Shore Showhouse Makes Elegant Seaside Statement

The porcelain floor tiles from the butler’s pantry continue through the kitchen, and are peppered with random inserts of the Walker Zanger tile from the pantry. The large porcelain tiles also make quite a statement in the adjoining powder room. “I took the floor tiles and went up the walls of the powder room with them,” comments Lacroix. “This is the powder room that is off the back entrance and through which people will be coming in from the beach. So, I wanted the powder room to be as elegant as the kitchen and the butler’s pantry, but I also wanted it to be almost indestructible.”

While the Toto toilet fits this ideal, Lacroix admits to adding an element that was not indestructible – the vessel sink from Alchemy. “It’s sort of a blown glass, but it’s not as delicate,” she says. “It was painted to look like flames within the glass, in reds and greens.” The sink sits on a wrought iron stand that is finished in oil-rubbed bronze. Wall mounted faucets in an oil-rubbed bronze finish from California Faucets complement the stand.

Wall tiles that match the sink, also from Alchemy, were used to create a mirror surround for above the vessel. The same 4"x4" wall tiles were also inserted as decos into the porcelain wall tiles for added effect. “So, my 21"x21" wall tile wasn’t quite as boring as it might sound,” offers Lacroix.

Shared Ideas
The recreation of two bathrooms on the main floor was the assignment for Chaz Scholtz, owner, CSZ Designs of Williamstown, NJ. The baths were located around the corner from each other, and shared a common wall.

Drawing from the client’s penchant for the Tuscan look, and in keeping with the style of the house – with its broken tile and textured walls – Scholtz chose a look that was warm and not too heavy for the front bathroom.

“We used a square accent tile in a putty color with a rose tone around the room. The border tile features cobalt blue veining,” comments Scholtz, “which gives it the look of something you would expect to see in a terracotta floor.” A matching 6"x6" square tile in the same pattern was also used on a diagonal in the tub/shower area.

The tub/shower with door, from Maax, was tucked away in an alcove. It featured acrylic walls on the short end and built-in shelves halfway down on the long end. In keeping with the color of the tub/shower and Toto toilet, biscuit-colored tiles that featured a mottled effect were used on the walls, capped by the blue-veined tiles from the sink area.

The faucets on the tub, provided by California Faucets, were finished in an oil-rubbed copper that featured bronze tones.

The custom-built cabinets in the bath included wood medicine cabinets and a wood vanity with two bottom drawers that could each hold a full set of towels. The cabinets were finished in an orange/brown stain reminiscent of terracotta.

The concrete countertop featured a terracotta-colored vein through it, and sported a hammered copper sink. Finishing the sink area were oil-rubbed copper faucets from California Faucets in an Old World style.

“We found a porcelain tile for the floor that resembled terracotta that was available in squares and rectangles, and also used a broken tile border, which lends itself to the foyer floor and the walkways going up to the front of the house,” Scholtz details. The rectangular tiles were used to create a herringbone pattern in the center of the floor, with full tiles going out to the walls.

Though the client wanted both baths to be done in similar styles, the second bathroom got a slightly different treatment. “I wanted to do something a little more fun with a little more color, because it’s a small bathroom and there’s no window,” Scholtz comments.

The first order of business was to reconfigure the room because, “when you looked through the doorway from the hall, you were looking at the toilet,” states Scholtz.”

For his design, Scholtz flipped the vanity and shower placements, and the door was moved. “Now, when you look in through the door, you see a beautiful mirror and large satin nickel wall sconces with milky white globes mounted on stone that matches the floor tile,” he reports.

A sink-type vanity with legs was replaced with a cabinet in a teak finish that goes all the way across the wall, adding visual length to the room and providing needed storage. “We used a countertop made from EOS solid surface and paired it with a satin nickel undermount sink and faucets from California Faucets in satin nickel,” notes Scholtz.