Secondary Bathrooms- Purdue

Well, I’ve been MIA on this blog for far too long!!! Turns out being pregnant while running a business solo is more stressful than anticipated- ha! I’m in the home stretch (I’ll be 35 weeks on Sunday) so I wanted to check back in and finish sharing a few projects that have wrapped in the last couple of months before I take a short maternity leave and jump back into new designs again.  

Although we've shared a few progress pictures of these spaces, we are backtracking a bit and wrapping up the design plans for the Purdue project, but since it has been forever and a day, click here and here for a refresher on this home. 

If you remember, this house was initially designed as a spec home but sold before we finished it. A request that Blue River Custom Builders had heard with their last spec home was a desire for a bedroom on the first floor that could be used for guests, particularly those who aren’t great going up and down stairs. While we knew the front room of this house would likely be an office, we designed it with a closet and access to the first-floor bathroom so it could easily be used as a private guest suite. 

With that in mind, we made the first-floor bathroom a full bath, but wanted it to still feel like a beautiful powder bathroom. The toilet and shower, which features 4x8" beveled subway tile to the ceiling, are separated with a pocket door, and we designed the sink vanity + storage cabinet with raised legs to look like free-standing pieces of furniture. To elevate the design further we went with marble countertops, a wall-mounted faucet, and patterned wallpaper, which plays well with the hexagon floor tiles. We complimented these features with a large antique brass mirror and contemporary brass wall sconces.  The warm neutrals of this space flow perfectly with the colors + materials used in the kitchen and main living spaces. 

Moving upstairs to the two secondary bathrooms, we wanted these spaces to feel clean + modern. While we used the same tile in both bathrooms, we used different mirrors and lighting to give each space a unique touch. The starting point for these spaces was penny tile for the floor. The tile shop has white with black penny tiles spaced periodically, but that felt too harsh for the spaces, so we opted to have the black tiles replaced with gray. This sounds like a really small detail, but it completely changed the look of the space once they switched those tiles out, and the gray pennies work well with the quartz countertops. 

Instead of doing your standard subway tile in the showers, we used square tile to the ceiling for a fun, retro vibe. While the original design plan called for brass accents, the homeowners preferred sticking with satin nickel, which was an easy swap. The Jack and Jill bathroom features rectangle mirrors flanked by modern wall sconces, and the smaller bathroom has a large round mirror with an industrial, single arm sconce centered above it. I love how the dark framed mirrors break up the gray + white color scheme of these bathrooms. 

Jack & Jill Bathroom 

Single Bathroom 

I adore the design plans for each of these bathrooms, and while you probably have seen a few sneak peaks of the progress of these spaces on the Wild Rose Interiors' social media pages, I have way more of the process to share… I promise I won’t wait another two months! Until then, hope everyone has a great weekend! 

Master Bathroom + Laundry Room- Purdue

Here we are, back to the start of another work week and I'm ready to jump right into sharing more of the design plans for the spec home on Purdue, which is no longer a spec home as it has officially sold!! I had been delaying talking about this project further until I finalized a few things with the new homeowners, who had an opportunity to customize design details that hadn’t been finalized. We’ve changed very little to the actual design, but we’re still settling on wall color and a few last-minute lighting choices. 

I’m starting in the master bathroom today, which is coming together beautifully. The main floor tile and shower wall tile (which is being run vertically) are fairly simply choices because the real wow factor in this space is the gorgeous, polished gray marble countertop. The marble hex for the shower floor compliments this beautifully. 

One change that was made to the bathroom design was dropping the middle section of the bathroom vanity down lower for a makeup vanity area. Because of this change, we could no longer do individual mirrors above the sinks and the  now lower makeup vanity, as we would end up with three mirrors that would be hung at different heights. To keep the look cleaner and maximize the amount of task lighting (as requested by the homeowner) we decided to use one large, custom-fit mirror. This isn’t usually my first choice, but to keep this feeling custom we’re mounting four classic, polished nickel sconces directly onto the mirror. These sconces work well with the clear pendant that will hang over the free-standing tub that is situated below the window. One of my favorite features are the twisted plumbing fixtures that makes them feel elegant + modern. 

The laundry room, which is on the second floor, can be accessed from the master closet or from the hallway. I really wanted to have some fun in this space and I was so happy that the new homeowners were onboard with the playful design. After the original 8” hex floor I selected was discontinued, I was excited to find this mini gray and white hex that is laid in a flower pattern. The simple white quartz countertops with light gray veining balance out the pattern floor tile. A pale seafoam color was selected for the cabinetry was chosen based on the mini subway tile backsplash tile, which adds a lot of personality to the space. The polished nickel hardware and light fixture add a little sparkle while keeping with the retro vibe.

Last time I shared the kitchen + wet bar design, but I wanted to briefly go over a change made to the wet bar. The homeowners weren’t quite sure of the patterned tile backsplash I had selected for this space, so we went back to the drawing board and found a mini beveled white subway tile with rubbed gray edges that looks fantastic with the gray color chosen for the cabinets. While I liked the original tile selection, I actually love this look even more!! The homeowner also decided to keep the original hardware selection except change it to a matte black finish instead of the polished nickel, which blends better with the kitchen + living room hardware, which are also in matte black. We finalized the metal pattern detail for the insert for the upper cabinets which is going to finish off this space perfectly.

Next time I’ll wrap the design plans with the first floor bathroom + the secondary bathrooms upstairs, and I’ll be sharing progress photos soon as well. I’m working on drawing up furniture plans for the living room, which will be fun to help finish out this beautiful custom home in West University. 

New West University Spec House- Purdue

Starting off the week with a new project plan. Some of you may read the blog over at Blue River Custom Builders, who I collaborate with on quite a few projects, and if you do, then you saw the update on the construction happening at our beautiful new spec home on Purdue in the West University neighborhood in Houston.

Today I’m sharing some of the first-floor design details. Since this is a spec home, I wanted to keep all of the selections fairly neutral, but I still wanted the home to have some character to separate it from all of the other homes for sale on the market. I wanted it to feel like a custom home with lots of special features.  

To keep the house feeling light and bright I went with a soft shade of white for the walls in a flat finish. I’m using the same color for the trim but in a gloss finish.There will plenty of contrast with gray interior doors + dark paint on the fireplace wall.  The flooring running throughout all of the main spaces is a lighter hardwood (the mudroom is getting a tile that looks very similar to concrete). The lighting in the entry, dining room, and stairwell are all modern versions of classic shapes. They have a matte black finish, which I’m really loving right now for a timeless but modern feel. It also works really well with other finishes so it’s a great way to be able to mix finishes throughout a space.  

I had originally selected this fantastic cube tile for the kitchen backsplash, but unfortunately by the time we went to order the tile it was backordered, so insert the elongated subway tile. Always a timeless choice and perhaps a little safer choice for a spec home, especially since we’re offsetting them with a gorgeous slab of marble for all the countertops!!! The cabinets are a great shade of greige (beige + gray) and the island the same darker shade of gray that I’m using for the interior doors. We’re doing two oversized pendants over the island and great matte black pulls for the cabinets + drawers. The matte black is being repeated with custom iron shelves (similar to those pictured below) on either side of the custom plaster range hood.

In the wet bar off of the kitchen, the cabinets will be painted the same color as the island. The upper cabinets will have a wire mesh detail instead of glass (similar to the example below). I couldn’t get through a design without adding a patterned tile, so a little punch for the backsplash in this space. I kept with the matte black for the light fixture + faucet but brought a touch of glam with a hammered polished nickel sink which will pop against the satin black granite counter. The polished nickel is repeated with the hardware selection.

Next time I’ll be back with the powder bathroom + master bathroom design plans and lastly the two secondary bathrooms + laundry room that are upstairs. The home is really coming together and is making progress by leaps and bounds every day. Can’t wait to see this one finished out!

Bathroom Design Plans- Mullins

I want to start by saying a huge THANK YOU to everyone that left the most thoughtful messages on my social media pages and sent encouraging text messages about my store being one baby step away from opening. I still can’t believe I’m about to be a shop/studio owner, and if I’m being 100 right now, I’m shaking in my boots in a bit. I’m extremely confident in the location I selected, the furniture lines I’ve chosen to partner with, and my design business itself, but it is SO SCARY to put yourself out there in such a big way. I keep reminding myself that with great risk comes great reward and if running a business was easy, everyone would do it. With that being said, I’m jumping in with both feet and taking the design bull by the horns!

By the way- my sign guy hand-painted my logo on the canvas awning!! Such a talent!

Last time I shared the design plans for the common areas of the remodel on Mullins, and today I have the final design boards for the two bathrooms. The hall bath is their main guest bath but also is used by their young children. The homeowner wanted something clean + modern that blended well with the selections from the open concept common areas of their home. We started with a classic 3x6” white subway tile with a high contrast dark grout line (not pictured here, but much easier to keep clean versus white grout), which ties in nicely with the dark floor tile, being laid in a herringbone pattern.

Keeping with the dark details, they selected matte black plumbing fixtures + hardware. We also used a dark framed round mirror for above the single sink, but chose to bring in some brass with the light fixtures. The countertops are a white quartz with pale gray veining.

The completed look offers a dominantly white + black color scheme with a little added warmth from the brass fixtures. It is a no-fuss space with a cool industrial modern vibe. 

The master bathroom repeats the use of matte black + brass but has more of a spa feel with the use of two different marble-look tiles, a larger matte tile for the floor and a polished tile for the shower walls, run vertically to visually bring up the height of the shower. For the shower floor + shampoo box we used a mini marble hexagon. The homeowner selected brass plumbing fixtures + hardware for this space for a touch of glamour. I especially love the repeated use of a hexagon for the cabinet knob as well. 

The vanity for this bathroom is laid out as one long vanity with double sinks and a drop down for the makeup vanity. We wanted all of the mirrors to be at the same height, but the makeup vanity required a mirror that would drop down lower so someone seated on a stool could still see in the mirror. It would be near impossible to find the right style of mirror in the sizes we needed so we opted to have these mirrors custom-made. A single large mirror over the double sinks to help open up the space of this smaller-sized bathroom, and a coordinating smaller, but taller, single mirror for above the makeup vanity. The mirrors will have a very thin black frame with industrial-style lighting mounted above them (one above each sink and one above the makeup vanity). This maybe sounds more confusing than it is, but will make sense once I share the completed pictures. 

That concludes the design plans, and I'm excited to share some progress pictures of the project, which is near completion. I'll also be sharing more of the shop/studio space soon!