Vintage Details Make An Old Bath New Again

Many an old house comes with evidence of a not-quite-as-old renovation. When the owners of this Westchester County, New York, home moved in, they took one look at the attic bath's circa-1960 "update" and closed the door—for five years. The family focused their attention on other areas of the Queen Anne home until, finally, the lack of a bath near the attic playroom—the family has four children—became too inconvenient to bear. They had already gutted the space when designers Rick and Liz O'Leary, who were working downstairs on the kitchen renovation, came up for a look.

Rick helped the family determine the new layout and sketched the panel-molding ceiling treatment. The molding adds old-house detail to the new bathroom's vaulted ceiling. A mix of vintage finds, including the claw-foot tub and antique Chinese chest, and modern elements, such as the vessel sink and wall-mounted faucet, gives it an updated traditional look. Glacier Lake wall color and White Dove trim, both from Benjamin Moore,
make the space fresh and inviting.

Much of the attic was unfinished storage space; the bathroom had a filthy metal shower, a tiny sink and toilet, and layers of peeling vinyl flooring.

Many design ideas were the wife's, culled from years of clipping magazines and taking pictures of favorite architectural elements. One such item is this antique Chinese chest, inlaid with mother-of-pearl, and topped it with a marble vessel sink from Waterworks and wall—mounted California Faucets pewter fittings.

Storage niches built in between studs hold toiletries. The mirrors backing the niches are old, cut from antique panels that a local glass-and-mirror supplier had on hand.

A Newport Brass nickel tub filler with a hand shower lets the bathtub do double duty.

Raised-panel baseboards and window casings with pilaster details link the bath to the rest of the 1898 house.

New wood-paneled floors add to the worn look. "I hired carpenters to recreate some of the woodwork from our last house," says the woman of the house. "They banged up the new white-washed oak floors with chains to make them look old."

Raised-panel baseboards and window casings with pilaster details link the bath to the rest of the 1898 house.

A shower stall in the center of the room under the ridge beam—the only spot it would fit—hogged floor space. The toilet and sink were crammed into a corner.

1. Gutted the bath, removing the shower stall from the center of the room, as well as the other fixtures, while maintaining the old footprint.
2. Placed a vintage tub under the windows and equipped it with a hand shower so bathers
can soak or spray. All the plumbing was updated.
3. Shifted the toilet and recessed it in the wall, making it less noticeable and creating more open floor space in the room.
4. Moved the sink away from the window and closer to the door for better circulation.
5. Created two built—in storage niches on either side of the bathtub, borrowing from the unfinished attic space behind the walls.
6. Kept the existing closet for linen storage.