Planning a Bathroom Remodel, Featuring: The Treehouse

Written By Wendy Scott

Planning and executing a bathroom remodel takes energy, time and money. But, WHY do you ask? Well, labor is involved and labor is not cheap. From tile to plumbing, and even electrical if you want heated floors or switches moved, you will need to hire labor. There are as many details in a bathroom remodel as you’d have a kitchen remodel, but it’s condensed to a small space. And let’s be honest, it also just takes time to figure out what you want it to look like in its new life!

In this blog we will talk through the planning process, breaking it down by phases, of our Treehouse bathroom remodel. The “after” photos will blow your mind! We will also give you insight as to how much we spent on this project.

An After photo of the bathroom from our Treehouse project. Photo: Christopher Dibble

The Before (so many doors!), During (so much dust!) and After shots of the Treehouse bathroom (now we can relax…).

PHASE 1 - Functionality and Aesthetic 

Knowing how you use the space and what you are looking to achieve is step one (I know, I know, we say this for every room we design so you’ve heard us say this before). While functionality is key, you’ll also want to start thinking about the aesthetic. Create a Pinterest page, and start looking for bathrooms that inspire you. Knowing as much as you can before you start working with a designer or architect will help save time and your project will be off to a good start if they know what you are hoping to achieve!

With the Treehouse primary bathroom, we had some major functionality issues. 

  1. We couldn’t walk around each other at the sink because there wasn’t enough room. Only ~3 feet of space was between the countertop and the wall.

  2. There was a sliding closet when you first walked into the bathroom that took up most of the space, so the vanity area was tiny for a primary bathroom for 2 people to share.

  3. With the sliding closet doors going away, we knew we would need to get more square footage in the closet.

Our Pinterest board we created before we began the project, to help the architect with our vision.

PHASE 2 - Hire a Team

Once you know what you want to change, you’ll then want to find a designer or architect (sometimes both) to draw up what your new bathroom will look like. You will also need to find a contractor to execute the work. Ideally, they would all start at the same time as a design team so everyone is on the same page.

During this part of the process at Treehouse, we hired an architect (Outside Architecture) and contractor (Akos) that we had used before on other projects. We trusted them in our home and knew they had a strong attention to detail.

To address the functionality issues, we knew we needed to explore the possibility of moving walls to gain more sq. footage in the primary closet and more space so we could both walk around the sink. That required an architect to do the drawings, a structural engineer to see if moving walls would be possible, and a contractor to execute the work.

A rendering by Outside Architecture shows a bold line of existing walls and dotted line of where the new walls would go.

Once we knew what was possible, this drawing helped us visually see how the floor plan would change. It would impact the adjacent bedroom by becoming smaller, but we could still fit a queen bed with two night stands. That room was planned for an office anyway so it worked out great!

So you might be wondering if hiring an architect is a bit overkill. Our POV is that any time a wall is coming down or moving, you absolutely should. Beyond that, with a primary bathroom we wanted to get it right. The downstairs bathroom in the Treehouse we didn’t hire an architect to do technical drawings of the space, and there were definitely some oopses. Only those paying really careful attention would notice, but we didn’t want to make that mistake again. It’s worth it to end up with a result like you’ll see below!

PHASE 3 - Execution

Once the structural engineer had given the green light to move walls, our architect then drew up plans that would improve the functionality and use of the space. But first, he worked with us on the overall look and feel:

This was one of the first renderings we received, but we kept pushing for color (specifically blue)!

Once the technical drawings were complete and product was purchased, our contractor team got to work (in collaboration with my husband who did all of the electrical and plumbing). With our design chops, it was a beautiful combination with our trio team.


Renderings of the final results with the added skylights.

So you might be wondering about the price tag on this bathroom and closet remodel. Keep in mind this was done in 2021 after a year or so of pre-planning, so the prices were up a bit during Covid times. Here’s a breakdown of the cost:

Contractor (including demo): 20K

Cabinetry, Trim & Casing: 15K

Architecture: 15K

Tile: 5K

Electrical: 3K

Closet Install: 3K

Countertops: 2K

Paint: 2K

Glass Doors: 2K

Fixtures: 1K

Some of the work we did on our own, but the cost reflects what you might pay today if you were to hire out.

Overall, we are so happy with our new bathroom and can’t believe the before experience to now. A huge thanks to the team who helped us achieve this beautiful look.

 

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Wendy Scott
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