Busy…started second project to keep my
crew busy while the plumber took two days
to reroute lines…
Wonderful to have the weekend to regroup and daydream through
my vast (!) collection of old inspiration photos…
Check out Barry Dixon’s site here for more
of his portfolio…
Love the way the mosaic continues up the walls…
and antiquity tossed into the mix…
I’m trying to go curb-less…
but meeting with resistance…
Thoughts?
More Barry Dixon here
Top 3 photos from Beautiful Baths BH&G ’06
Last photo Metropolitan Home June ’08
Beautiful images. Can they do that? Can the create a shower with out the curb—doesn’t it leak? It sure looks amazing.
Karen
I like the curb-less concept – it looks so much cleaner. We are building a home and will be getting to this stage very soon, I’m glad you published this. Love your blog, it has unique ideas that so many of the other design blogs don’t.
Thank you Marlenda! I’ll be posting about how it turns out so you can avoid my mistakes!
Such beautiful baths! I have not seen a curb-less shower before but I love the look. Less little crevices to clean is an added bonus. I recently toured a home where they put a outdoor concrete bench in the shower and everyone seemed to love this idea.
xo, Sherry
I LOVE that idea. My shower is NOT baronial (a 40″ X 44″ corner of the bathroom)…but I’m keeping my eyes out for little possible perches (waterproof of course).
Curbless looks fantastic to me. I’ve never seen it before except in an Italian hotel bathroom where there was no division at all between shower and room (which was a mess, actually, since everything got wet). With the right drainage and floor material why not? So what if it leaks a little? I can imagine even doing the shower walls so there’s a gap of three or four inches to the floor and at the top to the ceiling, to avoid the crappiness of grout / calk / mildew. You’d have to have a slight slant down to the drain, I think.
Just one thought though: if your shower floor ends up leaking at the joints (which it will) the water will go all over the place. Usually they install a pan under the shower stall tiles to avoid that. When we moved into our house, the previous owners had not done that and had to tear up the tiles and install a pan since the wood trim at the door was rotted up where the water seeped underneath.
Hi Jean. They have already started building a custom “pan”…a system of paper, a thick rubberish waterproof sheet, chicken wire and concrete. I will see how little of a curb I can get away with while still being practical.
Oh my gosh, Trish, the first picture is one of the pictures that I’ve been wanting you to see. I love how the floor continues up the wall and you can do it with your carrara and slate accents. Don’t let me forget to tell you of my shower glass guy. He can guide you about curbless showers.
One more thought. I think the ideal shower is walls of slab marble- no grout to clean and if you have a large enough space, no glass door and no curb. When you have hard water, like I do, it’s a pain to clean. The shower has to be deep enough so the water doesn’t spray out of the shower area.
Great advice Mary (though too late for me re the big slabs!). Would LOVE your shower glass guy phone #!!! AND a house tour!!
Hello Trish,
We have in our guest house a big walk-in shower, no curb and no glass door, just a ‘clear line’, everybody loves it. Planned and built about 10 years ago. But by now, having experiences with it, I would have a curb and a glass door, as nice as it is without! Of course, it depends on the size and design of your bathroom. As far as I know there exist special glass which is easier to clean than the common one.
The only other thought I have at the moment – I would just like to go in one of the above bathrooms, sitting for hours in the bath, having a bottle of champagne beside, preferable Louis Roederer Cristal, and listening to Mozart’s sonatas by Friedrich Gulda, piano. PURE LUXURY !!! Thanks for these fantastic images!
Greetings from the PĂ©rigord – karin
Hi Karin. Its so great to get feedback on the practical considerations. The photos all look so wonderful…but not all the choices are easy to live with!! Champagne…and that tub…sounds wonderful!
you torment me, trish. in a really delicious way. that last image is the most perfect bath space I have ever seen.
I always hope to find some little morsel that I can afford to incorporate!I have bedrooms smaller than those baths! Sigh.
curbless is gorgeous, but in my opinion a huge risk in a second story bath…those shower pans that no one sees underneath the tile are there for a reason…just don’t know how that safely barrier could be accomplished with a curbless installation but I am sure anything is possible if you throw enough money at it.
~jermaine
Hi Jermaine. I think it could be accomplished with nominal cost. Slope is very important. I’ve also read that you could extend the rubber membrane that is part of a custom pan to the entire bathroom. We will probably be seeing more and more of these, and I understand they are used quite a bit in Europe. In my case: I upgraded the drain to HUGE…and have a (custom) rubber membrane lined shower pan…and they will be sloping the floor in the shower area down to the drain. I will probably do a minimal curb…since the floor is mosaic and I want a tight seal at the base of the glass. So, as usual, a balancing act between aesthetics and practicality. Keeps things interesting.
These are just gorgeous! I love Barry Dixon’s work. I had his book out this weekend looking at kitchen inspiration for a client. These baths are just perfection!
Hi Mona…I love that terra cotta fragment in your bathroom! My bathroom’s relatively tiny, but hoping to get that mix of clean and simple, with a dash of old.
Hi Trish, If it’s any help my shower is glass walled, no door and curbless. There is a hidden shower pan under a square of pebble floor, leading onto slate tiling. You only need a slight tilt to control the water and a very good cleaning product to keep the glass always looking new. Ours is 3 years old now and there are no complaints.
Sharon
Wow…I’d love to see that Sharon! Sounds fabulous!
OK, now I see what you are talking about! I wanted a walk-in shower with no door. Alas, not enough room. I gave in to curb; no to glass enclosure. I just didn’t want that maintenance. My floor is a black and white pattern (similar to Dixon’s) and I made the curb black (and used black subway tiles installed vertically for the room’s “baseboard.” Having had a shower leak from an upstairs bath to the rooms below, this Libra girl went way practical. If I could have had that curb made from kryptonite, I would have! Look forward to seeing your beautiful new bath. Always impressive to see soldiers for beauty!
Sorry, Trish, I can’t help but keep thinking of things: electric heat under tiles.
Hi Trish! I think it’s a great idea, but I think (for me) it would be too much work. I just think about when you open the door to the shower water is going to smear across the bathroom floor. I’ve also had backups in my shower. Not fun! We lived in an old house and plumbing wasn’t good. I’ve seen many houses that are “walk in” showers. Much like a walk in closet. They almost have a little hallway (usually around a corner) to get to the main shower area. And I’ve only seen these on ground floor master baths. One note about the shower above. It would be so hard to keep clean! All that glass! We have a frameless glass door on my shower, and we use a squeegee after every shower use. This keeps the water spots to a minimum. Good luck! Can’t wait to see what you decide!
stacy
Thanks Stacy…great point about opening the shower door! That visual pretty much confirms that I will do at least a minimum curb! Everyone’s given such great input. I really feel I’m starting the week with a clearer head!
hi trish… i am so loving your bath inspiration… you have such impeccable taste… hi to you, your darling sis and mother!
xx
Alas…my bath is only 9 ft by 9 ft…so my taste (be that as it may!) will be truncated a bit! We all so enjoyed meeting you Pam! Must rendezvous again in the Spring!
Trish,
I can’t stop looking at these pictures ! If I had seen these before I am sure they would have been a source for inspiration for my own bathroom!
You are incredable! Your posts are the best!
xx
Greet
I am crazy about the curbless shower. However, you will probably want to have the floor/pan poured so that it grades toward the drain. This is often done in showers for those with special needs. As far the doors, you can get rubber beading installed on the bottom or where the panels meet, probably better yet, a good bead of clear silicone caulk at the floor will keep the water inside. I’m in Indianapolis, but if Cardinal Shower doors is available in your area, they can create whatever you want and they are reasonably priced. Good luck!
Trish,
I love these baths….oh to have the resources and place to do outstanding design like this. Guess I will have to keep dreamng!
xx
A though? I’m in heaven, quite truthfully… I love these bathrooms — they are divine!
You always share such gorgeous things 🙂
Please see my blog for a mention and a link. XX Gypsy Purple
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