apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Wow. Just Wow. Seriously amazing job. I would have thought this bathroom 15K plus. Beautiful!

holy moly that's pretty! the tile wall is inspired, and the faucet...love it! i'm also totally fascinated by the marine vinyl. do you have any links or recs on where to buy? it's really a stunning room! good for you, too, on the DIY...i'm alll about it! unlike many folks who renovate while on some spa vacation, i actually cancelled a vacation to be a part of the project! love getting my hands dirty :)

I love the tile! What did you use to get the glass to stick to it?

I so want a japanese soaking tub.

wow. nice work. i'm most curious about that soaking tub though, is there more pictures of that? that's included in the 3K cost? i would think that would practically be that much by itself.

That is spectacular tilework. You've created a wonderful bathroom.

Man this is fab. I'd love to see more pictures of the tub. The wall tile & floor in the shower is inspired.

Wow! How fun it would be to start the day with a shower here. And to end the day with a soak...

This is really inspiring.

Your tile job is really incredible--I'm also really curious about how the glass "gobs" are attached to the ceramic tile. And the tub! Wow.

wow - awesome tile.

About 6 years ago (when I was just freshman in HS), this was what I was trying to get at when my mom said I could paint my bathroom! Well, you just made my day, because now its time to add tile in the tub. Who says bubble tile is "too busy"! Not this one!

very creative. i wish i could do things to my place, but it would break my lease.

THIS IS WHAT I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR!

I'm envious of the space you have because you can do all the things that I wish I could do. Open shower, free-standing soaking tub with lots of floor space still. Kick ass!

I'm curious who you had pour the concrete. Was it a place known for doing concrete or was a contractor that made up forms on site. Did you use any aggregate in the vanity? It's hard to tell on the photo. It looks like you used some sort of sealer on it too. I'm going to have my sink vanity cut from Indiana Bedford Stone (limestone slabs) so it will have a similar look as concrete but less fabrication. You're fortunate to have the ability to utilize full-depth Ikea kitchen cabinets. I just put together the same ones (abstrakt white) for a bar in a hall closet which is going to be topped with another slab of limestone.

Can you explain how you did the tilework in the shower?

Great job!

drool.

So I went to this amazing woman's site and did some reading. wow. I bet you did freak the hell out of your subs. Even here in Austin where the men folk pride themselves on being more progressive, it's still the rare day I don't get a sideways glance from suppliers about this and that. But you are inspiring. I'm making your blog a regular read. Thank you!

Design-wise, this is beautiful. I have no doubt that it is wonderful to use. The fact that you designed it and did the work yourself is incredible. Absolutely fantastic!

WOW! YEAH!
awesome D.I.Y. tub!

OMG! A blog too, with lots DIY insight!

Uh oh, nobody tell my manager.

I literally just went "ooooooohhhhhh" at work. My coworker gave me a strange look and I turned the screen to show her. She went "oooooohhhhh" as well..so nice job! It looks amazing.

I totally love this!!! You should be very proud!

P.S. I forgot to mention how impressed I am that you did this on the budget you had - so creative, and talented! I so love that Japanese soaking tub, and your sconces are terrific. Very well done all around!

there's a post about the soaking tub on her blog! and her bloggy blog is very cool, too. love all the photos of your home, it's really quite gorgeous!

this is seriously incredible. i ran acrossed your blog before and forgot about it. thank god i found it again.
amazing.

this is gorgeous and wonderful and now i know what i want my future bathroom to be (when i can actually do something with my bathroom...) thank you for such a delightful design! now i'm off to read your blog...

Spatgirl,
You rock, that is the most beautiful bathroom I've ever seen. How do you get into the tub?

This is very cool! Thank you for sharing it.

way sexy

Wow. This is so humbling. You did this yourself? I hate you and yet I am in awe of your obvious wonderfulness. Fantastic bathroom.

Impressive is such an understatement. this is the first bathroom that I will admit to being rendered speechless and just a bit breathless to. It is gorgeous and to have done it on such a low budget gives me hope that I too can do my small bathroom on a small budget too.

Mozel tov

also,
did you use any water reducer in the concrete?

Did you lay some of that plastic material in your shower floor before you tiled it? I was wondering how easy that process is. I forgot what the material is called but it goes down after the floor has been sloped towards the drain to create a waterproof seal. Or did you not have to use it because you are on concrete?

You also opened my eyes up to new posibilities for my sink vanity. I kept passing up pieces (the very same ikea locker cabinet) because the depth is too shallow. But keeping it a few inches off the wall gives you the appearance of greater depth and keeps the shutoffs outside the cabinet! The countertop against the wall finishes the appearance of your desired depth. Thank you!

Forgive my prying, but how did you learn your skills?

b-t-w, do you think I could use the vinyl as a shower wall, maybe over a mildew resistant paint?
I am truly amazed at your use of cheaper materials, I really admire your creativity.
Maxwell, this was a phenomenal find, is there a reward you can give these folks.

You are my hero! This is the raddest bathroom I have ever seen.

This really is an awesome bathroom! Only if the bathtub were bigger though!

This is a perfect example of why I visit apartmenttherapy, and I'm sorry to say, examples like this are few and far between.

Not only is this bathroom gorgeous, but splatgirl provides all of her sources, and created this vision for around 3K. This is the polar opposite of the "Look at how much money I have and what my designer did" options that I see all to often here. God, just think about that other bathroom submission of the person who didn't even design her bathroom, she just moved into the Starck pre-designed loo!

Kudos to you Splatgirl.

That ... is the coolest bathroom I've ever seen. Way to go!

i love the contrast of the glass with the stark white tiles and how it looks like a giant stream of water pouring down the wall... how pretty!

I came to ask how you adhered the glass gobs to the tile, too... seems like that's a popular question! My guess is that you used something like E-6000 (a silicone adhesive), and used tape over them while they dried? Or perhaps you glued the gobs before you did the tile work...

Gorgeous, gorgeous room.

this is so awesome. love the shower heads and the tub and the color scheme and EVERYTHING.

oh, man. its like a hotel.

mornings must have become a heck lot better! :)

Now this is AT! Beatiful, bodacious, badass on a budget!

beautiful that is

No way. This is just amazing. Ditto what everyone else said.

You don't know the color of the paint tho?

Wow. I'm the one who's speechless. Thank you so much for all the lovely comments. It really is my favorite room in our house and, despite the fact that it was a ton of work, I had a great time putting it together.

To answer some of the questions:
The marine vinyl I bought online from a boat hardware type of dealer. I don't recall who exactly but probably wherever I found that had the best prices. It costs more, but I wanted the marine type because it is clearer and distorts less which was sort of my whole point. I wanted something with as little visual impact as possible. I hung the panels with stainless eyehooks and turnbuckles and those posterhanger things, the details of which I intend to get to on my blog one of these days. I figure this saved me at least a couple of thousand dollars over glass panels and I like the look better anyway.

As you may have figured out already, I designed and built the form for the concrete tub myself and poured it with my SO and a couple of friends. It was a s**tload of work to say the least. The raw materials were maybe $200, including the form, 50 bags of Quikcrete 5000 and some rebar. I have no idea what someone would charge to make one of these for you, but I'd guess in the several thousand dollar range, but certainly for that you'd get a much more perfect result.
I got one of those nifty bent ply stools from Target to use for a step to get in and out. The seat inside the tub is about 15" high...
I didn't use water reducer for this project. After this adventure we formed and poured about 100 square feet of countertop and I used water reducer, microfibers, carbon fiber grid and rebar in those.

The tile:
I treated the glass globs just like tile in that they were thinsetted to the wall (and floor) individually just like you'd do with any other material. I experimented with gluing them to mesh first with the hope that I could do all of that off-site and then just set them like regular mesh back mosaic tile. That ended up not working because I could see the mesh through the glass, so I had to set every single one individudually. I think the floor alone took me a solid week to set, and I wanted to cry about halfway through. Come to think of it, I did cry, but it was worth it!
I used Kerdi for waterproofing the shower walls and floor which is the orange stuff someone mentioned. There's also a bench in the shower, built from wood and then Kerdi'd.

There are more pictures of the room in progress in my Flickr set titled "Modern in MN"
I also have a set there that's specifically about pouring the tub.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/splatgirl/

I should say that I knew nothing about building a tile shower or a bathroom (or building a house for that matter) when we started any of this. I'm just a regular girl who, along with a regular guy who also knew nothing, decided she wanted something cool and wasn't afraid to learn and to work for it. I also have an insatiable thirst for knowledge and I can't live without having at least four projects in progress at any given time.

Again, thanks for all the great comments. Honestly, my whole point with this submission was to show that you don't need a bajillion dollars to have something cool. No offense to the big budget peeps who go all out, but I really think you can achieve something much more interesting and creative when you're forced to think outside the box instead of just saying "gimme". Not that I don't oogle the 3K toilets and 40K tile jobs, but as I've said here before, having a lot of money has a tendency to make one creatively lazy, which, to me = boring.
And I get sick of stuff, too, and I don't want to feel like I can never change something because I spent a fortune on it.
Really though, getting something cool on a budget is the basis of everything I do, including my entire homebuilding project.

Again, thanks for all the great comments!

Wowee, wow, wow, wow!!!! Fabulous!!!!! I love the wall color, too. What paint brand and shade is it?

must be on a budget in the bath cuz the FOUR MOTORCYLCES in the "BIKE ROOM" ate up all your disposable income, huh?

and your sconces are hung too high

OMG!!! I love, love, love it!!! Great Job. Incredible!

Inspiring!!

WOW!!!

thanks for sharing all that info!!!! i'm excited about all of my projects AGAIN.

great tile job, very very nice mix and multiple kudos on the concrete pours.

damn i'm impressed!!!

Perhaps I have no taste but I find this bathroom bizarre.....no doubt you went to alot of trouble and expense to create it but it isn't my style....what is that blob of bubbles on the wall of the shower supposed to be?

I though that when you had tile premounted onto mesh, that the mesh was on the face (not the base) of the tile, and removed once the tile was set... but you said the mesh would have been visible underneath the glass tiles... I'm confused...

And to me, this is a bathrrom as unattainable as if you had spent $70,000... since there is very little chance I'm going to be (for example) doing my own concrete forming any time soon. Inspiring, yes. Realistic (for me)? Nope.

And "DIY" seems to be a magic word here, since the crowd is not mentioning some of the things they nomrally do, and find unrelateable... for example, this is a HUGE bathroom in what seems to be a HUGE house... and while budget does seem to have been implemented throughout, there do seem some areas of this household where budget is *not* a concern...

None of this takes away from the resourcefulness or creativity or ultimate beauty of the outcome of this room... just interesting to me the reaction.

Style should be about expression. There are a few things in this bathroom that I would change, little things, but the fact that you had the courage to go for it, to move beyond the safe, secure, and the norm, deserves mucho praise and admiration.

So did you have to cut the white tile to fit around the blobs you'd already set? - how did you do that and get round shapes??

This is amazing. What a fantastic example of innovative and unique design. So refreshing!

Awesome!

That is a spectacular bathroom. If I ever renovate a bathroom, I hope I will have the creativity, courage, and perserverance to create an original space like yours. You have truly opened our minds to the possibilities. Thank you for sharing your project with us.

I think that if I were doing a bathroom from scratch instead of working with what I get, which is what I tend to do, I'd probably WANT to do something like this.

Patrick

thatas the normal way to do glass mosaic, with a paper piece on the face that gets removed after installation. On stone or ceramic that you can't see through the mesh is stuck on the back. Easier to see what you're doing at install and eliminates the step of removing the facing. Remember that the glass globs only have one flat surface on the back and that they are different sizes and thicknesses too. Makes putting the stuff on the face not very reliable as far as holding position, I would think.

Like the end product or not, huge house or not, it's commendable that splatgirl has used her creativity to create a bathroom to her liking AND done it herself AND done it on a budget.

Personally, I really like the end product, but one doesn't have to in order to benefit from the ideas and creativity. As far as this being in a house much larger than the apartments most NYC people live in, not ALL of us who read and participate in this blog live in NYC and we can all benefit from the ideas splatgirl presents, even those in small apartments. So criticizing her for the fact she lives in a house and has a room just for her motorcycles is just uncalled for.

I say kudos to you, splatgirl, for creating such a great end product on such a minimal budget!

Hey, splatboy - stop hating. Either appreciate this lady's fine work, or don't comment.

Absolutely Amazing!!!! Thanks for sharing :-)

First off, I love the bathroom. Absolutely. Thanks so much for sharing it with us!

(Disclaimer: I'm hardly intimate with the details and specifics of AT)

Second, I find myself inspired, encouraged, but ultimately frustrated with this post. As an apartment dweller, I can't help but look longingly at this project and think about how wonderful it would be if I owned a home and could put something from this into action. Unfortunately I'm bound by a lease.

I appreciate all the hard work that went into this, and would love to have one for my own. I also particularly enjoy posts where people show what they do/can do within the confines of apartment living.

Mies Van Der Rohe designed skyscrapers but we use his minimilist ideas in our 250 s.f. studios, 500 s.f. apartments, 1000 s.f. condos, 2000 s.f. lofts, 4000 s.f. houses, 40 story high-rises and international airport terminals.

Splatgirl earned what is probably a beautiful piece of land in MN and built her own house relative to the size of the land.

Her entire huge bathroom cost less than a Mies Van der Rohe daybed.

Knoweledge and ideas are free. Products, land, space, contractors and materials cost money and it's up to you to choose how to spend it. What things are worth depends on where you are. Not everyone wants to live in a polluted city. What's the alternative. Land. What can you do with it? Build a McMansion or build a concrete loft house. I know which one Mies would like.

I like to learn from peoples' ideas and projects and apply them to whatever space I am fortunate enough to have. And as Splatgirl has shown, if you want to save money you'd better get your hands dirty because everytime a stranger steps into your house you're going to pay them money.

I love the tiling in your bathroom. Amazing amazing amazing!

Well, Zekko, the reality that owners can do more than renters is always with us *sob*... If I were giddy with love for this design, I'd be running out to look for a shower curtain that gives something like that bubble-glass effect, plus some sleek accessories.

No, the results aren't the same, but when you rent in a non-rent-control region, all you can do with the bathroom is accessorize (without rent control, real rehab is not cost-effective), so you have to be happy with references to the larger "look." Basically, you find a couple dramatic reference points (usually the shower curtain is one) and hope they distract from whatever bores you about the room.

I speak as one who'd have a talavera sink if we owned, but since we rent, I have talavera accessories arranged nicely on the faux-granite formica.

Zekko -
Welcome to AT! There's all kinds of folks living in everything from "vaguely small" to "relatively small" to "actually small" spaces who log on here.

I'm not sure what the proportion is of people who own vs. people who rent here, but it's really a great place for all those people to exchange ideas about sprucing up their homes on whatever scale they can. Lots of the best ideas come from people who rent. I own, but it's still an apartment, so it's still a fairly limited space; mine is a co-op.

Our fearless leader is Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan, who actually kind of makes house calls. One of the satellite sites here is Apartment Therapy - The Kitchen which is hosted by his gorgeous other half, Sara Kate, and is not about restaurants, it's about cooking food at home (and generally assmuing that you do NOT have a commercial kitchen!)

I'm not any official kind of greeter or anything, but I didn't want you to languish too long not knowing some stuff that would make you know that you're in the right place. Stick around; poke around; have a look at the House Tours (including mine, hee hee) which are at the upper right icon.

That's all I'll say for now, or this will get too long.

Sublime! And the glass bubble tiles must be splendid underfoot. So inspiring!

The bathroom is 9' x 11'. I don't consider that huge. Really, I had to fend of quite a bit of crap for designing it that "small". Large by apartment standards, probably yes, but in a single family home, about half the size of most people's walk in closets....which I don't have.

For the people that asked about the paint, the label says:
Behr, Gallon-Deep base
D-thalo green 1oz
E-thalo blue 8oz
KX-white 2oz

Violetsrose: It appears splatgirl absolutely did cut the bubble shapes around all those white tiles. The flickr set shows the process - the glass went on first, before the tile. My head is swimming...I'd have cried too, repeatedly.

I really am speechless, otherwise. So so beautiful. I can not imagine how proud you must be about the finished product, and the whole home, and wow, yourself too. Stupefying.

Splatgirl, congratulations on your incredibly successful bathroom! I have never had a bathroom even close to that size in the 15+ homes that I've lived in, but your project still gives me inspiration for trying something more edgy in my bathroom (which is tiny but I own my apt.). What I take away from this bathroom:

- excellent mix of textures - this can be hard to achieve in a bathroom

- bright *and* colourful - a great example of the Maxwell's 80/20 colour rule (approximately anyway)

- tiles are where people tend to play it safe, but in this bathroom the risk has really paid off because it's delightfully shocking to not see just the standard tile job

- incorporating organic-looking lines into the design really makes a difference - breaking away from the boxiness of bathroom fixtures combined with tile grids really brings an unexpected interest to the bathroom

Thanks so much for sharing!

Oh My Gosh. I cannot imagine that much tile-cutting. But worth it? Yes.

oh! I am insanely jealous! absolutely beautiful, nice work!

I couldn't find anything in the Flkr set that showed cut-out holes for the glass tile within the wall tiles... did I miss it?

And, um, how exactly do you cut a circle out of a tile? Maybe a drill with a diamond bit?

I think the the blue glass circles are just stuck on top of the white ceramic tiles, not within them.

P2-
She applied the blue tiles first then added the white ones:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/splatgirl/224608777/in/set-185957/

Splatgirl,
I know this is supposed to be about bathrooms but after viewing all of your flickr photos I have seen too much to keep my focus on only the bathroom.

You did a remarkable job on your kitchen design. You've got commercial firepower and the ventilation to support it. I couldn't tell if you have a backsplash behind the range but if there isn't, one might keep your wall in good shape. Especially with the cool pot filler!

Is that countertop section off to the side next to the pantry cabinets made from wall cabinets? I was wondering because they look to be shallower than regular base cabs. But then again they look deeper than 12".

If there are any secrets you can give to any of us who would love to pour concrete countertops I'd be very grateful.

Finally, your use of technicolor like paint works so well with your space. But I have to say that the way that yellow/green on the back door pops is really, really cool against the house and with the grass. It looks like you get some nice sun back there. Garden? Produce? Recipes?

Thanks, Ksenia.
Still don't understand how you cut circles out of the tile (that white tile had to "wrap" the blue, no?)

who makes that "halo" faucet in your master bathroom? fab design, read the blog and watched the flicker slide show. you are my muse. your blog is now a daily read.

This is depressing. However much money I make, I will never, as hard as I try, have a room this amazing. You should do this as a career. (In my house). Well done Splatgirl.

Again, thanks for all the great comments!

I CANNOT, for the life of me, decide what to do about a backsplash in the kitchen. My current thinking is I will put *something* that stretches the width of the hood from the range top to the ceiling. What that something is, I have no idea. I change my mind weekly. I have also considered tiling or otherwise treating the enitre range wall. Fortunately, BM kitchen & bath paint washes extremely well in the mean time...

The cabinets next to the pantry are 12" deep wall cabinets, yes.

Our flat roof was intended to accommodate a greenroof and garden at some point in the future. Right after we find enough pennies for the ~26" spiral stair to get up there. Donations gladly accepted :)

Backyard landscaping and a DIY outdoor pizza oven/fireplace are on the agenda for this summer.

The bathroom faucets are "Oasa" brand, via Ebay, for whatever that's worth.

I get questions about DIYing concrete countertops quite regularly, so I think I'll just devote a blog post to it sometime soon...

Maybe some sort of glass or transparent backsplash?

When you get to the outdoor fireplace I could put you in touch with my Dad if you need any bricklaying advice. He's an expert mason. He's built a bunch of barbecues and outdoor kitchens out of brick and stone. He's also doing all of my tile work (electrical, plumbing, carpentry...) He'll really get a kick out of your shower.

Keep up the good work and I'll be checking out your blog for updates!

Great looking bathroom. The tilework is amazing. I really love the creative sourcing of materials and the diy concept.
It has a lot of similarities to a bathroom we renovated a few years ago but our final tally was a lot more than $3k.
http://flickr.com/photos/tandemracer/53278199/in/set-787686/
http://flickr.com/photos/tandemracer/35599481/in/set-787686/

More info on the entire project in her blog:

http://livemodern.com/Members/splatgirl/blog

outstanding work!

and also on her own mirror site:

http://moderninmn.blogspot.com/

This is the most amazing bathroom ever. If i could have achieved that for an additional 1,500--I would have!

WELL. DONE.

Splatgirl!
Thank you for sharing views of your bathroom and the rest of your abode. Your taste is absolutely delicious! I would glad pay to housesit for you! Looking forward to more on your blog.

Hey Slatgirl,
I am looking to do the same thing, where did you find that blue bubbled product or is it even available for purchase?

I bookmarked your tub construction when you first posted it. Room looks great finished! We are about to build our own soaking tub but I am concerned that concrete would suck heat from the water even though we have radiant floor heating. What is your experience, does the water stay hot? We keep going back and forth between concrete and buying a used, steel hydrotherapy tub for $200 and just using the tub part (probably much easier and faster install). Would love to get your opinion in hindsight.

I feel like the water stays plenty hot, although this was a concern for me initially so for the first few uses I filled it with straight hot and then spent the next 20 minutes trying to cool it off enough to be able to get in. And In the summer, we have found the heat sucking effect of the concrete and a tub full of lukewarm to cool water to be a welcome means of cooling off.
I know there is such a thing as small, recirculating heaters for ofuro in Japan, and I vaguely recall seeing them online someplace(s). Something to consider if you're looking to keep things nice and toasty for a looooong time.
Honestly my biggest complaint is the guilt over feeling like its excessively wasteful of water.

Thank you for your quick reply to my post. You helped me make the decision to buy this used therapy tub!:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEBTOX:IT&item=330159028147&_trksid=p3984.cTODAY.m238.lVI

Now the challenge will be to refinish it. I think the size is perfect and if we build in a seat we will be using much less water than a regular tub. I don't know if we need to box it in for extra insulation, but I think we'll try it free standing to start.

It will be a few months but I'll post the results when we're done. Thanks again,
Lynne
http://www.designbyphoto.com/www/Index.html