged windows with an overhead transom to replace three small, high ones. The new windows offer a view of a wall of verdant bamboo, which affords privacy to those taking a bath in the new claw-foot tub.
Brass fixtures contrast the deep charcoal gray paint on the tub. A custom-made shower curtain of indoor-outdoor fabric adds a decorative element to the tub, but also serves as an additional shield from the window, performing double duty as both a shower curtain and window curtain.
Shower curtain fabric: unlined white linen sheer by Perennials with green Brussels velvet trim by Arabel; 68-inch dual bath: Sunrise Specialty with Deep Space semigloss paint by Benjamin Moore; 407 round shower curtain ring in natural polished brass: Sunrise Specialty; Henry wall and ceiling flush mount in unlacquered brass: Waterworks
Aesthetically, the bathroom was remodeled in keeping with the rest of the traditional Shingle-style home. Despite being a kids’ bathroom, the homeowners didn’t want the space to look too child-like. The schoolhouse-feeling design lightly touches on a kids’ theme, but has a conservative, timeless look that can grow with them.
Heydt changed the window placement and used two new enlarged windows with an overhead transom to replace three small, high ones. The new windows offer a view of a wall of verdant bamboo, which affords privacy to those taking a bath in the new claw-foot tub.
Brass fixtures contrast the deep charcoal gray paint on the tub. A custom-made shower curtain of indoor-outdoor fabric adds a decorative element to the tub, but also serves as an additional shield from the window, performing double duty as both a shower curtain and window curtain.
Shower curtain fabric: unlined white linen sheer by Perennials with green Brussels velvet trim by Arabel; 68-inch dual bath: Sunrise Specialty with Deep Space semigloss paint by Benjamin Moore; 407 round shower curtain ring in natural polished brass: Sunrise Specialty; Henry wall and ceiling flush mount in unlacquered brass: Waterworks
The homeowners’ one must-have was a Kohler Brockway Schoolhouse sink, shown here. At a generous 4 feet wide, it can accommodate more than one child brushing teeth at a time.
For consistency with the other unlacquered brass finishes, Heydt had the faucet and soap dish chemically stripped of their standard commercial chrome finish to reveal the natural solid brass underneath. Unlacquered brass darkens with use and oxidation. Heydt says the handles look particularly darker and more aged in comparison with the brighter, new-looking shower ring; this is because the handles get more use — more oils from hands and water contact. “After a few years, it should all oxidize out to roughly the same color,” she says.
Two custom built-in medicine cabinets above the sinks are smoothly operated by push latches. A classic pull-chain toilet (not shown) opposite the sink maintains the traditional design style.
Brockway Schoolhouse sink in white cast iron K-3202: Kohler with Deep Space semigloss paint by Benjamin Moore; Cannock faucet and Brockway soap dish: Kohler (custom-stripped); Henry wall-mounted single-arm sconces with hand-blown glass shades in unlacquered brass: Waterworks; toilet (not pictured): 901 porcelain water closet, Sunrise Specialty; stepstool: Food 52
For consistency with the other unlacquered brass finishes, Heydt had the faucet and soap dish chemically stripped of their standard commercial chrome finish to reveal the natural solid brass underneath. Unlacquered brass darkens with use and oxidation. Heydt says the handles look particularly darker and more aged in comparison with the brighter, new-looking shower ring; this is because the handles get more use — more oils from hands and water contact. “After a few years, it should all oxidize out to roughly the same color,” she says.
Two custom built-in medicine cabinets above the sinks are smoothly operated by push latches. A classic pull-chain toilet (not shown) opposite the sink maintains the traditional design style.
Brockway Schoolhouse sink in white cast iron K-3202: Kohler with Deep Space semigloss paint by Benjamin Moore; Cannock faucet and Brockway soap dish: Kohler (custom-stripped); Henry wall-mounted single-arm sconces with hand-blown glass shades in unlacquered brass: Waterworks; toilet (not pictured): 901 porcelain water closet, Sunrise Specialty; stepstool: Food 52
Underfloor radiant heat keeps the children’s feet warm and the walls free of space-eating radiators. Gray and white marble tiles were cut down from 12-inch squares into 4-by-12-inch pieces and installed in a herringbone pattern. A honed finish on the marble helps prevent slippage.
To add a classic look to the walls, Heydt designed custom wall paneling to complement the Victorian architecture of the home. Here, the wall opposite the sink is evenly divided into four panels with a towel and robe hook for each child.
The beveled mirror above complements the window transom and reflects more natural light into the bathroom. The homeowner found the antique hexagonal marble-topped table at a fair in Virginia.
Towel hooks: Henry collection in unlacquered brass, Waterworks; flooring: honed Afyon gray marble (custom-cut), Country Floors; paint by Benjamin Moore: Horizon OC-53 in semigloss (paneling) and Grey Owl OC-52 in semigloss (walls)
To add a classic look to the walls, Heydt designed custom wall paneling to complement the Victorian architecture of the home. Here, the wall opposite the sink is evenly divided into four panels with a towel and robe hook for each child.
The beveled mirror above complements the window transom and reflects more natural light into the bathroom. The homeowner found the antique hexagonal marble-topped table at a fair in Virginia.
Towel hooks: Henry collection in unlacquered brass, Waterworks; flooring: honed Afyon gray marble (custom-cut), Country Floors; paint by Benjamin Moore: Horizon OC-53 in semigloss (paneling) and Grey Owl OC-52 in semigloss (walls)
BEFORE: The original bathroom floor plan shows the amount of circulation space and the cut-off zones of the layout. The kids didn’t need a private toilet area or a separate shower, and the disconnect between the bathtub and sink area was expansive.
AFTER: Heydt focused the new bathroom space in a smaller area with a single, easy-to-navigate open-plan layout, shown here on the left side. The former hall closet was sacrificed to create an upstairs laundry room, seen on the right.
Shower curtain design: Benjamin Dhong
Medicine cabinet carpentry: j. spix fine cabinets
More: 5 Ways With an 8-by-5-Foot Bathroom
Shower curtain design: Benjamin Dhong
Medicine cabinet carpentry: j. spix fine cabinets
More: 5 Ways With an 8-by-5-Foot Bathroom
Bathroom at a Glance
Who lives here: An active family with four children
Location: Mill Valley, California
Size: 64 square feet (5.9 square meters)
Designer: Leigha Heydt
BEFORE: The previous layout divided the bathroom into three spaces — an enclosed toilet, a sink and vanity area, and a bathing area with a shower and bathtub — all separated by pocket doors. That meant that most of the 95-square-foot area was underused for circulation. Small, high windows made the room appear dark.