Schraepfer Harvey Alex Hayden

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The Challenge:
Previous homeowners had modernized all but the bathroom in Kelli McCusker’s midcentury home. That room, though “perfectly usable,” was not as hip as she wanted. “I live and die for modern design,” she explains. Ersatz bathroom elements that mocked Kelli’s sense of style included a “faux-Southwest-tile” shower, earthy green walls, cabinets that looked like “old plywood” and a laminate counter top. The mahogany-framed mirror also had to go.

The Solution:
Kelli first removed the tub. “I wanted a big, spacious shower,” she says. The new shower—with a blue sanded-glass tile floor, recessed shelves made of slate and chrome and a built-in slate bench—creates the chic hotel “saunalike experience” that Kelli desired. A Pietra Serena sandstone sink and counter top sit atop the white-oak floating vanity, and square brushed-nickel decorative pegs appear to anchor the mirror flush to the wall, completing the wood, stone, metal and glass palette that defines modern design for Kelli. “I like slate. I like light [hued] woods,” she says. Now, like the rest of the house, the bathroom is truly hers.

Midcentury Details

* Decorative brushed-nickel pegs give the mirror some dimension and tie in with the faucet.
* Enhancing visual sensations, blue sanded-glass tiles flank the vanity and comprise the shower floor.
* The sandstone slab and sink with brushed-nickel fixtures complement shades in the slate used on the walls and floor.
* A wall-hung vanity of light-hued white oak introduces a new element to stone-and-glass coverings.
* Asymmetrically patterned slate on the walls contrasts with orderly patterned floor slate.