Project Overview

The Master Bedroom

Most of our work on the upper floor was directed towards making the master bedroom suite more usable. We closed off a large window and installed two smaller ones that allowed us to move the bed along that outside wall. There is no view from this window, only the apartment building next door. Since beach area is notoriously noisy, with lots of short-term renters and late night parties, sound insulating the wall and closing it off with smaller ultra quiet windows was high on our client’s wish list to help them sleep better at night. It also changed the orientation of the king size bed to better fit the room shape and allowed us to place an entertainment system opposite the bed, which covers and hides a curved wall created by the spiral staircase.

For the cabinetry in the master closet and the master bedroom’s entertainment center, the client chose to use the same material, Panolam W-213 Shadow in their timberline texture, another heavily textured wood grain replica melamine material. Like the living room entertainment center material, it’s a very durable highly scratch resistant product that is much less costly than real wood or most other product options.

The master bedroom closet and bath were completely remodeled with new cabinetry. The doors to both rooms were changed from swinging doors to pocket doors to allow better use of floor space in both areas. The closet cabinets now have drawers and hanging space combinations. The key to making this closet more usable and accessible was putting double curved closet poles for short hanging clothes in both corners. Corners are extremely difficult to make usable and accessible in closets. Those double poles gave us a lot of hanging space in corners which allowed us space to add drawers and baskets in other areas.

The Master Bath

The new master bathroom was completely reconfigured. The toilet was moved to the wall opposite its original placement to allow for larger sink storage cabinetry that now runs from wall to wall and a change from a single sink vanity to a double sink configuration. A large deck mount tub shower combination was removed and replaced with a new walk-in shower with no doors. This bathroom incorporates all my functional bath concepts: convenient storage, higher counter tops, functional and beautiful shower with no door, effective venting and heating, and good lighting.

The cabinetry chosen for this bath was a very traditional Snow White and Charcoal Glazed Thermofoil door and parts. This same door was used in all three full baths and in the two bedrooms in which we built queen bed stands with drawers, headboards, matching night stands, and book shelves. It is rare to see glazed thermofoil. That fact shocks me. I suggest it as a viable option to all my clients. It is a product that should be considered and made available to more people.

Like the majority of my clients who originally requested this white painted look, as you will see in my portfolio, when I showed them samples of white raised panel thermofoil doors and explained how easy they are to keep clean, how they last many years longer than a painted door, and how much less expensive they are, they selected the thermofoil. Unlike most other kitchen fabricators, I do not limit the molding options for a thermofoil cabinet project like this to only thermofoil light valence or crown moldings, since they are very limited in size, shape, and color. When I say these doors look like painted doors, I am not exaggerating. What I have always done with solid color thermofoil’s like this is offer all the same molding that we use on real wood projects, and simply paint the wood to match the thermofoil. This has always given my thermofoil projects much greater depth and detail than other manufactures, who do not seem as capable of thinking outside the box and mixing materials to create unique and stunning detailed overall looks that can be shaped to any style, by the use of appropriate detailed moldings. Classic, Mission, Craftsmen, Art Deco, and most other styles are not defined as much by the actual door style used as they are by the choice of how to accent the doors with accompanying crown, casing, or light valence molding that create the overall style.

All three rooms of the master suite have the same new flooring we installed, a wood grain and textured porcelain tile, a 6 ½” x 40″ staggered plank – Club Beige from Arizona tile. A different color from the same series was used for the entire downstairs floor area.

The last element I want to note that make each room work is the lighting. In my four decades in this business, I have seen numerous design tools and applications that are not understood by the majority of other professionals. Lighting is at the top of my list. Understanding the characteristics of light from different sources is key in their effective use. The functional and aesthetic power of light comes from its proper placement. New LED lighting has characteristics that are very different than the halogen and fluorescent lighting it is displacing in the marketplace. In general, LEDs give off more light in a wider beam spread, making it a far superior choice for most applications, particularly wall washers, indirect lighting, and task lighting of work areas. LED lighting was used for all three of those applications in this project.

Notice the placement of the LED recessed down lights over the counter tops, work areas, like showers, over toilets or tables, and as wall washers as you look around the rooms: they are not in the typical brain-dead architectural geometric pattern seen in most magazines. These lights are placed where they are needed over work spaces, in front of cabinets so the cabinets are highlighted and you are not standing and working in your own shadow like you would if the lights were behind you in a geometric pattern in the ceiling. We also supplemented the lighting with under or over cabinet LED lights in some of the rooms.