BATHS / THE PRIMARY BATH

In This Victorian Bath, Tumbled Marble Meets Bold Blue Stone

We stretched a five-foot-wide bathroom across the full width of the house, pairing a tumbled checkerboard floor with custom blue marble vanities and the original shuttered windows.

‍

It started as a bathroom five feet wide. We took it across the full width of this Victorian townhouse, which made room for two vanities, a freestanding tub and daylight on both sides.

Softening the checkerboard

A polished marble checkerboard can look like a hotel lobby. We used tumbled Carrara and grey limestone instead, so the pattern reads softer and older, closer to the house than to a showroom. The same tumbled marble continues into the shower.

The checkerboard is classic. The tumbled finish is what makes it feel lived in.

Two vanities, one stone

We designed both vanities for this room: thick tops and integrated basins in Explosion Blue, a Turkish marble with sweeping pale veins, on reeded wood bases. Nothing off the shelf, and nothing quiet.

The shutters stayed

The windows still have their original shutters and hardware, stripped and refinished. We arranged the vanities so each one gets daylight. However new the room is, the shutters remind you how old the building is.

Brass and light

Brass fittings, a rain shower on a long gooseneck arm, alabaster sconces and an alabaster-and-brass bowl chandelier finish the room. The walls and ceiling are soft Roman Clay, so the stone does the talking.

SOURCES & MAKERS