This project marks the transition from Redneckmodern to Norcalmod ... it's been a long time coming, but in short: Redneckmodern was always meant to be about our renovation, not yours...
However, as things grew, my efforts became yours. Then Norcalmod came along to house the custom furniture that I began to build. Earlier this year, I decided to separate the two a bit: Redneckmodern = me / Norcalmod = you... and Vanessa and John's bathroom remodel is the first project wrapped since that transition... I'll still be making furniture, but now taking on a good bit more under the Norcalmod nameplate.
Welcome to the newly expanded Norcalmod.
[The "before" shot. John handled the demolition. Busting out a 60-year-old cast shower pan was no easy task.]
[The "after" shot.]
Now, on to the project: What started off as a more modest renovation grew into something a bit more complex as we peeled back the layers of past renovations and discovered both issues and opportunities: some bad electrical, some opportunities for additional built-in storage, and a few other extras that followed the "while we're already there" idea. Vanessa and John made all of the right decisions along the way, balancing long-term quality with practicality. Of course, this pushed timelines, budgets, and patience... but everyone persevered, and the project turned out quite well.
The design inspiration is all Vanessa. With deep roots in retail design/furniture, she knew what she wanted and she has a great eye for detail, pattern, and style. John stepped in as overall project manager (and demo expert) seeing as — when the project started — Vanessa was 7-months pregnant. I came in as "implementer": hired hammer, wrench, brush, nail-gun, trowel and general hands... and impromptu design collaborator as we added a few bits here and there as opportunities arose.
One of these was the addition of walnut as an accent material. Vanessa knew she wanted something different than the typical IKEA vanity top and we discussed a few ideas. She sourced the (gorgeous) walnut butcher-block and from there, the idea of adding a good bit of walnut as a detail element emerged including a built-in walnut cupboard that backs to a walnut closet built-in unit that replaced an awkward plywood medicine cabinet that had been cut into the wall years earlier.
This extended to the custom-made (in the Norcalmod workshop) walnut mirror and — one of my favorite parts — the "walnut" accented shower niche and window sill. Of course, wood in the shower isn't a great idea and requires a lot of care/upkeep, but on a materials outing, I spotted some intriguing "walnut" toned tile. I'd never considered this material before simply because it is trying to be something it's not (tile as wood), but in this application, it was the perfect solution... it carried through the walnut tone and added the bonus of being completely impervious to water: great for both the shower and the window sill.
In the shower, the niche ended up being a bit shallow (as they all typically are) and I had the idea of extending it a few inches by creating an aluminum-trimmed tray which made the perfect bed for the walnut tile. The serendipity of the alignment of the shelf that the mirror creates and the shelf in the shower was too much to ignore and the alignments fell into place.
We echoed the aluminum and walnut on the window sill which coordinated with the new Milgard Aluminum window we installed.
When we started the project, one bit of advice I gave them was: It's great if you can get a great material, but the most important part is — "Can you get more tomorrow if you need more?" ... Keeping this in mind, they sourced all of the materials from local and big-box suppliers making sure that materials were never more than a day or two away. This really helped as there were no delays due to materials issues throughout the project. Even the amazing geometric floor tile (laid on top of Ditra — another wise choice) was only a few days out if we needed more. Fortunately, we never had to leverage this, but another project I had been working on was put on hold for a few months while replacement materials were being sorted out — this is never a fun place to be.
[The ledge of the mirror was designed to be able to house small items and is aligned with the walnut-toned ledge in the shower — creating an in/out + wet/dry symmetry.]
[4X12 subway tile (Daltile) with Platinum-colored grout serves as a nice, neutral backdrop for the shower]
[The aluminum trim-detail and walnut-toned tile is carried through to the window sill. We were contemplating using solid walnut, but maintenance issues were a concern... so tile won out.]
[The aluminum trim accents the new Milgard aluminum, low-e, tempered, privacy window nicely. The original window was difficult to remove. It seems the original flange-fit windows were mounted to the house before the siding was installed making removal very difficult. The new window was installed with modern "bituthene"-style flashing for weatherproof permanence. Many other Eichler models use block-fit windows which are a good bit easier to remove/replace. With everything open, it was a good time to add both ventilation and an exterior light.]
[We still have to install the shelves, but the custom walnut cupboard with frosted plexiglass and walnut door will be a welcome addition to the bathroom which is otherwise devoid of storage. A previous owner had cut into the wall to install a similar, but very crude cabinet — hacking into the electrical and burying dangerous electrical inside of the wall (now fixed)... You never know what you're going to uncover in a renovation.]
[Vanessa sourced this gorgeous butcher block which became the inspiration for many of the details in the final design and implementation.]
[The back-side of the bath cabinet opens into the walk-in closet and becomes a closet built-in unit. The lower portion will house wire-basket drawers from Elfa while the upper portion is shallow with just a few shelves (backing up to the bath cupboard). The decision to make this out of walnut plywood and solid walnut trim instead of painted plywood was easy when you factor in the fact that the walnut is not that much more expensive nor labor intensive to work with yet yields a much nicer end product which will age a good bit more gracefully than painted wood.]
In the end, the project included/used:
- Updated, GFCI-protected electrical
- Panasonic Bath Fan
- Exterior lighting
- Exterior power outlet
- Densgard tile backer
- Dawn tile-insert line drain
- Daltile 4X12 subway tile (walls)
- Merola Twenties Diamond tile (floor)
- Ditra uncoupling membrane (under floor tile)
- Custom walnut mirror
- Custom walnut cupboard/closet built-in
- Milgard Aluminum-series window
- American Standard Green-Tea shower trim package
- IKEA Godmorgon Vanity
- IKEA Tornviken vessel sink
- IKEA Dalskar Faucet
- Valspar Optimus Paint
- Maipei Ultracolor-plus grout (Silver) — floors
- Custom Polyblend Non-sanded grout (Platinum) — walls
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