All About Baths

A white porcelain stool and the simple luxury of privacy has always been enough to command the euphemism “throne room.”

But today’s bathrooms—complete with a unified design theme, natural stones, striking hardware and indulgent, spa-like comforts—bring the bathroom to the level of real elegance.

As builders and homeowners approach the design of a modern bathroom, they’re finding countless options. Not only can you choose your tile material and pattern, showerhead, sink and faucet, plumbing hardware and storage solutions; you have to pick from among dozens of grout colors alone! With some creative inspiration and financial resources, there’s no limit to the personalization and comfort you can achieve.

Walls and Floors that Warm

Speaking of comfort, a sense of peace and calm remains the guiding theme of most bathrooms. Walls and tile flooring should create a sense of warmth and security.

Because tile flooring is cold—literally—using tiles in warm, neutral tones like browns, golds and beiges creates the right counterbalancing effect.

According to Merrit Harris of Specialty Tile & Stone in Raleigh, it all starts with the shower. “Whenever we plan the tile design for a bathroom, we start with the shower. Once we have the design there, we incorporate the same or a complementary pattern on the floor or near the bathtub. The goal is to make the look flow throughout.”

Finding a beautiful accent design becomes simple when you purchase a ready-made tile pattern on a 12 by 12 sheet with mesh backing. These sheets make installation a breeze because the difficult work of evenly laying tiles is already complete. Specialty Tile & Stone often uses a herringbone design sheet of tiles for the accent liner in the shower. The herringbone is a crisscross pattern that features diamonds or simply diagonally-staggered tiles, either of which provides a nice visual break in a solid-color wall.

While all Specialty Tile & Stone designs are custom, some attractive and frequently-used patterns are subway tile, brick joint, pinwheel, checkerboard, a graphic mural on tiles or, on the floor, installation at a 45 degree angle from the entrance which makes the room appear larger.

Tile material choice has exploded with potential. There’s tumbled marble, ceramic, porcelain, glass, metals or faux metals, slate, granite or river rocks and pebbles.

Harris noted that most homeowners gravitate toward the tumbled marble. Not only does it come in all variety of sizes and shapes, but it gives the most natural, rustic look which creates a relaxed feel in a bathroom. Tumbled marble tiles come in a wide variety of colors, too, from shades of crème to dark walnut. While reds are available, most colors fall within the realm of browns, golds and other neutrals.

Price varies widely even within each type of material, but on the whole, ceramic tiles are less expensive than tumbled marble which is a natural stone. Ceramic tiles can be textured to look like weathered stone so that you can hardly tell the difference on the surface. Of course ceramic tiles are also available in a glossy, pure white. All-white ceramic tiles are making a comeback, but only where it can be made to look high-end rather than mundane.

Glass tiles are an increasingly versatile option, especially now that they’re available in fun colors like vibrant sea blue, feminine violet and mosaics of rustic, earthy tones. Glass refracts light differently than ceramic, giving the tiles a uniquely radiant look. Glass’s color also doesn’t fade over time due to sunlight or wear. This option can get expensive, so one solution is to use glass tiles as a colorful, shiny accent among ceramic or stone tiles.

Tiling showers and bathroom floors is standard, but choosing to tile the bathroom walls is more a matter of taste. Harris noted that wall tiles are becoming popular because they help complete the look of a special, relaxing retreat.

Your careful choice of tile colors will do wonders to warm up your bathroom. But when that’s not enough, why not pack some real heat below the surface? Electric floor warming systems are on the rise. For less than $1,000 in most cases, you can wake up to the inviting luxury of warmth under your feet rather than a cold, harsh reminder that it’s morning.

Towel warmers are an even simpler way to create a comfortable experience. These metal racks come either hard-wired or with a plug for the wall. Stepping out of the shower or bath to wrap yourself in a cozy, warm towel usually only happens in the most exclusive spas, but with a towel warmer, the experience can become your daily ritual.

The Big Pieces

Once you’ve decided on your tiling material, color and pattern—a unique and beautiful design intended to last for years to come—it’s time to think about the big items such as bathroom furniture.

Chris Kirk of Kirk Imports in Raleigh knows what’s hot because his furniture store has over 100 kinds of them on display: vanity sinks. These attractive pieces look great, offer a focal point, pull the room together and provide storage space.

“When choosing a vanity sink, the main determining factor is size,” said Kirk. “If it’s too big, it simply won’t work; and if it’s too small, it will look funny.”

After measuring your space and considering if the vanity sink is for a powder room or perhaps the master bath, your second decision is style. Kirk categorizes their inventory into traditional, transitional and contemporary. As might be expected, the contemporary vanities are unusual and break the rules; these are just a small part of their business. Transitional vanities have clean lines, look sleek and typically don’t have any carvings or detailed designs.

The bread and butter of Kirk Imports’ vanity sinks fall in the traditional category. Traditional vanities are often cherry or brown cherry finish and can be quite ornate with carvings or Old World-style paintings. For quality, Kirk says you should expect to pay around $599 but of course you can get larger, more luxurious, even hand-carved models that cost into the thousands. He urges his customers to stay away from $399 models which, in terms of quality, are usually “junk,” he says.

The standard sink that comes with a vanity is porcelain, though Kirk Imports stocks some decorative glass and brass sinks as an alternative.

Hardly Complete without Hardware

Vanity sinks are beautiful pieces but admittedly, they’re not for every bathroom. If you’re looking for more choices, Wilkinson Supply of Raleigh offers over 8,000 square feet of showroom space to display the latest decorative plumbing hardware including faucets and fixtures, cabinet and door hardware, and kitchen and bath furniture and accessories.

When it comes to sinks, Wilkinson Supply carries some options you’ve likely never seen. One of their specialty genres encompasses unique vessels, also known as basins. These vessels—artistic, freestanding sinks, really—are made from marble, copper, natural wood protected with boat varnish, solid-colored glass and glass arranged in stunning mosaics.

Freestanding vessels make a great addition to a powder room where aesthetic value and novelty can reign over functionality. Vessels work just fine, but they’re
not as practical for everyday use or for kids’ bathrooms.

Whether you want an ultra-modern vessel or a traditional vanity, places like Wilkinson Supply let you piece together your ideal furniture and hardware. You can separately choose the cabinet, countertop, faucet and sink for the perfect combination.

If freestanding sinks float your boat, maybe you’ll also want to look into freestanding bathtubs. These old-fashioned porcelain beauties with or without ornate feet speak of times gone by in that romantic way that puts you at ease. There’s something inherently beautiful about soaking in a freestanding tub.

And while some things—like old-fashioned bathtubs—haven’t changed a bit, there are certainly some new products for the bathroom. For those of us who just lived through a frightening drought in the greater Raleigh-Durham area, it’s clear that the water shortage is both a massive issue and massively relevant to our daily lives. Plumbing product manufacturers caught on quickly to this growing national problem. Now consumers have plenty of ways to reduce water consumption in the toilet, tub and shower.

Eco-friendly products make a particularly big difference in the shower. Water output in a standard shower is 2.5 gallons per minute. Some luxurious showers with multiple showerheads, however, put out as much as 20-30 gallons per minute!

Thanks to eco-conscious technology, consumers can purchase showerheads that lower water consumption to as little as 1.6 gallons per minute. These “low-flow” showerheads accomplish the savings by distributing the water in better ways (sometimes pulsing like a massage) and “aerators” add air to the water to create the feeling of more water coming out. Wilkinson Supply sells low water consumption toilets and faucets as well.

People Who Live in Glass Houses…

Once your shower is exquisitely clothed in tiles and you’ve installed a low-flow shower to do your part in saving the earth, it’s time to think about how you’ll keep the water where it belongs.

Leslie Mason of Clear-Vue Glass in Durham is an expert in chic shower doors. Clear-Vue Glass specializes in frameless shower enclosures. Frameless showers are wildly popular in homes because they’re simple—a contrast to standard showers that Clear-Vue Glass calls “metal cages”—and because they let in the maximum amount of light. They’re also easier to clean versus mildew-attracting vinyl shower curtains.

What’s unique about Clear-Vue Glass is that they actually put texture on the glass by sandblasting it. You can choose from one of their 20 standard patterns ranging from modern to elegant to neutral. Some popular Clear-Vue Glass patterns are sycamore, antique, floral, swirls, glacier, squiggle, Victorian, rain or starburst.

Clear-Vue Glass can also add frost for a design contrast with the shine of glass, or colors from bright shades to metallic finishes. If none of these patterns are what you had in mind, they’ll work with you for a custom design. In fact, custom is their middle name; many builders and homeowners who come to Clear-Vue Glass need a custom solution where standard shower enclosures simply do not work due to size and shape.

The best benefit of Clear-Vue Glass enclosures is their ability to diffuse light. While light can still pass through, the textured pattern obscures your silhouette for privacy. It’s a great melding of beauty and functionality.

Once you have the frameless shower enclosure of your dreams, Clear-Vue Glass also sells several lines of hardware that match every kind of plumbing finish. The result is a custom-made, intricately-designed, sturdy shower that will do its job while looking fantastic.

Protection and Privacy

You’ve got the shower covered, but there’s another important piece of glass in your bathroom—the window, or windows if you’re fortunate to have multiple windows letting in natural sunlight.

There are a few things to consider when you only have a piece of glass separating your unclothed, bathing body from the harsh elements outside.

First, how will you maintain your privacy? Secondly, how can you minimize the negative effects of harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays from the sun? And finally, which window treatments are both appropriate for the consistent humidity of the bathroom and yet attractive enough to match your overall design?

Gorland McBride of the Blind & Shutter Warehouse in Raleigh is the woman to ask. She knows about window treatments for any room of the house. For bathrooms, special care is required.

“The one thing I would not recommend for bathrooms is woven wood blinds,” McBride said. “The heat and moisture in a bathroom make the wood expand and deteriorate quickly. Faux wood blinds which are made of vinyl or vinyl shutters are a much better bet.”

Whether you use blinds, shutters, draperies or some combination thereof, ensuring your privacy is easier than ever. Several of the Hunter Douglas brand treatments are “top-down, bottom-up” meaning you can have either the top or bottom of the window exposed when it is half-drawn. Many lines are powerized so you can use a remote to adjust the curtain or blinds. Remote access helps tremendously for adjusting hard-to-reach windows behind a bathtub or high on the ceiling.

Some of the Hunter Douglas fabrics, such as the sheer Silhouette blinds, are specially designed to handle moisture and resist humidity. The Silhouette also offers up to 99% UV protection from the sun.

The Blind & Shutter Warehouse also offers coverage you can put directly on your windows. Their decorative films come in a wide variety of patterns. Similar to the effect of Clear-Vue Glass shower doors, the decorative films obscure your image while still letting light through. The decorative films also come in various shapes or can be cut. You’ll have to see it to believe it, but simple decorative film can do something as challenging as making a plain, round window look like an expensive piece of detailed, stained glass.

Regal Elegance for the "New Throne Room"

There’s much to consider when creating your ideal bathroom. Thankfully manufacturers and designers are headed in a great direction. By taking advantage of these comfort-driven trends, you’ll find your own way to create a relaxing retreat that gives you a luxurious experience fit for a queen. 

JENNY FREDETTE IS A FREELANCE WRITER