The Jewel-Box Bathroom
An artful remodel uses mosaics and maple burls to revive a dowdy relic.
Synopsis: A remodeled bathroom in Washington State showcases the husband’s woodworking skills and the wife’s mosaic art. One sidebar discusses the creation of the tile mosaics, and another features construction details for a dresser recessed into a wall for storage.
Our small bathroom was a vision in brown and pink, with fixtures circa 1964. It contained six different kinds of tile, some of which were camouflaged inelegantly with white paint. Essentially a powder room with a shower, it is the only bathroom on the main floor of the house. Because the shower pan had leaked in the past, we knew there had to be significant rot. My husband, Gary, figured that someday he would end up in the crawlspace during his morning shower. It was time to think about a remodel.
Seduced by a swirl of grain
The challenge was to use the same footprint and get a bathroom with adequate insulation, lighting, ventilation, and storage, all on our limited budget. Of course, it had to look great and be unique, too. In the summer of 2003, free time and a little extra cash enabled us at long last to dig in to this project. Gary is a graphic-design professor, cabinetmaker, and all-around handy guy; I am a designer, mosaic artist, and project manager. We hired a plumber, drywall taper, and shower-door installer, and did everything else ourselves.
Six years ago, as part of our kitchen remodel, we had a slab of maple burl installed at the end of the counter. The burl is fun and quirky, and we love it. Later, during a shopping trip to a local hardwood supplier, we saw a stack of freshly cut and waxed maple-burl slabs, perfect for a counter in our new bathroom. We chose the largest one with the most even edges. I made a 1⁄4-in.-thick foam-core template of the slab and experimented with different cuts, fitting it into the corner. The template also was handy to carry along when shopping for the perfect sink. After sanding and applying countless coats of marine varnish, Gary fit the new burl into the corner. We used the remaining pieces for the counter next to the toilet and for two little corner shelves.
We still needed something to prop up the burl slab. A branch or log seemed like a good idea, in keeping with the tree theme. We spent an afternoon with a neighbor on his wooded property, looking for the perfect curved or crooked branch. We found it in a dying crab-apple tree. Gary peeled, polished, and varnished the branch, pruning it more and more until the final fit and installation.
The burl was to be the star, but to sit on it, we wanted a vessel sink that was cool and affordable. We looked at handmade glass bowls that cost thousands of dollars. We looked at mixing bowls, woks, birdbaths, and hand-thrown clay bowls. Nothing was right or in our price range. Finally, at one of the local big-box stores, I found a simple frosted-glass bowl from the Translucence Collection by Deco Lav (www.decolav.com). I bought it and then ordered a wall-mount faucet and shower valve from Kohler (www.us.kohler.com)
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