In Renovator’s Notebook, homeowners open up about the nitty-gritty of their remodels: How long it really took; how much it actually cost; what went horribly wrong; and what went wonderfully, serendipitously, it’s-all-worth-it-in-the-end right.  

The first time interior designer Shannon Tate-Giordano made over the powder room in her Massachusetts home, in 2017, she set out to spend the least amount of money that would make the biggest visual impact. She painted the builder-grade vanity black and tacked on some side cubbies for extra storage, painted the floor in a way that made it look tiled, and hung an extra-large round mirror. “I got supercrafty, and I was happy with it,” she says. But fast-forward six years and the inevitable (if you’re a designer, anyway) happened. It didn’t feel like her anymore: “I like things to be a little bit more refined now.”

This go-round, Tate-Giordano set out to spend a little more money on the project. She specifically had her heart set on hand-painted Moroccan floor tile. Her house, though, had other plans for her budget. As she began to prep the floors for reno 2.0, a valve burst, spewing water all over the bathroom floor and into the basement ceiling. As she and her plumber began pulling out the insulation downstairs to air it out, they discovered preexisting mold damage—a problem that came with a steep $30,000 price tag to fix. “It totally threw everything off,” recalls the designer. She moved forward with the powder room project, but with limited funds to dedicate to the space, she decided to go the DIY route once again.

The Receipts 

Tate-Giordano estimates that her original plan of installing Moroccan floor tile would have run her around $4,000 for materials and labor. By skipping that step and deciding to tackle the new vanity and Roman Clay walls herself, she suspects she shaved off nearly $9,500. The only jobs she hired out were to a plumber to do the sink hookup and to an electrician to install her pendant light in a new location. Her total cost came in just under $3,000, excluding a $680 pendant she received for free. 

Here’s a look at some of the materials she ended up purchasing along the way. 

• Anthropologie mirror: $398
• Rejuvenation drawer pulls x 4: $80
• Etsy faucet: $250
• Etsy sink drain: $70
• Portola Paints wall finish: from $28
• Bed Bath & Beyond sink: $148
• IKEA vanity: $350
• Hennepin Made light: gifted (usually $680)

Ahead, in her own words, she looks back at her budget-friendly revamp.

Fake the Look of Tile With Stencils

Because the existing floor is Marmoleum (a water-resistant and sustainable alternative to linoleum), I was able to dry it out enough so that I could glue it back down, sand it, and prime it for paint (it takes paint very well!). Then I cut a star-shaped stencil out of card stock with a razor blade. I used a Sharpie to outline the design and ended up eyeballing it because I have very little patience for a level—I think it looks pretty straight. I filled in the shapes with a mix of colors in Benjamin Moore’s Porch and Floor Paint Finish. It took a while…my back was killing me. 

Start With an IKEA Vanity Base

The old vanity was nothing to write home about, and the cabinet was impractical for storage. I definitely wanted to switch to having drawers. Not wanting to build something from scratch, I bought an IKEA Godmorgon vanity for the shell and custom-made the sides and the drawer fronts out of walnut-stained plywood with a solid wood trim. 

A local stone yard in western Massachusetts had three full slabs of this red travertine, and they told me they’d had it for nearly 15 years. Nobody wanted to buy it! The slabs were three-quarter-inch—the perfect thickness for my vanity. It was a total score.

Double-Check Your Drainage

I was looking on Pinterest and watching videos of how people turn bowls into sinks, and I was like, Yeah, I’ll do that. I went to HomeGoods and found a bowl that was the perfect color. (It was similar to a $500 concrete sink I was eyeing on Etsy.) I felt so smart and so accomplished; I even drilled it for the drain and had the plumber come in and hook everything up once the countertops were in. 

Then, an hour later, I tried it out. All the water was staying inside the bowl. I was so annoyed with myself. Of course, this wasn’t make any sense; why would it drain? The pitch wasn’t high enough. I thought maybe I’d just order the $500 sink, but then I found this hammered copper one at Bed Bath & Beyond and really liked the way it looked. I switched to that, and it was supereasy. I actually figured out how to change the plumbing and I didn’t have to hire someone twice to do it.

Amp Up the Wall Texture With Roman Clay

I had used this Portola Paints color, Rustic, on another project recently, and I thought it was a really nice combination with the warm red travertine counters. I prefer Roman Clay over limewash; it has this really smooth, buttery finish. I applied three coats with a metal trowel to make sure I couldn’t see any of the wall underneath, then added a sealer.

Find Balance by Going Off Symmetry

Hennepin Made reached out to me and offered its Lacuna globe pendant light. Because all of the plumbing is skewed to the left of the mirror, I thought it would be cool to hang the fixture to the right, to fill that void. It’s not a bathroom that I do my makeup in, so it didn’t have to be bright. I wanted it to feel more like a hotel.

I reused my existing art; I felt like it still fit. I started frequenting an antiques shop when we first moved here.  

In the end, I’m actually way happier with how these cost-saving measures look. I like them way more than my original plan, so it’s very satisfying.

Get the Look

Lacuna Globe Pendant, Hennepin Made ($680)

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Godmorgon Vanity, IKEA ($349)

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Ball Cabinet Knob, Rejuvenation ($20)

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Clara Mirror, Anthropologie ($398)

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The post An IKEA Vanity and Floor Stencil Kept My Powder Room Budget Under $4K appeared first on domino.

It’s not unusual for rental houses to turn over year after year in Bloomington, Indiana, the leafy city where Indiana University is located. Students rent for a while and then move out, and the usual wear and tear needs to be tended to. But when Aaron Denton was tasked as a subcontractor with refinishing the floors and painting the walls of a circa-1964 split-level, he didn’t expect it to be work he was doing on his own future home.

Near the end of the job, in summer 2015, the owner asked if Aaron, a graphic designer, and his now-wife, Anna, a photographer, wanted to move in and rent. Fast-forward five years, during the height of the pandemic, and their landlord came back with an even better offer: Did they want to buy it? “Since we had rented for five years, we knew exactly what we loved and didn’t love about the house,” Anna explains, noting that they immediately wanted to replace the entry’s dark wood paneling and update the bathroom. “And then, all of a sudden, we had the opportunity to do that,” she adds.

After seeing what architect Andrew Heathfield of MINOH did in another Bloomington home (for this Domino editor), they were enthusiastic to talk with him about their ideas. They also liked that he was a Midwesterner, based in Detroit. “It felt like he was really excited about our project and cared about our project. He made everything seem a little bit more possible,” Anna remembers of their video chat.

“For Anna and Aaron, MINOH focused on integrating segmented spaces, maximizing natural light, and enhancing functionality,” Andrew says. “The overall palette is clean and minimal, which really helped to highlight our tile selections, as well as the pair’s collection of art and photography. I think we created a space that is a reflection of them.” What came to be is a central hub of spaces that complement one another and suit the couple’s lifestyle, aesthetics, and, yes, their cats, too.

Plan for It to Take Longer Than You Think

As new home buyers, the Dentons held no illusions about the unfamiliar process they were about to dive into. But something they were sure of was that they didn’t want to do the project piecemeal or live in a construction zone. From that initial meeting with Heathfield in January 2021 to having a finished space in September 2022, the project took more than a year and a half. While that was partially due to the majority of it taking place during the pandemic, the tasks that took the longest were getting the drawings just right (remotely); finding a contractor who would take on their size of the job; and then the actual reconstruction of the kitchen, living room, entry, and bathroom. Ultimately, they ended up with exactly what they wanted: a fresh start with nuance that can grow with them as their lives evolve. 

There Will Be First-Time Renovation Hiccups

Something the Dentons didn’t expect was that their scale of renovation—not a full gut nor a one-room situation—made it difficult to source a contractor willing to take it on, especially because the couple was acting as project managers. They wanted to be the ones ordering and tracking the materials as well as storing them in their garage. “It became a matter of finding someone to do it,” Aaron says. “That took a while—reaching out to people, and people just being like, ‘No, this is too small. We don’t want to bid on this.’” Luckily, the home’s former owner recommended Chris Valliant, who was skilled in tile installation. Valliant then introduced the couple to Hewins Cabinet Company, which was an essential partner for the Dentons for the kitchen and bathroom.

It was smooth sailing until construction began. First, there was the hiccup of a long lead time for the custom Fireclay x Block Shop tile, and delivery held them up. Then a difficult-to-size cabinet panel for the dishwasher made trouble. Not to mention that once the bathroom vanity was made, it still had to be transported to the site. “Because we didn’t work with a full-build team, we didn’t have that person who is doing all the subcontracting and knowing what comes next in the process,” Aaron shares openly. “It was a lot of us just figuring things out as they needed to be figured out on a daily basis.”

Eschewing premade for custom cabinets was a big financial commitment, but it ended up saving them a huge headache when their measurements were oh-so-slightly off. “We were able to just smush it a little bit with a cabinet and make the fridge fit,” Aaron says.   

If It’s a Forever Kitchen, Consider Going Custom

Before the renovation, the kitchen’s horseshoe shape and dark wood paneling were both pain points for the couple, who love to host. “It was this very funny social experiment every time we had people over,” Anna says. “They’d walk in the house, get to the top of the stairs, and then have nowhere to go.” They knew they wanted to have a clear pass-through between the front door and back door. Now, instead of getting trapped by an L-shape, anyone can walk straight in and gather with the pair around the island, a focal point in the house. They can both be in front of the range at the same time, and beyond a new Bosch oven elevating their cooking, Aaron points out the little thrills. “I have a dishwasher for the first time in my life, which is amazing.”

The Dentons found that they appreciated their choice to go custom—in both the kitchen and bathroom—not only for the flexibility to make tweaks, but because they had exacting ideas of how they wanted everything to fit. In the design process, they mapped it out inch by inch, including where and how they would stash countertop appliances out of sight (on a pullout drawer behind closed doors) to detailed spice jar storage. “I appreciate that custom work every day,” Aaron says. “It became one of those moments where it’s like, let’s do this one time and get exactly what we want and then have it forever.”

Cats Need Privacy in the Bathroom, Too

“I personally feel like the bathroom is the most transformed,” Anna says, acknowledging how cramped and bland it was before. “It’s very weird to say the bathroom is a favorite room in the house, but it is the most beautiful.” First, by reclaiming an empty closet next to it, they doubled the size of the space.

By ripping out the tub and going with a walk-in shower clad in more custom Fireclay x Block Shop tile, they created extra depth, too. The frosted window, which looks out onto the screened-in porch, let’s in light but doesn’t require curtains as before, and a built-in cubby keeps products out of the corners and off the floors. Lastly, their cabinetmaker installed custom white oak cabinets that included an important addition: one sized exactly for their cats to have a little privacy in the loo, too. 

Add a Front Door You Actually Want to Enter Through

The back door had been the de facto front door for the Dentons ever since they moved in—and not because it was more convenient. The exterior and entryway came with a broken door, and dark wood paneling didn’t make them feel excited to walk in or out every day. After adding a layer of drywall, installing a new railing, laying down custom tile on the floor, and hanging a George Nelson Bubble lamp, things were starting to look sunnier.

Artwork by Dennis Foster and a brand-new door sealed the deal, and a fresh walkway and landscaping make it feel completely different. “I feel like we’ve made the front of our house a welcoming space again,” Anna says. 

Let Light in Every Which Way 

Prerenovation, wood paneling was prominent throughout the house, and while sometimes it can be a nice vintage touch, it wasn’t what the pair needed or wanted at this stage of their life. “We took that down and replaced it with drywall, which just made the space so much brighter and feel so much bigger,” Anna says. That new front door? It’s full-length frosted glass, and the new back door is transparent, too. Those changes, paired with the kitchen’s colossal picture window, also new, lets natural light pour in from multiple sources. 

Ask for What You Want

“We knew nothing going into this project—about renovating, about owning a home,” Anna says. “So when we started the process, so many things came about because we asked for what we wanted or asked questions of the experts to help us get there.” Case in point: the matte finish and taupe color of their Fireclay x Block Shop tile. “It comes in a glossy mint green, and that’s what we were going to go with,” Anna recalls. But then they happened to be on the phone with a Fireclay rep and inquired about a matte finish, which then led to the more muted brown hue they ended up with. Similarly, the budget that they had given Heathfield at the start began to feel limiting, so they decided to splurge on various pieces they hadn’t considered necessary, like a Smeg refrigerator, Schoolhouse lighting, and Boos kitchen countertops.

Each experience like this—whether that was specific cabinet placement, hand-selected vintage furniture, or spot-on pendant height—has made the end product so much more meaningful. “I know exactly where it came from and why it looks the way it is,” says Aaron. “It’s purposeful in a way that I’m not going to forget.” Those five years of renting gave them a head start on it all.

The post These First-Time Owners Traded Dark Paneling for a Breezy Central Kitchen in Their ’60s Split-Level appeared first on domino.

By now, we don’t have to explain to you what zellige tile is. You’ve seen it in bathroom renovations left and right over the past few years. And while we certainly love the reflective finish and earthy texture that the handmade Moroccan pieces lend to a shower or vanity, if you are tearing out vintage ceramic tile to make way for them, designers say don’t.

Yes, your bathroom walls might currently be a baby blue or pastel pink that you’d assume is nowhere near in style. But actually, more and more designers are saving this kind of vintage tile. Instead they’re swapping out paint colors, window treatments, lighting, and art—and it is totally changing the way we look at retro bathrooms. Here are a few spaces that make a case for leaving those quirky old tiles alone.

Color-Match Your Paint Choice

Allison Pierce wasn’t a fan of the 1930s tile in her primary bathroom at first. But after painting the walls a slightly darker shade of Farrow & Ball’s Inchyra Blue, she came around to it. “It makes the rest of the room feel intentional,” she says. 

Have Fun With Your Window Treatments

Pastel pink tile is begging you to live a little, so keep the sense of playfulness going with patterned roman shades like the ones in this space, designed by Katie Hodges. Our educated guess is that it’s a Peter Dunham fabric.

Bring in Greenery

A few statement plants and some thoughtful artwork can make even miniature bright orange tile circa the 1960s, as seen in this this floral designer’s Oahu home, feel spalike. 

Cover the Walls in a Groovy Wallpaper

When in doubt, embrace the throwback vibe with wallpaper that feels of the era. In this New Jersey home, designer Hollie Velten-Lattrell went full flower power with a floral Josef Frank print that matches the color of the trim tile. 

Tie the Palette Together With Large-Scale Art

Okay, the real reason designer Luke Havekes stuck with this vibrant tile combo was because his client’s home is a rental. But even if they owned the place, we like to think he would have made the same small tweaks, painting the walls Farrow & Ball’s complementary Lulworth Blue and hanging a vintage lacquered screen over the shallow tub to tie in all the yellow. The flecks of gold also happen to shimmer in the sunlight. “The gloss finish on it is a sharp and fun contrast to the original matte glazed tiles and matte paint finish,” says the designer.

The post The Dated Bathroom Detail Designers Are Saving (and We’re Here for It) appeared first on domino.

When we ask renovators about what inspired them, they often reference an Instagram post they saved or a cool hotel they visited. But Leah Hodson’s bathroom makeover began much closer to home. Er, technically, it began at her old home.

When the U.K.-based DIYer behind @thestanleydiary moved in December, she was especially sad to leave behind her “perfect bathroom,” which was almost entirely covered in marble tile. The best spot in her new house to re-create the look was the powder bathroom: It was a blank canvas—albeit one with lots of quirky ceiling and wall bump-outs. 

The only difference this time was Hodson didn’t want to use actual marble. “I’m not quite ready to take on tiling just yet with two toddlers running circles around me,” she says. Hodson also wasn’t interested in spending thousands of dollars on a bathroom upgrade, so instead of browsing the stone yard, she found herself Googling Calacatta Viola marble–inspired mural wallpapers. Belarte Studio proved to have the most realistic option. “Everyone who has seen it in real life can’t believe it is wallpaper,” says Hodson. 

The Supplies 

• Wallpaper
• Wallpaper adhesive (Hodson used a U.K.-sold product by Anaglypta)
• Wallpaper smoothing tool
• Scissors
• Box cutter
• Wood molding of your choosing
• A level
• Liquid nails
• Clear acrylic backsplash 
• Brass screw caps

Calacatta Marble, Belarte Studio ($6 per square foot)

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Ultra Clear Strippable Wallcovering Adhesive, The Home Depot ($9)

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Step 1: Find the Start Line 

Because Hodson’s mural wallpaper is so bold and the powder room is so small, she felt swathing every inch in the faux marble design would make the space feel minuscule. So as a compromise, she decided to only cover three half-walls and one full wall. Because the back toilet wall was getting the full treatment, she decided to begin there. First, she drew a line down the middle of the wall, so she would know where to align the two seams of the separate wallpaper panels. (Over time, wallpaper can slide and reveal the gaps between sections, and if said gap is situated in the middle of the room, it will actually be less noticeable than if it were off center.) 

Step 2: Paste and Stick 

While peel-and-stick treatments are popular among DIYers, the design Hodson fell in love with requires you to coat the wall first. Using a paint roller, she dipped it into a tray of paste and then rolled the adhesive onto the wall. “I found this gave more even coverage than a brush, which I’ve previously used,” she says. 

Step 3: Patiently Work Around Bump-Outs

The tricky part came when matching the panels on the full wall with those on the half-walls. This is when the sharp box cutter and time-tested rule of “measure twice, cut once” came into play. Hodson made sure to line up the sheets on the pipe box perfectly so the veins in the faux stone looked like they were all one piece. 

The area around the vanity unit gave her the biggest headache. Hodson accidentally cut the wallpaper too short, forcing her to cut a small sliver piece to hide the gap. “Which took far longer than I’d have liked to get right, but I’m glad I did, as it is barely noticeable,” she says. 

Step 4: Give Yourself a Seamless Border

For the surfaces only covered partially in wallpaper, Hodson installed wood molding around the top edge, first using a laser level to make sure the border would be a straight line. Then she applied the wallpaper from the top of the baseboards to the bottom of the wood molding. The trim piece gives your eye a natural end point. 

Step 5: Protect the Splash Zone

Even after refreshing the tired-looking vanity with a no demo hack involving precut fluted MDF and liquid nails, Hodson was left with a problem: preventing the wallpaper behind the sink from becoming damaged by moisture. 

Cue CutMy. She took the brand’s 6mm acrylic sheet (it came precut and predrilled) and made a backsplash, complete with brass screw caps that cover the drill holes. The invisible barrier allows the faux stone to still shine through. 

The post This DIYer’s Powder Room Is Covered in Calacatta Viola Marble—Or Is It? appeared first on domino.

Whenever I enter a new space, my mind goes into overdrive, gathering inspiration and envisioning changes. But there is one particular area I’ve always wanted to get my hands on: my mom’s laundry room, purely for the challenge it brings. Everything in there is competing for attention; there’s a toilet, a still-working microwave from 40 years ago, a fridge covering an unused back door, and a washing machine. 

I (delusionally) gave myself 10 days to complete this renovation. While my incredible mom was speaking at the World Health Organization in Switzerland, I took over her home with a tight hour-by-hour schedule that I thought would see our timings align. But unfortunately, what I didn’t consider was life. My rock-star 98-year-old grandfather was assisting in the initial stages, but on day eight, he had a stroke. It was tools down for some weeks. 

As he recovered, a turn of events saw Project Laundry become a family and friends affair. Even with the help, there were still some bumps, like when I flooded the place after drilling into a water pipe. But eventually, we got there, and it’s all the more special now that my grandpa’s been able to see it in person. 

Paint Directly Over Wall Tiles

The pink tile just had to go, and with limited time and budget, I turned to paint. When painting tile, don’t skip the preparation, as it will affect the final result and longevity. I used TSP (trisodium phosphate) to wash the surface before lightly going over it with a 180-grit sanding block. There are kits on the market, but a painting expert recommended using a boat-grade product that won’t rust or get moldy around moisture. The first coat of primer had me worried (as it looked incredibly blotchy and left a pale pink hue), but thankfully I trusted the process, and after the two coats of paint went up, the space was immediately transformed. 

DIY Doors for an Easy Custom Look 

I’m a big fan of IKEA’s kitchen base cabinets and have used them for various projects. It’s the doors where I like to get creative. I kept it simple this time around by making Shaker-style doors out of plywood sheets and MDF trim. But simple still has its complications. All was good until I realized my ½-inch plywood was not thick enough to cover the hinges, so I ended up having to add another layer of backing (from MDF scraps) to thicken it up. 

Repurpose Your IKEA Cubes 

Chances are you or someone you know has cube storage. After moving the refrigerator into the corner closest to the door, I stacked two of the boxy Kallax shelving units to create upper cabinetry. To make them look legitimate, I customized the doors, this time with a slatted wood design. I started with four sheets of ¾-inch-thick MDF (I learned from my previous mistake) and used a table saw to cut the thin strips of wood. From there, each strip was glued and nailed to the front with a constant space between each piece. Unfortunately, the result wasn’t dead even, so the slats don’t line up perfectly. Another regret of mine was not adding a backing to the cubes before installing them. Peel-and-stick wallpaper, anyone? 

Turn Old Furniture Into Floating Shelves 

Repurposing was at the forefront of Project Laundry, so when my grandmother suggested recycling wood from a headboard I’d made when I was 15, I was in. My grandpa and I had the best day breaking it all down to the studs before taking those pieces to build the framework for the floating shelves. But as I drilled the final hole in the wall, a small disaster struck: I hit a water pipe. Thankfully, the plumber was able to come quickly and patch it up, and all that remained was adding 3-millimeter-thick plywood sheets to the frame and applying a light stain. 

Don’t Overstuff Your New Space

Before I build anything, I like to ensure there’s room for growth. If you fill it up right away, and with no organizational plans, before you know it, it’ll be just another space to store whatever. With my label maker in hand, the base cabinets became a spot for home-cleaning supplies, while the top cubes felt perfect for bakeware and other lesser-used cooking items. Most important, both spaces have open and empty areas for future growth, and even though my mom didn’t get that 10-day HGTV-like reveal, she gained a super-functional multipurpose room that she loves.

The post Turning an Old Headboard Into Shelves in This Laundry Room Was My Grandma’s Genius Idea appeared first on domino.

You haven’t heard what happiness sounds like until you listen to someone describing what it’s like to use their newly remodeled bathroom. “Every time I walk in, I feel like I’m in a dream,” a DIYer once told us. “There’s this peaceful moment when you walk in. Like: Oh, this makes sense!” described another. For some, creating the ultimate sanctuary is the goal; for others, it’s building a space that is easy to keep clean and organized. We’ve seen homeowners and designers go above and beyond to make their bathrooms special, whether that’s searching high and low for a transparent resin tub or installing a towel warmer to make bath time with a baby a little more pleasant. No matter how dated or quirky your bathroom is to begin with, the 10 bathroom remodel ideas ahead will get you one step closer to that pure-bliss feeling. 

Save a Sad Shower-Tub Combo

Tubs are practical on so many levels, especially if you have little ones in the house. But when combined with a shower, the result often comes out looking like the “before” scenario above: minuscule and dingy. Investing in a graphic tile surround and a deep soaking tub can change all that. In this Los Angeles home, designer and architect Susan Nwankpa Gillespie covered the interior shower walls with a combination of two Zia Tile hues (Rouge and Casablanca) and clad the facade in amber zellige tile. 

Carve Out a “Shower Room”

If a tub is just not your jam (or, like in Anastasia Casey’s case, it takes 40 minutes to fill up), use it as an opportunity to expand your shower zone. The Identité Collective founder built off the pipes that were already there and added a second showerhead by the glass-block window (where the tub used to be), as well as a wand, which comes in handy when the dog needs a scrub-down. 

Paint Over Tile If You Don’t Have the Funds to Replace It…

Think of ugly, large-format tile as a blank canvas. At least, that’s what British designer Hannah Drakeford saw when she decided to apply two coats of V33 Renovation Floor and Stair Paint to her floor tile, laminate countertops, shower screen metalwork, and radiator. She then made it waterproof by adding one coat of Zinsser Bullseye 123. 

DIYer Nicole Christopher took a similar approach in her tiny Vermont bathroom by using Benjamin Moore’s Atrium White inside the shower in the brand’s Bath and Spa finish and Vintage Vogue green for the paneling and built-ins surrounding it. Her whole project rang in under $500. 

…Or Skim Coat Over It

Meet Leanne Ford’s quick fix for a dated bathroom. The DIY relies on SureCrete, a type of cement-based overlay, which can be applied directly onto an existing surface and made waterproof with a concrete sealer.

Push Your Vanity to the Limits

The pedestal sink was a strong giveaway to designers Alex Boudreau and Hayley Cavagnolo that this kids’ bathroom used to be a powder room. To make up for the major lack of storage, they scrapped it for a double vanity with open shelves and lots of lower cabinets painted in a creamy white and buttery apricot combo.

Invest in an Addition 

By shaving off part of this Seattle home’s kitchen, the architects at Best Practice Architecture gained a 30-square-foot micro bathroom addition that could accommodate a Japanese soaking tub, called an ofuro. It acts as a threshold between the interior and the deck, with a folding window wall opening up to vistas of the cherry and maple trees outside. 

Hide the Toilet

The toilet used to be the focal point of this New Jersey bathroom, but now it’s tucked away in a proper water closet with a pocket door that’s framed with wide slabs of Calacatta Fantastico marble. 

Go Dark

In her new Tudor home, Casey designed a cavelike shower swathed in dark green soldier-stacked tile with matching grout. She insisted on a curbless layout so the experience of walking inside the cocooning area is 100 percent seamless. 

Finesse the Details 

Sometimes the best bathroom remodel ideas are the simplest. For this Spanish-style home, the trick was rounding out a vanity corner here, adding marble trim there, and spotlighting the existing sauna with a see-through door. 

Flip Your Tile Orientation 

Natalie Myers of Veneer Designs ditched the two individual vanities in this main bathroom and turned them into one unit. Then she swapped the shower and tub placement to optimize the layout and ensure the most frequented spot was bathed in natural light to really achieve that zen feel. By switching the horizontal tile into a vertical format on the wall, the room appears larger than it really is.

The post 10 Spa-Like Bathroom Remodel Ideas, Whether You Have $500 to Spend or $25,000 appeared first on domino.

Leanne Ford started her design career in an old schoolhouse in Pittsburgh 14 years ago. The Pennsylvania native, who was working in fashion at the time, was determined to turn her attic into a dreamy primary bathroom with help from her brother, Steve Ford, a seasoned carpenter, even though three contractors told her it was impossible. The roof was slanted. The window was tiny. And there was no obvious place to put a tub (a must-have for Leanne, who takes at least one soak a day). 

Still, her vision was clear: an open-concept wet zone with no shower curtain. To accomplish that, Steve cut into a crawl space and took over a closet. Next came the waterproofing. Wall-to-wall tile was absolutely necessary, so Leanne went searching for the perfect option where any other novice renovator would: Home Depot. “When I’m using construction materials, I like to use the classic, more simple stuff that big-box stores have so that it is timeless and will let my fun, funkier, more artistic pieces do the talking,” shares Leanne. An affordable white subway tile by Daltile—a case goes for $15 and covers around 12.5 square feet—called her name then, and it still does now.

“I used this in my very first bathroom, in my very first house, and I still love it,” admits Leanne. While the subway style is very much a staple today, the designer remembers it was hard to find back then. “Now I’m glad it’s a go-to,” she says. The trick to making it appear more custom is all in the grout. Ford tends to go for high contrast by pairing it with a charcoal shade. An oldie but a goodie.

Daltile Restore Ceramic Bright White Subway Tile

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Daltile Restore 3 in. x 6 in. Ceramic Bright White Subway Tile, Home Depot ($15 per case)

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Unless you consider yourself the bubble-bath-taking type or have little kids in your house, you probably don’t want or need a tub. Scrapping it altogether and replacing it with a walk-in shower is one of the most common bathroom remodeling moves we see, but what does it actually cost to make the change? Modernize Home Services recently launched a Shower Remodel Cost Calculator to help people tally up all their potential shower reno expenses. 

According to the company’s findings, when you choose to convert your tub to a shower, you can expect to pay between $1,800 and $4,430 at a minimum. The cost can go up from there depending on the materials you choose, the condition of the existing shower, and the price of labor in your area. And things can get steep fast: Home Depot’s average estimate falls a smidge higher, between $6,000 and $10,000, for example. But don’t let those numbers deter you from making the change. Below, three of our favorite tub-to-shower transformations that are reminders to prioritize the spaces you actually use and love. 

The One Made for Aging in Place

While designer Natalie Myers’s clients had no need to keep the ADA-compliant walk-in tub that was previously in this space, she maintained a similar partition wall in the new shower setup, mostly because it offers a little privacy. Additionally, inside the shower, the half-wall serves as an anchor for a floating stone bench. The element is handy for anyone who prefers to sit while sudsing up. 

The Double-Sided One

Anastasia Casey estimates her old tub took at least 40 minutes to fill up and likens the 30-inch-wide shower to a “tiny, awful coffin.” She decided to expand her standing room by taking over the tub and turning the area into a double shower (peep the other side in the picture at the top of this story). Casey built off of the pipes that were already there and added a second head by the glass-block window as well as a wand, which comes in handy when the dog needs a hose-down. 

The Night and Day One

Domino’s managing shopping editor Samantha Weiss-Hills’s bathroom footprint is exactly the same as before, but it looks like she gained a few extra feet of space because there’s no longer a fiberglass tub and curtain bisecting the room. The glass partition (a $300 Wayfair score) allows sunlight to reach every corner, including all the potted plants on the tippy-top shower shelf.

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You’d never know looking at Leanne Kilroy’s bedroom and bath now, but at one point during her remodel, there were gaps in the shower floor tile, a permanent marker stain on the dresser’s marble countertop, and an irremediable leak coming from the tub spout. That’s the thing about renovating: Sometimes you have to go through all the painful mistakes to get to the right place. “It was actually a blessing in disguise when the original penny tiles I had purchased for the shower were laid incorrectly and had to be ripped out,” says Kilroy, the interior designer and founder of London-based firm Good Bones. Having the opportunity to see them in the space, wonky-looking and all, inspired her to switch gears altogether and purchase the green tumbled marble tile she’d secretly wanted all along. “And I really, truly love it,” she adds. 

She’d been set on creating an en suite since she and her family moved into the house in November 2020. The space adjacent to the primary bedroom was essentially a smaller replica of it: It had the same orange floor varnish, broken ceiling spotlights, and bulky MDF cupboards. After relocating their youngest child to a different room upstairs, where she could be closer to her sister, Kilroy and her husband decided to join the two areas with a new door and designated the more petite room as the new bathroom. “It was the very first thing the builders did, and it was so satisfying,” recalls the designer. Ahead, a closer look at the three-month-long transformation, its trial and errors, and why it was all worth it in the end.

Go Full Circle

Both the bedroom and bathroom layouts were designed to have circular circulation. In other words, you can walk all the way around the tub and, likewise, you can do laps around the freestanding wardrobe that doubles as a headboard. Not only does Kilroy find that dead ends often lead to gloomy corners, but the openness makes her life as a mom of three easier. “I’m always lugging around armfuls of things that need tidying or cleaning, and I’m constantly forgetting things here and there. Having shortcuts is a small but constant joy,” she says. The same goes for the primary suite’s relationship to the rest of the house: The bedroom and bathroom are connected to each other, of course, but each one also features a separate entrance to the stair landing.

Bring Back Bubble Baths

Wanting to avoid the clinical design trap that so many new bathroom renovations fall into, Kilroy focused on adding pieces with age and character, like an enormous claw-foot cast-iron tub, an eBay score. The designer refurbished the piece herself with Zinsser BIN primer and, once that was dry, two coats of satin paint. Connecting the fixture to a water source turned out to be the trickier part. The taps that had come with the tub were leaky and beyond repair. Kilroy found herself buying a floor-standing filler that she hadn’t initially budgeted for. No regrets: “We’re so happy we have our own bathtub and have taken more baths in the past few months than in the past few years,” she shares. 

Seal It and It’ll Deliver 

Swathing the shower in plasterlike microcement gave the bathroom additional old-world charm, but Kilroy’s decision to extend the treatment beyond the wet zone and onto the adjacent two walls was a more practical one. “Most plasterers have minimum square feet required per job, and finishing the inside and outside of our shower wouldn’t have met those minimums,” explains Kilroy, who tasked CMG Finishes with the job. The Forcrete finish, color-matched to Little Greene’s Portland Stone Light (the paint color used throughout the rest of the room), is in fact waterproof.

Kilroy also gets a lot of questions from Instagram followers about the original wood floorboards in a place that’s prone to H2O. (Psst: After sanding them down and lightening them with Danish lye, she had them covered with a satin lacquer.) For her, keeping them was worth the risk. “It makes the room feel less like a bathroom and more like any other room in the house,” she explains.

Put the Broken Pieces Back Together

The fireplace in the couple’s bedroom was a lucky find. The pair stumbled across the red marble mantel and tiled surround on the side of their road. “We weren’t sure if it could be saved, let alone if all the pieces were there, but I made my husband carry it home anyway,” says Kilroy. The spliced-up parts lived in their basement for a few years while they saved up for the reno. When it came time to install it, they hired a professional restorer who only had to source one extra replacement piece to tie it all together. The dark red stone ultimately inspired the deep burgundy color of the built-ins in the dressing area. To achieve a slightly brownish red, the designer mixed RAL3004 with a Paint & Paper Library color called Scarlet ‘n’ Rust. 

Look for Happiness in Small Places

Kilroy didn’t want to have to compromise between natural light and privacy in her dressing room, so she installed double track window treatments with a heavy curtain on the outside and a light linen-blend drape on the inside. “It’s a small thing, but pulling that voile closed to get dressed and pulling it back open once I’m done really makes me happy,” she says. 

Another precious perk? The dual-outlet shower—there is both an overhead fixture and a handheld hose that can be used simultaneously. “Using both at once feels like the ultimate luxury,” she says. As does the fact that her towel radiator from Etsy is located right at the opening to the shower: “Our towels are not only easily accessible but hot and toasty.” Talk about warm fuzzies.

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Keren Richter, cofounder of design firm White Arrow, jokes that when Jill Singer told her she wanted to build a bathroom around a funky toilet paper holder, it felt like an art-school entrance exam. Nevertheless, when Singer, cofounder and editor in chief of Sight Unseen, showed Keren the colorful piece by British artist James Shaw that she had in mind, the designer was up for the test: “Her points of reference really helped us get inspired.” Singer had waited patiently for the recycled plastic TP holder—Shaw’s drops are sporadic and online only. 

“A friend told me recently, ‘You’re either the dream client or the absolute most nightmare client, because you know so specifically what you want,’” says Singer with a laugh. And it’s true, she had a particular vision in mind when she set out to update the kids’ and guest bathrooms in her East Hampton, New York, home: She wanted them to be reminiscent of the tile-covered bathrooms in the Gerald Luss House in Ossining, New York, where Object & Thing hosted a show in 2021. But when it came to actually fine-tuning the details, Singer depended on Keren and her husband, Thomas, for guidance.  

A Moment for the TP

Once it was established that they would mount Shaw’s toilet paper holder in the kids’ space, the Richters looked to its powdery blue and pink components for direction. The former color became the standout choice: They swathed the room in two different tones of blue grid tile. The dusty blush tones made their way onto the vanity, which the designers concocted essentially from scratch. While the base itself is an ordinary stock cabinet, they upgraded it with an onyx counter (sourced from Keren’s favorite website, stonetrash.com), Shaker-style doors, round knobs, and a vintage Italian faucet. “I ended up hacking it so hard that it doesn’t look anything like what it started out as,” says Keren. 

Bathroom Blues

While Singer practiced patience with her special TP holder, she regrets not having more when it came to picking out a tub. Initially, she fell in love with a freestanding one with giant ball feet (if you’ve seen her kitchen, you know she has a thing for items with spherical details), but its lead time was way too long.

In the end, they went with a fully tiled tub that exudes cool mid-century vibes, but she still can’t help but wonder if should she have waited. “Maybe the openness wouldn’t have been the best option for two kids showering in it…but it would have looked really cool!” shares Singer. 

Hit the Showers

Keren admits butter yellow isn’t a color that typically makes its way into White Arrow’s projects, but given it’s one of Singer’s all-time favorites, the designers took a leap. “It’s like a refreshing glass of lemonade,” she says. After looking at 30 different tile samples, they ended up with two harmonious shades (a mid-tone and a highlight) and wrapped the saturated hue around the base of the room, stopping at the knee wall. “It’s a nice way of dividing a small space and keeping it feeling bright and light,” says the designer.

There might not be a funky toilet paper holder in the guest space, but the Richters played with pink once more, this time in the form of a custom medicine cabinet and wall-hung concrete sink. A friend recently told Singer that the compact yet colorful setup gave off “a really fun locker room vibe,” and she took it as a great compliment. 

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