I’ve picked up a new project here on our beautiful Sonoma Coast.  The house is a bit like Sonoma Barn meets the ocean.  Vaulted ceilings, beautiful redwood paneling and views of our rugged coastline make up the bones of this house.

The main motive for this renovation is to open up the living space to take advantage  of the views while updating the kitchen and bathrooms.  But, by opening up the floor plan we will severely limit the space for the master bathroom…and…one of the most important returns on any investment in todays home renovation market are bathrooms.  Not necessarily size, but definitely the luxuriousness of the appointments.  One of my favorite looks has always been the wet room, and this is the look I want to create!

The Long Barn Studio, designed by Nicholas Tye Architects

Technically a wet room is a shower within a bathroom with a barrier-free floor, level with its surroundings. Originally, the wet room was only a shower room. And while we’ve seen wet rooms develop into much more than that, the shower remains a central component. The shower area is open, usually at one end of the room, or partially sectioned off with a wall or screen. Double showers are a popular feature of wet rooms.

One reason a house owner may consider a wet room is to save space. In a small room the shower tray and walls can restrict the usable space in the bath. By removing the shower walls there is more space in the room and when used as a shower the bathing space is also increased.  By not having an enclosed shower you open up the smallest of bathrooms, allowing for a feeling of more space.

While wet rooms or wet baths have been popular in Europe for ever it is fast becoming the latest trends here in the States.

I’ve been researching how to design a fabulous wet room for my clients and I came across these great tips from  Homes & Lifestyle Magazine in the UK

1. Consult a designer to ensure you create an effective wet room. The design is key.
2. Employ experienced tradesmen to create your wet room to avoid problems down the road.
3. Make sure that the water flow-waste is designed to be as far away from the door as possible.
4. It is essential that the room is properly tanked…in many European countries this is just a standard way to build.
5. Wet rooms are best fitted with wall hung sanitary ware and furniture – perfect to streamlined wet areas and they also make cleaning easier.
6. Choose non-porous bathroom tiles such as ceramic or porcelain because porous tiles, such as slate, marble and limestone need sealing every few months to prevent water damage.
7. You can install under-floor heating in the wet room as it will help dry the room faster.
8. Install a shower wand or hand-held shower if you are having a fixed shower head to make cleaning down the room easier.
9. Keep your heated towel rail as far away from the actual shower area as possible to avoid your towels getting wet.

To visit some of the best wet rooms out there check out the video below…and let me know what you think by leaving a comment!

Have a beautiful day…

Here is the the second in my series of switching my home office with my husband and going through the process as if we are my own client.

Like any client we have perimeters we need to work with-in:

• We have to be able to do it ourselves
• We have to use what we have between the two of us
• We can change the color of my new office, Ron has promised to paint!
• We have to be done with all of this in two weeks before my cousin comes to visit from Germany

1. The most important aspect for me as the designer is to understand the needs of “my clients” and the way they live in order to propose a plan where the  Energetics of Space™ in the two new offices will completely support each of us personally, functionally and beautifully.

Ron’s needs:

• A small desk to set up his laptop
• A table for his sound studio equipment
• His collection of guitars, at least some of them
• Shelving and filing space
• He likes the color in my current office so there is no need to paint, and the color helps brighten the space up

My needs:

• Lighting and color affect me a lot!  So this is crucial
• My large desk as it is also my work table currently
• I have a futon sofa that’s important as a “second guest” room
• A place to meditate
• Shelving and filing space

2. Next I drew up a floor plan to scale and placed the important pieces:

3. Then I got to choose the color for my office!  I want it work around a large piece of art that is a focal point.  So I went hunting for inspiration in magazines, blogs and books and found it in Tobi Fairley’s blog post on color inspiration thats just peachy.  I chose my version from Benjamin Moore, Coral Rock #32.  I’m changing out the drapes from his office (deep red velvet) with the curtains from our guest room (iridescent peach silk taffeta).  Because I love this iridescent effect, I am going to be bold and try glazing the wall with a bit of pearlescent/gold glaze…never having done this before it will be an experiment.  Here is the inspiring picture from Tobi’s post, by Katie Ridder.

4. Then I wrote up a timing and action plan for both my husband and I.  As Ron is really busy right now, his time is at a premium, so he’s a real trooper to help me out with this!

And we’re off!  Stay tune for Part 3…the outcome

Here are a couple of pictures of both Ron’s and my office as they are now, not bad, but will be fun to see the after pics.

Ron’s Office

My Office