Hollywood Park Bathroom Remodel

The fixtures in this bathroom were already in the right places. What needed to change was the space around them.

The team removed the existing linen closet and reframed the entry for a pocket door, closing up the back side of the pocket and patching the hallway where the closet wall had been. A pocket door takes no floor area to operate, which matters in a compact bathroom where a swinging door competes with the vanity and the toilet for the same few square feet.

At the tub, a new partition wall was framed to create a true three-wall alcove, with a storage bay on the other side of it. While the walls were open, solid blocking went in behind every grab bar location so the bars fasten to framing instead of relying on drywall anchors.

All of this was non-structural, and all of it was finished fast: demolition was complete on day one, and framing, the pocket door, rough plumbing, and rough electrical were complete by the end of day two. Lonestar Drywall hung and taped on day three

The old tub and tile surround were replaced with a Signature Hardware Sitka soaking tub, a 60″ × 30″ acrylic alcove model. Above it, Sage Glossy Ceramic tile in a slim 2.5″ × 16″ format runs from the tub deck to the ceiling, with a recessed niche built into the surround.

Rather than stopping the tile at the tub, the same sage ceramic continues across the window wall. Carrying one tile across two walls keeps the room from feeling pieced together, and the glossy finish bounces daylight from the window deeper into the space. In total, roughly 108 square feet of wall is tiled, all of it over a fully waterproofed substrate.

The Pfister Contempra trim pairs a rain shower head with a separate multi-function hand shower on its own diverter, so the hand shower can be used seated or for rinsing the tub without running the overhead.

Under the floor tile is a Schluter DITRA-HEAT-DUO system covering the entire bathroom floor. The membrane holds the heating cable, uncouples the tile from the subfloor to protect against cracking, and adds a thermal break so the heat goes up into the tile instead of down into the framing. It runs on a new dedicated 20-amp, 240-volt circuit and is controlled by a Schluter smart thermostat.

On top of it, Andover White III porcelain in a 24″ × 48″ format. On a floor of about 35 square feet, a tile that large means only a handful of grout joints, so the floor reads as one continuous surface and there is far less grout to keep clean.

PCI installs these systems regularly; more detail is on the heated floor installation page.

The vanity is a Miseno Indy 36″ freestanding cabinet in Warm Walnut with a white cultured marble top, fitted with a Delta Nicoli widespread faucet with a pull-down spout. Against the sage tile and the white floor, the walnut brings warmth to the room.

That wood tone repeats in a set of floating shelves stained to match the vanity. Walls are painted Sherwin-Williams SW 6002 Essential Gray, with trim matched to the rest of the home.

Above the vanity, an ICO Bath Gemma arched lighted mirror (30″ × 36″) provides even light at face level, backed up by new recessed fixtures overhead and a new exhaust fan ducted to the exterior. Partway through the job, a GFCI outlet was added above the vanity for an electric toothbrush and water flosser, at no additional cost to the homeowner.

Several of the most useful features in this bathroom are the least visible.

The TOTO Washlet+ Nexus toilet with S5 bidet seat has its own dedicated GFCI circuit, roughed in during the electrical phase so there is no cord trailing to a shared outlet. Two Delta BathSafety grab bars, a 36″ and a 12″, are fastened to the blocking installed during framing. Delta Trinsic robe hooks and a tissue holder finish out the accessories.

None of these read as accommodations. They read as a well-planned bathroom, which is the point: features like these are far easier to build in during a remodel than to add later.