Written by Lance Debler
Design by Aparna Vijayan
Photography by Peter Rymwid
When a Franklin Lakes couple decided to remodel a bathroom in their sprawling home, they already had a basic plan in mind to update the almost 300-square-foot space.
“We wanted a less formal and more open feel,” says one of the homeowners. “The old bathroom had floor-to-ceiling shiny marble, gold fixtures, a platform Jacuzzi and a cave-like steam shower. It clearly needed to be refreshed.”
Enter designer Apartna Vijayan, who immediately set out to give the lavish-size loo a rejuvenated look while preserving its original appeal. “It’s an old manor house, and I wanted to keep the charm of that but modernize all the conveniences,” says Vijayan, a designer at Ulrich Inc. in Ridgewood. With that in mind, she added a performance shower with spa-like pebbles dotting the floor, a tile mosaic insert, and Calcutta gold marble accents on the walls and backsplash; a makeup/dressing room with his and hers leather-finished quartzite vanities; a stone chimney wall; a chandelier; and oversized, vintage Calcutta tiles on the floor. She also took measures to maximize space (physically and visually) in the already huge bathroom.
“The old tub was taking too much room, so I added a free-standing tub,” says Vijayan, who also removed the bathroom’s main door to “open up” the space—a choice that still afforded maximum privacy since the toilet is in a separate, enclosed room.
The homeowners, meanwhile, are delighted with the outcome—so much so that they’re having trouble picking their most loved feature: “The stone chimney wall is our favorite, but the free-standing tub is a close second. It’s almost like a piece of sculpture!”