Planning and designing bathroom spaces isn't easy, and it can be overwhelming to know where to begin and how to make the most of your investment.

After years of planning and designing bathroom spaces and recently completing our own in The McGee Home, we've learned quite a bit about how to streamline the process.

Today, we're partnering with our friends at Kohler and Kallista to give you a breakdown of the things we consider when planning and designing bathroom spaces, and talk about some of our favorite plumbing selections.

 

 

The Importance of Planning

When it comes to bathroom spaces, it's important to understand the process of planning in order to make the right selections. When starting a new build, one of the first things we do is choose our plumbing products. Not only do you need to ensure that you have an ample amount of space for your choices, but you also need to prepare for the valves to be put in the walls during framing.

Getting the wall mounts right on the first try is essential because once they're in there, they're really difficult to adjust.

There are many problems you can run into if you're not careful to follow safety codes on bathroom specifications. For example, your toilet must be a specific amount of inches away from your wall and your cabinets, which can then determine how many sinks you can get, how much cabinet space you can have, and what the entire layout becomes.

Safety code restrictions also impact your shower dimensions, bathtub placement, and more. Working with your contractor to identify the needs of your space is crucial to avoid setbacks in your timeline.

One of the many reasons we love working with Kohler on our projects is that they have so many great options for bathroom spaces of all shapes and sizes, making planning around restrictions much easier.

Choosing Functions

Before you decide on styles of plumbing, make sure you consider the functions you would like to have in your space. In The McGee home, we knew we wanted hand showers for their ease and kid-friendly functionality in all of our bathrooms, which helped us determine the rest of our selections. Consider what you've had before and what you liked or didn't like, and make sure to explore all of your options!

When it comes to plumbing with modern functionality, there are so many possibilities. We always encourage our clients to look into the extra features that elevate everyday living, because they really do make all the difference.

Kohler has so many unique options when it comes to functionality, and we've really enjoyed the upgrades we installed in The McGee Home.

One of our favorite features is our steam shower in our Master Bathroom. I wasn't so sure about it at first because steam makes my hair frizzy, but Syd was really adamant, and now I'm a believer. You basically push a button, and you feel like you're at the spa, I've really loved it.

In our girl's bathrooms, we did the Heated BubbleMassage Bathtubs, and they are so great. Unlike a lot of massage tubs, these ones are really streamlined and beautiful. You can't even see the holes – they just release thousands of heated bubbles.

Choosing Styles

When it comes to choosing styles of plumbing products, we always try to make selections that add to the look and feel of the space. For example, in Ivy's bathroom, we chose this beautiful English wallpaper with lots of curves, which complemented beautifully with the shape and traditional style of Kohler’s deck-mounted Artifacts bathroom faucet.

In Wren's room, her wall-mounted Purist bathroom faucet has these beautiful cross handles that reference some of the vintage elements throughout the room, coordinating with her Hand Shower which we absolutely love for its simplicity and maintence-free cleaning.

In our master bathroom, I wanted a big freestanding tub to be the focal point of the space, and Kohler's Memoirs freestanding bathtub was the perfect fit!

We chose the For Town collection sink faucets in this space from Kohler's sister company, Kallista, and they added the perfect touch of elegance to the transitional design.

We chose two Kallista shower heads for added functionality, the Bellis Air Induction Showerhead and the For Town Pressure Balance Trim Handle.

As we like to mix old and new styles, it's so nice to have options like Kohler and Kallista, which provide so many great versatile pieces to blend well with any look. Their pieces have such great attention to detail while still feeling simple. Take, for example, Kohler's Memoirs toilet, which we used in all of our bathrooms. It has this beautiful vintage-inspired style that makes each space feel just a little bit more considered and put together.

Choosing Metals

We often get questions about how to choose metals, and each space is different! We're not afraid to mix metals and materials throughout the home, and we always try to play off of the style of the room to create the right feeling. Brass brings some character and charm, while Chrome tends to create a more modern look, and we love them all the same! Lately, we've been gravitating towards doing the same metals in one bathroom space, but if we do mix, we tend to do a maximum of two different finishes.

When we chose our finishes for the bathroom spaces in The McGee Home, we followed a very similar approach to how we choose them with clients. I had samples of all the hardware finishes, and laid everything out on my desk so we could see how everything was working before committing to it, and then we used our mood boards to play around with how each of them impacted the rooms.

In Ivy's bathroom, we went with a Polished Nickel on her faucet and showerhead to bring a contrast to her feminine floral wallpaper and added some brass in there as well through the light fixtures. Polished Nickel is such a great finish because it has a warm undertone, so it plays well with virtually any other metal.

There was no question about what we were doing in Wren's bathroom; she wanted gold, and she wasn't budging on that one. We did her faucet and showerhead in Kohler’s vibrant moderne brushed gold. Because her vanity was quite intricate and we had mixed tile in there, we used the same finish on everything to pare it down a bit.

In the master, we mixed the metals but kept the tones similar. On some pieces, we used Chrome, and to make sure the space didn’t have too much of a shiny effect, we used a more subtle Nickel Silver finish on others.

Premium plumbing products really do make all the difference, and we are so grateful to Kohler and Kallista for making all of our bathroom space dreams come true in The McGee Home and many other projects to come. If you're designing a home or looking to update your plumbing products, be sure to check out the offerings at Kohler and Kallista.

To shop our plumping products in The McGee home, scroll through the carousel below to click on each of our favorites!

Our Master Bathroom Picks

Ivy’s Bathroom Picks

Wren’s Bathroom Picks