Things have been a bit crazy here at the Ranchette lately, hence the neglect of this blog. But in the meantime I’ve been planning a big project for a little room. This house was built in 1963, so there’s not much hope of adding a Japanese ofuro or an enormous steam shower. My top priorities for this bath are that it be functional, that every component represents something I’ve always wanted, and that it be highly, highly cleanable. Since we moved in we’ve contended with a fiberglass shower stall and a glass/aluminum sliding shower door. The fiberglass is a sort of putty color with flecks of gold glitter in it, which is why I call it the Vegas shower. And like Las Vegas, it is perpetually dirty, both from 49 years of abrasive cleaners and the many unreachable crevices in the aluminum track. For seven years I have hated it, and I am finally doing something about it.
So first, here is my dream bath…
Unfortunately, I don’t have access to a geothermal spring, nor the space to accommodate a tepidarium, caldarium, and frigidarium. My original bathroom is, however, not much of an improvement over the muddy site where these Roman baths were first erected. I reluctantly post the photos of the bath as it stands:
When we first moved in, there was some peeling vinyl flooring on the floor, and a super gross fake tile paneling on the left wall that was punctuated with ragged nail holes. It was grim. We did an under $200 “renovation” that involved a new light fixture, adding cheap white ceramic tile to the floor, replacing that wood paneling with drywall, and slapping on a coat of grayish-blue paint. Believe it or not, this was a huge improvement. But now its time has come. Here is the new plan:
Lots of gray and white, right? Not to worry, I’m planning on painting the walls fluorescent pink. No, I’m not. It’s going to be pretty subdued, and I’m going to love it that way. And the best part of this plan is going to have NO COLOR AT ALL. It’s going to be a perfectly transparent shower—very similar to this image below, except with no track holding the stationary glass panel in. Instead it will use a bracket that looks just like the hinges. And in our case, the door will be on the right, and considerably smaller. But this is the general idea.
I’ll post again as soon as I have the tile samples in hand, and we get ready to demolish the walls, floor, and the Vegas shower.
11 Comments
Thank you for posting again. I love your blog and your perspective.
Gorgeous. Honestly, you and I have the same eye for aesthetics…so why don’t we just get a house together? I’ll even learn to cook a few vegetarian items…
But seriously. We have similar towel racks to the Hansgrohe you post above, and I’m pretty darn sure we got them at Home Depot (because we spent all our moneys on the contractors). But they do look very nice even if the quality ain’t all that.
And you *know* how I feel about Pennyround tile. It makes the world a better place. I hope you have a good tile source. We went through a whole debacle with The Tile Shop, and I would strongly advise never to step in the door. That’s how they reel you in. It’s like Macy’s with better window dressing.
Good luck with the renovation. Super excited for you! Buh-bye, Vegas, hello…um…Great Britain? (Is that the pinnacle of refinement?)
Really, the quality on the Hansgrohe towel bars is not good? I am ordering these online and haven’t seen them yet. I don’t see the exact model I chose online at Home Depot, but this is the same one in brushed nickel. For the record, I ordered these for a lot less.
Ugh. I had read that the bars themselves were solid brass, but now I see that the flanges are plastic. So annoying. I may see if I can leave them off. My next post is going to be about the difficulty of finding quality materials.
Also, we don’t have the Tile Shop here in Texas, which I guess may be a good thing. There are tons of kitchen and bath showrooms, but most of them seem to cater to people who like stone/travertine. As long as the sample looks good, I’m planning on ordering the pennyround tile from buytile.com. I do have another source as a backup.
P.S. Thank you for the lovely comments!
I just received the Hansgrohe fixtures in the mail and the quality is excellent. None of the exposed parts is plastic; I’m so relieved!
Hooray! So hard to find good fixtures these days…
No no. We got a cheaper version. http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-25ecodZ5yc1v/R-100023009/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&keyword=towel+bar&storeId=10051#.UHthUml27ek. The lines aren’t as straight as the Hansgohe. I like the ones you chose!
Quality is *really* challenging with products. We end up getting vintage everything these days since it’s the only stuff built to last!
When we get to finally do our addition to the house, I’ll totally pick your brain for online resources.
Ah yes! I have looked and looked for something plain and straight. I am seriously going to see about leaving the flanges/escutcheons off. My previous hardware was from TARGET and it was 100% metal. And it was designed without escutcheons. I’d reuse them, but I’m reconfiguring the setup entirely.
I’d love to help with sourcing materials, and I hope I can rely on you for your thoughts too!
Pennyrounds! Yes yes yes , please. What color will you grout?
My folks’ shower is similar to what you are planning only two walls of glsss instead of your one. They were thrilled to lose the track when they remodeled. Be forewarned they now keep a squeegee in the shower. No joke.
I can’t wait for part two!
One of the installers I talked to said that they offered a coating that would eliminate the need to squeegee. I’m looking into it!
Wow. The no-squeegee glass shower sounds too good to be true. Can you tell that I’ve been burned by contractors?
Very nice! 🙂