settling in

We have been living in the apartment portion of the house for about a month now and it's hard to put into words how it feels.  All the decisions and details have come together and the apartment lives very comfortably.  The diagonal views out the windows look out to our garden as well as the neighboring garden.  The light is Vita Lighting Cuna Pendant Light.   After a couple intense days of adjustment,  Chessie finally settled in and found her go to spot...of course in the sun.

Eventually, we will have a way of covering the TV whether it's a blind or a pair of doors.

We were a little short on our layout for the backsplash, so we added glass tiles between the 4x12 white tiles.  I am really happy with how it turned out.  A simple way to dress up $2 / SF tile.  The countertops are Wilsonart laminate over Apple Ply.  Custom maple cabinets with a light white tint added to the finish.  Stove is Blomberg and the fridge is LG, both 24" wide and deep. 

 The lights are Astron from Rejuvenation.

The apartment is 530 SF with one bedroom.  The extra deep drawers below take advantage of the space under the stairs leading up to the rest of the house.  The sliding door hardware came from Home Depot.

apartment bathroom tile

Just waiting on grout!  Thinking of white epoxy grout on the white tiles and switching to a gray grout to blend more with the glass tile.  We used a 4x12 white tile and 2x12 glass tile.  The glass tile was slightly smaller than the 4x12 so we brick set versus stack set like the white.  For the window liner, ledges, curb, and bench seat, we used a white quartz to reduce grout lines.

The red is the waterproofing.  Below we were evaluating how much overhang for the seat.  Decided on a flush condition...so no overhang.  The bench base is angled slightly back.

On the floor we are installing gray pebbles.  We both have put them in clients' homes for years and I've always wanted them.  We will also install them in our main upstairs bathroom shower.

aia seattle january open house - part one

Every other month tha AIA Seattle Chapter collaborates with Seattle Magazine's Northwest Home+Garden with an open house of an architecturally interesting home. This month it was over in Kirkland. These tend to not be my best photographs, because I don't like using the flash when so many other people are around and they are usually detail shots, for the same reason. The magazine has much better photos and more information about the home.

genesee home - bathroom

Even with it's compact size, I love our bathroom. A bathroom counter doesn't have to be that deep. Ours curves out to accommodate the sink, but narrows to 12" as it hits the cabinet. Inside the cabinet we have a plug to keep the toothbrushes and electric razer out of sight. I had pulled the door up 4" off the counter so that it would clear items on the counter.

The skylight is a perfect solution to bring in light, while maintaining privacy. In the summer it also allows for natural ventilation for the apartment. Much of our material and fixture inspiration for the new house comes from what we have done in our current home. We stacked the subway tiles here and used a grey grout. The splurge here was the Grohe shower combo. The tub is Americast.


Our newest addition is the photo of F1 2009 Champion Jenson Button. Since it's taken in the rain, we thought it was appropriate in the bath.


Black Honed granite and stainless steel undermount sink and faucet - I'm partial to the one lever handle on the faucet...especially in a main bathroom.


Lewis on the Toto wondering what I'm up to.

The Karina - grout

Our bathrooms are nearly complete and we are deciding on grout - type & color. The downstairs bathroom which is the white 4x16 stacked tile will be getting "Smoke Grey" by Laticrete. Here we are using regular cement grout. In the upstairs small bathroom where we also used the white 4x16 we are looking using white "Sauterne" epoxy grout. The same in the upper portion of the main bathroom. We decided to use the epoxy grout in these areas as well as the entire main bathroom shower because it is stain & mildew resistant.

For the darker tile floor and walls in the main we are deciding between a darker "Moss" and a lighter "Natural Grey". I'm leaning towards the darker. I like how it picks up on some of the dark streaks in the tile and I think it won't stand out as much.

The Karina - tile progress

The tile is about half way done. It is exciting to see it come together. I'm really happy with our choices so far. In the 2 smaller bathrooms we went with a darker floor tile than original picked out. The lead time on the other was 3-4 weeks...we should have ordered it the day we first choose it...but we didn't, so we went with one that was readily available. We all (including the tile guy, Peter) love the 4x16 tile we are using in both showers. Downstairs we are stack setting it and upstairs we are brick laying it.

The grout has not been applied yet, but we are going with a light grey grout, so it will be a very similar look to this. The accent tiles here are Carrara marble. (same marble used to carve Michelangelo's "David")

We had one more tile to decide on, so at lunch yesterday I took the truck to Seattle Tile to pick up our floor tile and choose the white tile for our main bathroom. These are 18x18 and I hopefully they are starting on them today, because I can't wait to see how they look. In the main and lower bathroom we went with a diagonal layout and the upstairs little bathroom, we kept it square.

The Karina - main bathroom

This is our main bathroom on the second floor with the shower to the right and tub deck to the left. The red is the waterproofing the tile guy put on. I have been back and forth to the tile stores many days deciding on the floor tile that will run up the tub deck to the just above the window sill (as shown on the left). It will then change to a white - possibly - marble.

The large tile in the background is the tile we are going with. It is a through body porcelain which means that the color on top runs through the entire tile. It runs about $6.80 sqft - retail - that is for the 18x18. Other porcelains are usually glazed on the top with a pattern or darker color. We did find a great tile like that for around $2.50 sqft, but we didn't like the edge detail. The tile guy will be finishing the edge himself on the tub deck and there just was too much contrast between the top coat and the body. See below:

bathroom inspiration - tubs & showers

In our main upstairs bathroom, we will have a similar tub/shower layout as this:

In the smaller upstairs bathroom, we are doing something similar with building the bench. It's a simple way to add more room in a shower, and save money by using a standard size shower pan.

This is a bathroom by my firm Ross Chapin Architects...love the light filled bathing area.

Now this is a soaking tub...

We have been seeing these in more homes:

bathroom inspiration - more sinks & tile

I was going through my photo library last night and didn't realize how many bathrooms I had photographed that use a vessel sink. I'm leaning towards a semi-recessed vessel for the upper bath. Something like this:

but I do love these:

and this one is similar to what I want to use for the downstairs bathroom, but as a pedestal. The mix of materials and colors in this bathroom is what we are going for. simple - clean - modern - classic

I like the striped tile floor here:

This one is a bit more traditional but I really like mix of circle sizes and the accent color.