City Condominium Renovation

Michael K. Wilkinson Though the footprint of the hall bath did not change, we did gut the entire room. The client had the idea of a classic black and white look for this bathroom. The designer added add interest with a thin black border on the white tile chair rail. The same thin border was also used on the floor to create a basket weave tile inset. A strip of Absolute Black granite tops off the white knee wall that separates the tub and toilet. Relocating plumbing is always a challenge in existing apartments. That is why we try to work with existing stacks and pipes. In this case, the new tub filler faucet was relocated 12-inches from the existing location and placed on the knee wall. To accommodate the small footprint of the bathroom we used a 24-inch pedestal sink, round (not elongated) toilet and tub that is 4-feet 6-inches long (rather than a 5-foot standard tub. However, the new tub is 32-inches wide (the old one was narrower) which is more convenient for a shower tub. A frosted glass panel was placed on the knee wall to give the owners privacy while taking a shower—as you can see the window is across from the tub. A new showerhead was reinstalled in place of the existing one. We used a special rod with a cap–in addition to its use as a curtain rod, it also acts as a support for the glass panel.