Curtis Park Essential Bathroom Remodel
Sacramento, CA
Timeline
3 Weeks
Location
Sacramento, CA
Budget
$17,500
Completed
October 2024
Overview
When a home has one bathroom — one — there’s no margin for it to fall short. For this Curtis Park family, that was the reality: a single bath in a 1,120 sq ft 1950s home, shared daily and expected to grow with them. With one child already in the picture and another potentially on the way, the existing layout wasn’t working hard enough. Storage was fragmented, the tub area felt closed in, and the room hadn’t seen a meaningful update since it was built.
The project was referred to Parrish Construction Inc. by designer Presley Fresques of Marin Design Co, whose vision shaped both the material selections and a quiet but consequential layout rethink. Together, the design called for a bathroom that worked harder without growing larger — maximizing every square foot through smarter storage placement, a well-chosen tub, and finishes that felt elevated without inflating the budget.
This project falls within our Essential Bathroom Remodel tier, with one intentional exception: a small layout adjustment that delivered outsized value at minimal additional cost.
Key Features
- Cloé 2.5″ × 8″ Glossy Ceramic Tile in Grey by Bedrosians for the tub surround
- Metro 2.0 12″ × 24″ porcelain floor tile in Arcadia by Bedrosians, set at a 50% stagger
- 54″ Kingston Brass alcove tub sized for both children's baths and adult showers
- Built-in shower niche for everyday organization
- Signature Hardware fixture package in polished nickel throughout
- Custom flush inset vanity — reduced depth, maximized length, cultured marble top
- Toilet relocated into former storage closet footprint to consolidate storage at the vanity wall
- White oak floating shelves above toilet for accessible storage and warmth
The Transformation
Opening Up the Tub Area
The original bathroom made a common mistake of the era: a full soffit boxed in above the bathtub, adding visual weight to the room’s tightest corner while serving no functional purpose. Removing it was one of the first moves — an immediate change that made the tub and shower area feel noticeably more open without touching the footprint.
BeforeThe soffited tub area
AfterSoffit delete!
The Tile and Flooring
For the surround, the designer specified Cloé 2.5″ × 8″ Glossy Ceramic Tile in Grey by Bedrosians Tile & Stone — a clean, slightly retro profile that suits the bones of a 1950s home while reading as fresh rather than dated. On the floor, Metro 2.0 12″ × 24″ in Arcadia, also from Bedrosians, was set in a 50% stagger pattern for subtle visual movement and long-term durability underfoot.
BeforeA glimpse of the original flooring
AfterA glimpse at the finished floor and tile surround
The Tub and Fixtures
The tub selection required balancing two competing needs: a basin comfortable for bathing young children and a shower functional for adults. The 54″ Kingston Brass alcove tub addressed both — a reduced-footprint model that fits the space without sacrificing usability in either direction. A built-in tile niche keeps the daily essentials organized and off the tub ledge.
Fixtures were one area where the homeowners chose to invest above the Essential tier baseline. A Signature Hardware package in polished nickel was selected for both the tub/shower and the vanity — a finish that adds a refined, considered quality to the space without pulling the overall remodel out of scope.
The Vanity and Storage
The most impactful work in this project happened on paper before a single tool was picked up. The original layout split storage awkwardly: a built-in closet occupied space beside the tub while the vanity wall sat underutilized. The designer’s proposal flipped the logic — relocate the toilet into the footprint of the existing storage closet, and use the freed space at the vanity wall to consolidate all storage in one place.
That shift made room for a custom-built flush inset vanity, designed around three specific requirements: the flush inset door style called for by the designer, a reduced depth to keep the walkway clear, and maximum possible length to capitalize on what would otherwise have been dead wall. The finished vanity spans 54″, topped with a cultured marble countertop and painted to the designer’s exact specification. To accommodate the new layout, the bathroom door was also relocated a few inches — a subtle adjustment that meaningfully improved circulation and made the compact room feel less pinched at the entry.
Above the toilet, custom white oak floating shelves provide the accessible everyday storage the room still needed — and introduce a warmth that tempers the otherwise clean, cool palette.
BeforeThe awkward original vanity
AfterThe updated flush-inset cabinet and cultured marble countertop
The Result
Three weeks and $17,500 delivered a bathroom that the house had needed for decades. The layout changes — relocating the toilet, extending the vanity, shifting the door — were modest in scope and significant in outcome, turning a fragmented and dated room into one that functions cleanly for a growing family.
This is what the Essential tier is built to do: make a bathroom genuinely better without chasing a complete reinvention. The result works for parents, for children, and for future buyers who will recognize the investment immediately. In a home where one bathroom has to do everything, it finally does.
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