Personalized storage takes on a new look with interior designer Ashleigh Schroeder’s reinvention of the master bath suite. This airy and spacious retreat features an array of custom storage solutions, high-end finishes, and cabinetry from Wood-Mode.
Schroeder has been a designer with National Kitchen & Bath located in Webster Groves (St. Louis), Missouri, for approximately 12 years. She described one very particular client, in an affluent suburb of St. Louis, who had very specific ideas about converting her builder-grade bathroom with its awkward layout – numerous small hallways – into a more luxurious space where she could store her treasured and large jewelry collection.
“When I spoke with the homeowner, I got a feel for what she wanted and realized she really was looking for something very glamorous, something where she can go in and get ready, and be in a beautiful space, look beautiful and feel beautiful. So, I took out all the walls in the middle and it just worked out so perfectly,” Schroeder says.
“We wanted to open it up and make it this fabulous master bathroom suite with tons and tons of storage,” she adds.
“The homeowner has an extensive collection of jewelry that she wanted to be able to store − in plenty of places and various ways, whether it was just adjustable shelving or all the dividers and stuff like that to keep them separate. But she wanted tons of storage, and she wanted it to be really glamorous.”
The homeowner also requested a sitting area for makeup and hair, floor to ceiling cabinetry with crown moulding, inset doors, bow front cabinets and mirrored accents.
Since the closet space was already quite full with clothing, the redesigned master bath suite acts as a dressing room. Besides the extensive jewelry storage, which also includes cabinet locks for the more expensive pieces, it also features a linen cabinet, single pullout trash bins and a laundry bin, as well as powered storage with rollouts, and makeup and accessory storage dividers in nearly every drawer.
Not only does the maple cabinetry with a Nordic White finish blend seamlessly with the marble floors and countertops, the decorative hardware selection adds to the glamorous feel.
“We started out with just a glass knob,” Schroeder says. “But it kind of disappeared on the cabinetry so we added a backer behind it to really make it pop. The homeowner wanted it to all be very light and bright and glamorous, so everything is marble, mirror and crystal. Everything is bright and shiny and reflective. All the mirrors really make the bathroom feel bigger. It’s already big, but all the mirrors and the reflective surfaces make it feel even larger.”
The light and soft neutral tones on hand-painted walls reflect the overall design style of the rest of the home, Schroeder notes. “The bedroom has white carpet and a lot of really nice finishes, but it too is also very light and bright, and open and airy.”
Schroeder’s extensive design was hand drawn as are all of her projects because, “I feel like it gives me more flexibility since I do so much that’s so very custom,” she says. “When you do something that’s custom, I feel like sometimes with those computer programs I might fight with it for two hours to let me do a really custom design. Whereas, if I have it in my head, I can just draw it. I feel like I can draw faster and make it more custom the way I want, by hand. I also feel that hand drawings give an extra special value. Sometimes, the computer drawings can make it feel a little ‘Home Depotish.’”
For more information on Schroeder and her kitchen and bath projects, visit nationalkitchenandbath.com.
Have something to say? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.