We are in the thick of the design work for the Southern Living Custom Showcase Home here in North Austin.  I have so many exciting things to share, it is a challenge to decide what to post about first.

Lisa, of Silverton Custom Homes, selecting tile with Linda and I

We are finally settled on the plans for the five bathrooms, yes, 5 unique floors, showers, sinks, faucets, toilets, light fixtures and mirrors.

When you are building a house, your plumbing fixtures (showers, tubs and sinks) are one of the first elements you select. It can catch you off guard if you aren’t careful.  You are dreaming of your fabulous new kitchen and great room and the first week the builder is demanding to know what shower head you want in your guest bathroom.

Just a few of the thousands of options to consider in the showroom

You need to be able to select these specific elements early on and they should work with the design theme you want for each room.

Today, I’ll show you my key inspiration pieces for each room, then show you the elements we selected to coordinate with these inspiration elements.

Master Bathroom:

We are doing a Carrera marble kitchen in this house (can’t wait!) and we decided to coordinate that look in the master bathroom, where we are going to be using Calcutta and white, honed marble.

This is what we started with at the tile showroom- soft, sophisticated fabrics- white linens, taupe-y velvets and an beautiful cut velvet fabric in a dark, mossy green-

and here are the key (currently planned) elements for our master bath:

We are actually going to do solid mirrors and triple sconces above the sinks.  There are beautiful pocket doors that preclude us using single sconces, but with the way these look, I don’t feel like we compromised at all!

Powder Bath:

This room is off the office, but it actually has a walk in shower and could be used as another guest room.  Because this sink is not in a main bathroom (i.e. no one is brushing their teeth or washing their face in here), I selected a wall mount faucet and a raised vessel bowl sink in hammered nickel.  The floor and shower will have marble tile work, again to tie into the main living space.

Lake Side Guest Bath (downstairs)

The whole home is going to have shades of white, blues and greens, each changing with intensity through out.  I started imagining this room with the fabric to the far left, which is mostly blues and greens, but it can read just the tiniest bit purple, so I decided to pull that color into the bedroom to bring in something unexpected.

We are planning on a beautiful, mother of pearl mirror in the bathroom.  The bath is going to be classic and timeless, with a beveled edge ceramic tile mixed with honed limestone on the floors and counters.

Moving to the upstairs, the home will become more casual and ‘fun’, while still keeping to the green and blue color theme.

Lake Side Guest Bath (upstairs)

As you can see, I brought the key fabrics to the tile showroom as a jumping off point for style, sophistication level and overall look and feel.  This room is going to be slightly more feminine when it is finished.

This is our current storyboard for the bathroom

The tile photos are a little blurry, but the key point I want to make is that while the overall look of the room will be more feminine, nothing ‘structural’ will be too female or male focused, as we don’t know who the future buyers of the home will be.  The tile work here is all going to be neutral limestone with marble dots inset.

and finally, Street Side Guest Bath (upstairs)

This room, again, began with the fabrics/paint swatches you see below.  At this point in time, no furniture has been chosen, no bedding selected, just an overall idea of what the key colors and style of the room will be.

This guest room is going to lean slightly more masculine, so I selected more angular plumbing fixtures (squared edge bathtub, sink and toilet).  The tile work is darker, but again, neutral in color.

There you go, five unique bathroom designs in one post.  There may be some changes here and there as materials and fixtures are sometimes discontinued or not available on your time frame, but there is always an alternative.

I truly hope you will be able to see the home in person when it is completed, but if not, I will post photos as soon as I am able!