Westchester Magazine recently asked me to write for their "Resident Expert" blog, and below is what I wrote for them.
Last week a woman named Ana came into the showroom looking to remodel her master bath. She had started the remodel process last summer, but put everything on hold when her husband got laid off from his Wall Street job. With a new job securely in place, they decided to pick up the remodel, but have decreased their product* budget from $25,000 to $15,000.
Here is what we did to get her the bathroom of her dreams:
The original tub Ana had chosen was a beautiful 6’ airbath from Kallista for $4200. We were able to switch it to Kohler’s new Underscore 6’ BubbleMassage, which has the same clean lines, for $3255.
The Kallista tub on the left is twice the price of the Kohler tub on the right.
For the shower, Ana had wanted the works – dual shower heads with separate thermostatic controls, three body sprays on each side of the shower, steam, etc. She had also wanted everything to be a brushed nickel finish. This type of shower costs approximately $5000. Steam was the most expensive element in the shower, and Ana decided that having the dual shower was much more important. Ana also saved money by switching all of the metal finishes to chrome, and her shower cost about $2500.
The vanity area is a very expensive part of any bathroom, and Ana had planned on having her kitchen cabinet company create a 72”custom cabinet with hutch for the bath as well. This would have cost over $5000, not including the countertop. We were able to create a similar look with our semi-custom cabinet company for about $5000, which includes the stone top and two sinks.
Note that the picture is of a much larger vanity area than Ana’s, and is in a much more traditional style than we used. It does, however, show many of the components we used.
The Dornbracht faucet she had originally chosen was $2000 for each lav faucet and $3000 for the tub faucet. We switched that to a beautiful contemporary Kohler set for $1500.
The toilet was the easiest part. She wanted something contemporary, and Kohler just came out with an inexpensive contemporary toilet that sells for $270.
Accessories complete the plumbing fixtures in the bathroom for about $500.
It was very important to Ana to have a stone bath, and she wanted to put limestone all over the bathroom from floor to ceiling. In order to keep within the budget, I suggested simply tiling the tub surround, shower and the floor, bringing the cost from $4000 to $2000. Ana selected a paint color in the same tone of the tiles for the rest of the room to get the Zen room she was looking for.
There you have it! A dream master bathroom completed for approximately $15,000.
*These costs are for products only and do not include any labor charges.
This is a great article and lesson on how a knowledgable and helpful showroom really can work with you to create your dream bathroom within your budget. Very cool.
My comments section wasn't working correctly, and I apologize for just seeing these comments now!
JWVALS - The client really didn't have to give up much. The look of the overall bath exceeded their expectations, and we were the only ones who would ever know the bathroom was done on a budget.
