5 Lessons From My Parents’ Master Suite Makeover
A Houzz editor gleans remodeling wisdom from the interior designer behind her childhood home’s recent overhaul
When I was growing up, my parents’ bedroom was fancy. It was in the “new” part of our 1920s Tudor in suburban Chicago (with “new,” in this case, translating to “added in 1988"). And it was massive, with a soaring vaulted ceiling, rich green walls and an en suite bathroom that I shared with my mom. Throughout my childhood, I took my showers, brushed my teeth and styled my hair like she did in front of the bathroom’s glamorous Hollywood-dressing-room-style lightbulbs. My dad preferred the water pressure in my brothers’ bathroom down the hall.
Lesson No. 1: A Pro Can See Things You May Not Have Considered
Before: When my mom first found Coe on Houzz, she’d been racking her brain and consulting with friends and family to figure out how the current space could possibly accommodate a bigger bathroom and closet. My parents had long since outgrown the his-and-hers walk-through closet and single-sink bathroom vanity, but bumping out the wall didn’t seem feasible, since a fireplace, shown here, jutted up against the back of the bathroom.
When Coe came over for her initial consultation, though, she could see the space’s potential immediately. The 25-foot-long bedroom had plenty of room to spare, and the fireplace — a nice but seldom-used feature — could be walled over.
“That was the problem, I didn’t understand what was going to happen to that fireplace,” my mom says. “It didn’t occur to me that we could patch it up and ignore it.”
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Before: When my mom first found Coe on Houzz, she’d been racking her brain and consulting with friends and family to figure out how the current space could possibly accommodate a bigger bathroom and closet. My parents had long since outgrown the his-and-hers walk-through closet and single-sink bathroom vanity, but bumping out the wall didn’t seem feasible, since a fireplace, shown here, jutted up against the back of the bathroom.
When Coe came over for her initial consultation, though, she could see the space’s potential immediately. The 25-foot-long bedroom had plenty of room to spare, and the fireplace — a nice but seldom-used feature — could be walled over.
“That was the problem, I didn’t understand what was going to happen to that fireplace,” my mom says. “It didn’t occur to me that we could patch it up and ignore it.”
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Before: Clients often get bogged down with what they see as the limitations of their homes, Coe says, but design professionals reimagine spaces for a living and are likely to have a fresh perspective.
“It’s actually a pretty common thing: A client will say, ‘Well, you know, we just can’t do that,’ ” Coe says. “And I say, ‘You know what? Give me your dream. Let us tell you what’s possible and what’s not possible, because you never know.’ ”
In my parents’ case, an architectural engineer found that the fireplace, shown in this original floor plan at top center right, couldn’t be removed as Coe initially envisioned, but it could be covered. It’s now behind a wall in my parents’ new walk-in closet.
“It’s actually a pretty common thing: A client will say, ‘Well, you know, we just can’t do that,’ ” Coe says. “And I say, ‘You know what? Give me your dream. Let us tell you what’s possible and what’s not possible, because you never know.’ ”
In my parents’ case, an architectural engineer found that the fireplace, shown in this original floor plan at top center right, couldn’t be removed as Coe initially envisioned, but it could be covered. It’s now behind a wall in my parents’ new walk-in closet.
The rest of the master suite could be put to better use as well. Coe took about 10 feet of the existing room to allow for the bigger master bath and closet shown here, and enclosed them with charming custom barn doors.
On the bedroom side of the new closet wall, a deep, mirrored built-in cabinet provides the storage my parents desperately needed without looking heavy. Losing the green paint and dated wallpaper border in favor of beige and white paint went a long way in brightening things up too.
“I knew immediately walking in that, oh my goodness, if we get to do what we want to do, this is going to be an amazing transformation,” Coe says.
Browse storage cabinets on Houzz
“I knew immediately walking in that, oh my goodness, if we get to do what we want to do, this is going to be an amazing transformation,” Coe says.
Browse storage cabinets on Houzz
Before: The orientation of the existing space also seemed off to Coe. The bed had been against the side wall, leaving the open area near the bay windows vulnerable to extra furniture storage, a bulky elliptical machine and other clutter.
In the remodeled room, the windows frame the new bed.
“By moving it into that bay window, it becomes the focal point of the space,” Coe says.
Again, a simple design solution my mom had never considered made a world of difference. The light-flooded bed area is one of her favorite elements of the completed project.
“The windows are so pretty! And those windows were always our windows and I never appreciated them,” she says.
It’s strange to look at those outdated “before” photos now. Yes, my inner child will always see those green walls and that fireplace as the elegant, grown-up features they once were, but adult me, and my parents, can admit that a change was needed and that it’s had even more of an impact than we imagined.
“It was almost like Sarah was taking us on this time machine from the ’80s and leaving the shoulder pads and the big hair behind and zooming forward to barn doors and more of a luxury feel that certainly I didn’t have before,” my mom says.
See more bedroom design inspiration photos
“By moving it into that bay window, it becomes the focal point of the space,” Coe says.
Again, a simple design solution my mom had never considered made a world of difference. The light-flooded bed area is one of her favorite elements of the completed project.
“The windows are so pretty! And those windows were always our windows and I never appreciated them,” she says.
It’s strange to look at those outdated “before” photos now. Yes, my inner child will always see those green walls and that fireplace as the elegant, grown-up features they once were, but adult me, and my parents, can admit that a change was needed and that it’s had even more of an impact than we imagined.
“It was almost like Sarah was taking us on this time machine from the ’80s and leaving the shoulder pads and the big hair behind and zooming forward to barn doors and more of a luxury feel that certainly I didn’t have before,” my mom says.
See more bedroom design inspiration photos
Lesson No. 2: You Can Update Without Losing Historic Charm
Though my parents’ house was built in the 1920s, the master suite and the family room below it were a later addition, so other than the slanted walls along the pitched roofline, the rooms didn’t have as many of the interesting architectural details as the rest of the house. Coe aimed to change that.
Faux wood beams were added in the new bedroom to echo original wood beams in the pre-addition master bedroom (what became my room). The bathroom and closet got custom barn doors made with antique wood and the vintage glass doorknobs and brass plates shown here.
Though my parents’ house was built in the 1920s, the master suite and the family room below it were a later addition, so other than the slanted walls along the pitched roofline, the rooms didn’t have as many of the interesting architectural details as the rest of the house. Coe aimed to change that.
Faux wood beams were added in the new bedroom to echo original wood beams in the pre-addition master bedroom (what became my room). The bathroom and closet got custom barn doors made with antique wood and the vintage glass doorknobs and brass plates shown here.
Before: The overflowing existing closet was absorbed into the new, larger bathroom.
“It’s just shocking to me, even now, and it’s only been a couple months — oh my gosh, how did I have that closet? It was so small!” my mom says.
“It’s just shocking to me, even now, and it’s only been a couple months — oh my gosh, how did I have that closet? It was so small!” my mom says.
The new bathroom works around the slanted roofline, with curved Moroccan-style antiqued brass mirrors above each vanity. The marble floors fit the feel of an older home, Coe says. Vintage-inspired brushed nickel hardware for the plumbing fixtures, mixed with oil-rubbed bronze knobs for the closet and toilet room door, are meant to reflect original details in other parts of the house.
Browse barn doors
Browse barn doors
In the new custom closet accessible through the bathroom, an antique-look chandelier ties in with the vanities’ glass and metallic champagne hardware.
Lesson No. 3: Your Design Should Reflect How You Really Live
Before: Aside from creating a more stylish space, a renovation can be a great opportunity to design around your day-to-day lifestyle. Coe worked closely with my parents to understand the specific ways their rooms hadn’t been working for them. Storage for clutter, clothes and memorabilia was a top priority.
Before: Aside from creating a more stylish space, a renovation can be a great opportunity to design around your day-to-day lifestyle. Coe worked closely with my parents to understand the specific ways their rooms hadn’t been working for them. Storage for clutter, clothes and memorabilia was a top priority.
The new vanities have in-drawer outlets for hair tools and enough storage to help keep other products off the marble countertops.
See more bathroom inspiration photos
See more bathroom inspiration photos
The area between the two vanities was a sticking point for my parents. A linen tower didn’t feel quite right, and open shelving would have invited back old cluttering habits. A custom floating wood bench solved the problem while adding warmth and matching the barn doors and bedroom ceiling beams.
“Sometimes these really fun design elements evolve as we do a project,” Coe says.
9 Ideas for the Space Between Double Sinks in the Bathroom
“Sometimes these really fun design elements evolve as we do a project,” Coe says.
9 Ideas for the Space Between Double Sinks in the Bathroom
Before: After I moved out for college, my mom was the only one using the combination shower-bathtub — a dark, dreary place to bathe with pretty pathetic water pressure, now that I think about it. The tub, like the fireplace, was rarely used. Since my brothers’ old bathroom has a tub, my parents decided that losing this one wouldn’t be much of an issue in terms of resale value.
“In practicality when you’re weighing options, it just seemed like having a better use of space was more valuable to us than the fireplace or the tub,” my mom says.
The airy new glass walk-in shower features subway tile on the walls and a penny tile floor. Coe had planned to install a rain shower head, but my dad jumped into the process to let her know that after years of having to use the boys’ bathroom down the hall, for him a high-pressure shower head was a must. Coe adjusted. I’ve tried the new one and it delivers.
“That again is how important it is to get our designs custom to our clients,” Coe says, “and how important it is that our clients are good at communicating their desires, because we want to give him what he wants.”
6 Bathrooms That Said Goodbye to the Tub
The airy new glass walk-in shower features subway tile on the walls and a penny tile floor. Coe had planned to install a rain shower head, but my dad jumped into the process to let her know that after years of having to use the boys’ bathroom down the hall, for him a high-pressure shower head was a must. Coe adjusted. I’ve tried the new one and it delivers.
“That again is how important it is to get our designs custom to our clients,” Coe says, “and how important it is that our clients are good at communicating their desires, because we want to give him what he wants.”
6 Bathrooms That Said Goodbye to the Tub
In the bedroom, the built-in cabinet allows my parents to keep their TV but hide it. The deep drawers and cabinets have room for my dad’s clothes, as Coe had noted that his daily routine involved him getting dressed out in the main room, not near the closet.
“Sometimes when people have lived a certain way for so many years, it’s difficult to change too many things, so if they already have some sort of system we want to honor that,” Coe says, “and so the built-in was designed around both enclosing the television and giving your dad ample clothing storage in the bedroom space.”
There was talk of glass fronts for the unit, but the antiqued mirror made more sense for maintenance and keeping things looking tidy and tucked away.
“By adding the mirror, it gives you this illusion of more light, openness, reflectiveness, and then we antiqued the mirror too to speak back to the age of the house. And also an antiqued mirror doesn’t look dirty,” Coe says.
There was at least one design compromise. My workout-loving dad was keen to keep the elliptical machine in the bedroom but Coe was able to talk him out of it. With three children no longer living at home and three corresponding empty bedrooms, there were other options for a home gym. They eventually settled on putting the equipment in my old room — a sacrifice I’m willing to make in the name of beautiful design.
“Sometimes when people have lived a certain way for so many years, it’s difficult to change too many things, so if they already have some sort of system we want to honor that,” Coe says, “and so the built-in was designed around both enclosing the television and giving your dad ample clothing storage in the bedroom space.”
There was talk of glass fronts for the unit, but the antiqued mirror made more sense for maintenance and keeping things looking tidy and tucked away.
“By adding the mirror, it gives you this illusion of more light, openness, reflectiveness, and then we antiqued the mirror too to speak back to the age of the house. And also an antiqued mirror doesn’t look dirty,” Coe says.
There was at least one design compromise. My workout-loving dad was keen to keep the elliptical machine in the bedroom but Coe was able to talk him out of it. With three children no longer living at home and three corresponding empty bedrooms, there were other options for a home gym. They eventually settled on putting the equipment in my old room — a sacrifice I’m willing to make in the name of beautiful design.
Lesson No. 4: Stylish Doesn’t Have to Be Sterile
Coe incorporated minimal furniture, luxe finishes and a neutral color palette to create the calming, serene atmosphere she and my mom had zeroed in on using ideabooks early in the process. But Coe also made sure to layer in a variety of textures and sentimental details to make the rooms still feel inviting and warm.
“It does have a hotel-, spa-like feel now, which is just lovely, but it also has a lot of personal touches too, so I appreciate that,” my mom says.
Coe incorporated minimal furniture, luxe finishes and a neutral color palette to create the calming, serene atmosphere she and my mom had zeroed in on using ideabooks early in the process. But Coe also made sure to layer in a variety of textures and sentimental details to make the rooms still feel inviting and warm.
“It does have a hotel-, spa-like feel now, which is just lovely, but it also has a lot of personal touches too, so I appreciate that,” my mom says.
Those touches figure in most prominently in the specially created gallery wall. My mom loves her family photos, but Coe worried that adding eclectic frames around the room would derail the overall vibe of the renovation. Instead, Coe and her team took some square footage from the closet to widen the hallway and make one wall a focal point.
There, she framed and arranged a selection of my mom and dad’s favorite photos and mementos, including a handwritten “Contract of True Like, Maybe” they’d made and signed at ages 15 and 17, respectively. That yellowed document landed the center spot in the gallery.
“I think she asked me for seven pictures and I gave her 14,” my mom says. Again, Coe made it work.
“That kind of stuff is just precious, and when we can add that, it takes it from being anybody’s beautiful space to their beautiful space,” Coe says.
Get more gallery wall ideas
There, she framed and arranged a selection of my mom and dad’s favorite photos and mementos, including a handwritten “Contract of True Like, Maybe” they’d made and signed at ages 15 and 17, respectively. That yellowed document landed the center spot in the gallery.
“I think she asked me for seven pictures and I gave her 14,” my mom says. Again, Coe made it work.
“That kind of stuff is just precious, and when we can add that, it takes it from being anybody’s beautiful space to their beautiful space,” Coe says.
Get more gallery wall ideas
Lesson No. 5: A More Functional Design Can Spawn a More Functional Life
Months after the work was completed on my parents’ rooms, my mom is happy to report that the new design is not only nicer to look at, but it’s also improved the way she and my dad live. My mom has her jewelry spread out so she can see each piece instead of storing it in one tangled jumble. Different clothing types are in different drawers. My dad uses a special rod in the new closet to hang up his outfit for the next morning every night.
“The bathroom is clean, the closet is clean, the bed is made every day,” my mom says. “You can come in anytime, and that’s not what our bedroom used to look like. So Sarah gets points for that too, making us better housekeepers.
“Before, nobody ever saw that room so we just never did anything with it. And it was so big there was lots of room to shove things, as in, ‘Well, let’s just move it out of the way and put it up there. No one will see it.’ ”
That was just the kind of transformation Coe hoped they could achieve.
“People oftentimes don’t treat their master bedroom with the respect that they should, in the sense that this is your final resting place at the end of your day, it’s the first thing you see when you wake up, and master bedrooms should be a retreat and an escape for everybody,” she says. “But it usually ends up being where you pile up everything. So that was very true of their room before. They hadn’t touched it in years. There was extra furniture and extra everything, including the exercise equipment, and now when you walk in, even weeks after the project, it’s clean. It’s refreshing. It’s a retreat to the eyes. It’s just functioning well, the way it was designed to function.”
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Months after the work was completed on my parents’ rooms, my mom is happy to report that the new design is not only nicer to look at, but it’s also improved the way she and my dad live. My mom has her jewelry spread out so she can see each piece instead of storing it in one tangled jumble. Different clothing types are in different drawers. My dad uses a special rod in the new closet to hang up his outfit for the next morning every night.
“The bathroom is clean, the closet is clean, the bed is made every day,” my mom says. “You can come in anytime, and that’s not what our bedroom used to look like. So Sarah gets points for that too, making us better housekeepers.
“Before, nobody ever saw that room so we just never did anything with it. And it was so big there was lots of room to shove things, as in, ‘Well, let’s just move it out of the way and put it up there. No one will see it.’ ”
That was just the kind of transformation Coe hoped they could achieve.
“People oftentimes don’t treat their master bedroom with the respect that they should, in the sense that this is your final resting place at the end of your day, it’s the first thing you see when you wake up, and master bedrooms should be a retreat and an escape for everybody,” she says. “But it usually ends up being where you pile up everything. So that was very true of their room before. They hadn’t touched it in years. There was extra furniture and extra everything, including the exercise equipment, and now when you walk in, even weeks after the project, it’s clean. It’s refreshing. It’s a retreat to the eyes. It’s just functioning well, the way it was designed to function.”
More on Houzz
Key Measurements for a Dream Bedroom
5 Master Bedrooms That Invite You In for a Rest
Shop for headboards
In light of that revelation (and the many phone calls and Houzz ideabooks my mom and I had shared throughout the renovation process), I decided to interview my parents’ interior designer, Sarah Coe of Sarah Coe Design, and my mom, Candy Purdom, to see what other insights the transformation had sparked.