A tranquil transformation

An outdated bathroom in a South Carolina residence was transformed into a tranquil escape with porcelain tile and natural stone.
Photos courtesy of Classic Designs Unlimited Inc.

Stephanie Smith is the owner of Classic Designs Unlimited Inc. in Calabash, NC. For the last decade, she has been helping homeowners bring their visions to life with a diverse range of materials, including tile, stone, hardwood and even carpet. For a couple of homeowners in North Myrtle Beach, SC -- located only 10 miles away -- she helped them transform their outdated master bathroom into a tranquil escape. “I try to feel out the clients to see what I can take off and run with,” Smith said. “My client knew she wanted large-format tiles on the floor and a white base, and the rest of it was, ‘Let’s figure it out.’”

The original bathroom had a glass block shower and an outdated aesthetic. “The biggest thing for the design of the layout was to get out the glass block and open it up so it could look and feel as large as possible,” explained the designer. “We were able to salvage the linear drain system, which worked out great. Then we added the Schluter Kerdi system in place with that drain, as well as Ditra-Heat. I don’t do a lot of radiant heating because it’s warm down here, but the adjoining powder room got so cold so the client wanted that.”

With a general color scheme in mind, Smith guided her clients to use neutral-toned porcelain tile on the floor and shower walls, with a chevron marble mosaic on the wet wall. “We knew we were going to use porcelain because of maintenance,” said Smith. “Having marble on a wall is okay, but having it on the floor is a different situation -- a lot more maintenance is required. I knew we were going back over a concrete subfloor once we ripped up the existing tile, so we wanted something durable and not brittle as you’re floating the floor to prevent lippage.”

For the tile selection process, Smith’s client came to her showroom in Calabash view the various options. “We were going to put down a quarter round, but we didn’t even need it because the floor is as flat as glass,” explained the designer. “We didn’t have to shim the counter either and that’s hard with 24- x 24-inch tiles.”

A Thassos marble mosaic in a chevron pattern creates a focal point on the wet wall to accent the stone-inspired porcelain tile on the adjacent walls and floors.

Approximately 105 square feet of 24- x 24-inch stone-inspired porcelain tile from Happy Floors in Miami, FL, was employed for the bathroom’s flooring, which emulates natural dolomite. A little more than 80 square feet of the same collection in a 12- x 24-inch format clads the shower walls, while the shower floor features a similar 2- x 2-inch mosaic, which complements the surrounding larger-format tiles.

For the wet wall, roughly 30 square feet of a Thassos marble mosaic in the color, “Cipollino,” was applied in a chevron pattern, which was supplied from Soho Studio in Brooklyn, NY. “We horizontally stacked them in what’s called a ‘straight stack,’” Smith said.

Before laying the tile, the team prepped all of the surfaces using Schluter-System’s Kerdi system. Schluter’s Ditra-Heat radiant heating system was also employed in order to ensure a long-lasting installation.

For the installation, Smith, alike many other designers, has her own team that completed the project. “We’ve all worked together for so long, it’s like a family,” she said of the 10-man team. “They’re all very trustworthy. They understand what I expect and I know that things happen and you’ve got to have grace for delays or setbacks.”

A dual-sink vanity fabricated from quartzite further contributes to the elegant look of the bathroom.