Sunday, March 20, 2011

Custom Shower w/ Natural Rock Floor

This was a great job for many reasons. Since the "client" is a good friend, I (we) got to get really creative with the design. This is actually a complete renovation. New toilet, vanity, light, mirror and of course tile!
I did this feature band and feature "diamond" with 3/4 inch glass & travertine squares and framed it with travertine pencils the stick out to create sort-of ledge. Adds a lot of dimension to the overall design.
Here you can catch a glimpse of my custom soap dish. I make these out of field tile and face it off with a bullnose. If you've ever had problems finding one of those pre-made soap dishes because they never quite match the rest of your tile, you'll appreciate this technique.
Custom insert box or niche. This whole job started here. I wanted to get this lined up perfect. This took a lot of planning because you have to frame these boxes out with 2x4s in between the studs, then cover the framing with cement board, then water proof that and hope your measurements were accurate. If not, it takes a lot to take all that apart to re-frame it. I got lucky here. Or maybe I'm just good!

Custom Shower with natural rock floor 2

Below are more pics from the previous post.
This is a close up of the natural rock floor on the shower. There is a very slight slope for drainage. Looks and feels like your are walking in a shallow rocky creek in the woods. Great grout color to simulate sand.
Here is a shot of the main bathroom floor. I decided to do a diamond pattern to contrast the rectangles on the walls. Took more time, but was well worth it.
Hard to capture everything in these tight rooms. I tried to show the layout from inside the shower.
This a tile foyer that I installed months before the shower. It is actually the same tile that is in the shower, just different sizes and colors.
Wasn't sure how to address the diamond pattern with the closet, so I decided to just do the "brick" pattern in the closet to allow the diamond pattern to appear to be framed by a single darker tile. When the door is closed, it just looks like a dark brown frame. When you look inside, you see a charming brick layout.