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From Dated to Dynamic For those among us who live with a circa l950 ranch house bathroom, this month's column should provide some invaluable information to assist you in refreshing your out of date, yet still very serviceable, bathroom. Having recently completed a cosmetic bath redo of my own for Quick & Easy Decorating Ideas, Spring, 2001 issue, I had a crystal clear understanding of the needs of Houstonians Jennifer and Barry Fineman. Not only did the couple have really pink ceramic tile--- it resembled a sort of melted, vanilla- and strawberry -ice cream swirl ---- its flowery, pink wallpaper only intensified the color shock. "We really wanted to create a more open, functional room that worked with the rest of the house," Jennifer explains. "The low fur down, containing the air conditioning ductwork, made the bathroom feel closed in, as did the deep cabinets and narrow, 22-inch wide door opening," she says. "It had an unnecessarily- long countertop, very little drawer storage, and an ackward wall cabinet that was too deep. Barry, who is quite tall, just felt claustrophobic in there," Jennifer notes. "We were in desperate need of a makeover!" Because their intention was to have the bath function in the future as a children's space, the Finemans also needed to make sure the surfaces were practical. "We wanted to make sure we could bathe our children in the tub, so we removed the glass door. We also insisted upon plenty of storage, as well as a non-slip floor surface," Jennifer explains. Located in the middle of the hallway, the bath functions as both powder room and guest bath, and the Finemans wanted to dress up the decor of the room to blend with the sophisticated, dark- stained wood tones they preferred in their homefurnishings. As a homework assignment, I asked the couple to go through books and magazines, bookmarking the rooms that they loved. In each instance, they selected baths with a charming, old -fashioned decorating style, dark -stained cabinets, white ceramic tile and white, beaded board walls. There was no way to achieve this look without major tear out. In order to keep costs down, I suggested they keep their existing toilet and porcelain bathtub, replacing the tub's chrome fixtures with fresh, new ones. The window, of course, would remain in place, its shiny aluminum frame covered with handsome new wooden blinds. We selected a mix of tile styles-a retro hexagonal floor tile and a brick -shaped wall tile, sometimes called subway tile because it is used to line subway walls in New York City. It was more cost effective to lay the hexagonal ceramic tile flooring on top of the existing pink floor. And because tile grout always turns dirty with time, I suggested that they just grout the tile from the beginning with a pale taupe grout. Working with Houston master carpenter Mike Little, (713/666-5846), we developed a plan for the space that did not change the footprint of the room, but increased the actual usable space considerably. One exciting aspect of the plan was installing pre-fabricated cabinetry, customized to meet the Finemans' needs. First, the wall and tub tiles were removed. Then the clunky, 24-inch deep cabinets were torn out, along with the ponderous, hovering furdown. The ductwork was raised into the attic, and new, less obvious air conditioning vents were installed. The narrow door opening was widened to an impressive 30 inches, and Mike Little installed a pocket door, which is the way to go when you have a small room such as this, because the door slides out of the way and into a wall pocket. For the first time, it was possible to see how large this room really was. Every inch of counter and wall space that can be squeezed out of a tiny bathroom is multiplied, both in terms of visual and actual space. We added several inches of usable width to the bathroom by eliminating the swinging door which opened against one wall, and by narrowing the depth of the cabinets. Originally, the couple had considered using prefab kitchen cabinets from Ikea. But after doing some comparison shopping, I discovered that Bombay Company had a beautifully finished, dark-stained Haberdasher Collection, originally intended for a home office or library, which was less expensive and could be modified to fit the Finemans' needs. After careful measuring, we bought a chest of drawers, a stacking glass vitrine cabinet, two, stacking, rounded -corner shelves, an entertainment television cabinet to house the sink, and a single, lower corner shelf to be placed to the right of the sink. We bought them on sale, plus saved paying a painter to stain and seal raw, new cabinetry. Custom cabinets of this quality would have cost many times their modest investment. Mike Little customized the entertainment -turned-sink cabinet by cutting its depth down to 22 inches. The horizontal top of the cabinet was surfaced with marble, and a new sink was dropped into the custom opening. The wall was built out behind the toilet and the stacking cabinets to the left of the sink, enabling their narrow 16-inch depth to line up with the front of the newly- revised sink cabinet. The result? A custom, yet pre-fabricated design that functions perfectly. "We love the beaded board, the moldings, and the new wooden frame around the once bare metal window, " Jennifer says. "We love the way the marble counter curves to follow the rounded shelving by the sink. There is just so much more space now. Barry loves the display cabinet, the masculinity of the dark wood and the feeling of the room being new but not 'modern' . . . we even tucked a nostalgic photograph of Barry 'pretending' to shave ,at age five, into the cabinet. We have so much more space----tons of drawers and under the sink storage. But most of all we love the "furniture" look instead of boring cabinetry," Jennifer adds. Joetta Moulden offers home makeovers using your own home furnishings. Visit her web site at www.shelterstyle.com, email her at info@shelterstyle.com, or call 713/461-2063. TRADE SECRETS
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