The Before: Master Suite, New Laundry Addition, and E's Bathroom

Every contractor and friend/family member who looked at our house assured me they had never seen anything like the original bathroom situation on the second floor. 

The pictures don't really do justice, but what you're seeing is a jack-and-jill bathroom through the shower! It's bizarre. There were two little rooms with separate toilets and vanities with a wide open shower in between them. I cannot imagine under what circumstances you could comfortably have two people using that bathroom at once. 

It made no sense, and certainly would not work for our family, so we're taking this baby down to the studs, then re-building it into a luxurious master bath. Here's a few of our inspiration pictures:








Basically going for classic materials (marble, subway tile, chrome fixtures, etc.) in shades of primarily black and white.

I'm 100% obsessed with this shower and am moving heaven and earth to recreate it, despite the complaints of my contractor :) 

Most shower suppliers in Lincoln have looked at me like I'm insane when I tell them I want a custom surround fabricated, but I'm not giving up hope! It is a lot of effort, but I think the payoff will be an amazing focal point in the master bath.

I originally thought I wanted a freestanding soaking tub as well, but we just don't have the space here to get the look I want, so we're going with a drop-in tub. It will still be a nice, big soaker, but it will be framed in on the sides. 

We're still tweaking the vanity design, to try and make the most of the space. I am hoping we'll have room for a little makeup table station between two vanities



As much as I love our daughter, I don't what to share a bathroom with her if I don't have to...and fortunately we have space to add another full bathroom that will become E's bathroom in the big hallway next to the master bath. 

The picture below shows the hallway area, which is to the left outside her bedroom door. That open door will be walled off, and then another wall will be added perpendicular to that to make it an enclosed room. It will make the hallway a little darker because that window will now be in her bathroom, but I think it's okay.

E's bathroom will be a sweet little room for a sweet little girl - some retro touches with an adorable wallpaper including scenes of Paris. I'm so excited for this room to come together and hope she loves it:









Every older house I've ever seen has a laundry in the basement. It's not the worst thing in the world, but here we had a unique opportunity to move the laundry up to the bedroom level, so we're seizing it!  You can see the built-ins that were in place to the right in the picture above, and here's a closer shot of them:  

This would have been nice for storage, but I think I'll love a nice laundry right outside my bedroom door even more. So, these are getting torn out, and rebuilt to look something like this:  



A couple of small cabinets for the essentials, a shelf over the W&D for folding clothes, and a small space to hang things that air-dry. It won't be an enormous laundry room, but I am still thrilled at the prospect of not having to carry baskets up three levels every time I do laundry!

Lastly, the master bedroom. It's a large room with an interesting L-shaped layout which I think will lend itself to a nice sitting area in addition to the usual dressers and bed. 

This the room I've put the least amount of thought into in terms of how it will be decorated at this point. This is because I'm really torn - I love the light and airy look, but also like bedrooms to be a little more cozy and dark. So, we'll see where this one lands. I think phase 1 will be to just move our existing furniture and decor in, then I'll tweak it over time as I figure out what the design vision is for this space. 

There's also a nice, big closet that just needs some California Closets built-ins, paint, and new carpet to become really functional and most importantly, shareable, by both of us. Rarely do you see such big closets in older houses, so this was another sign that we should snap this house up! 

That completes the upstairs tour! Next time, on to the basement!