Clever Tile With a Nautical Touch
A designer layers nautical style and personal touches atop a classic base in this traditional home
“This couple is always up for doing something fun,” says interior designer Kelsey Roberts of Tracy Lynn Studio. Accordingly, she infused the powder room-guest bath with their lively personalities. Inspiration came from the home’s coastal location in Del Mar, California, and from the couple’s love of family and friends. The result is a crisp navy-and-white room with unexpected touches that surprise and delight.
The textured wallcovering has a subtle herringbone pattern. Roberts used the classic pattern in playful ways elsewhere in the house, including in another bathroom.
Aged brass finishes add to the nautical style. This pretty shower handle and other brass fixtures were a splurge, so Roberts balanced the budget by repurposing the existing vanity, having the home’s dark floors sanded and lightened, and choosing inexpensive tiles.
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Aged brass finishes add to the nautical style. This pretty shower handle and other brass fixtures were a splurge, so Roberts balanced the budget by repurposing the existing vanity, having the home’s dark floors sanded and lightened, and choosing inexpensive tiles.
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The shower enclosure is composed of subway and penny round tiles — and they’re used in a way that proves inexpensive doesn’t have to mean boring. “We added personality in ways that weren’t just about my clients,” Roberts says. “We wanted it to be approachable to other people by not going over the top.”
One of the ways she balanced personality with future resale value was with a clever nautical-inspired detail: the coordinates of the home’s location depicted in navy blue tiles.
“We had the best tile installer who was so patient about this,” Roberts says. They experimented with the penny rounds by laying them out on sketch paper to “dot out” the design for the tiles.
Roberts also mixed the subway and penny tiles on the sides of the shower to create a striped pattern. “You don’t see this back wall with the coordinates when you first walk into the room,” she says. “The stripes were a way to add a fun little detail that’s seen right away.”
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One of the ways she balanced personality with future resale value was with a clever nautical-inspired detail: the coordinates of the home’s location depicted in navy blue tiles.
“We had the best tile installer who was so patient about this,” Roberts says. They experimented with the penny rounds by laying them out on sketch paper to “dot out” the design for the tiles.
Roberts also mixed the subway and penny tiles on the sides of the shower to create a striped pattern. “You don’t see this back wall with the coordinates when you first walk into the room,” she says. “The stripes were a way to add a fun little detail that’s seen right away.”
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Navy penny rounds were also used to create a border around the shower floor.
Takeaways
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Takeaways
- Start with classic elements and then layer your personality on top.
- Elevate the look of personal photos by using matching frames and creating an organized gallery wall.
- Help a light-challenged room by adding as big a mirror as possible.
- Customize the look of standard tiles by using them in an unexpected way.
Read more bathroom stories
Find a local bathroom remodeler
Browse faucets with a warm metal finish
Shop for your bathroom
Bathroom at a Glance
Who lives here: A couple
Location: Del Mar, California
Size: 75 square feet (7 square meters)
Designer: Kelsey Roberts of Tracy Lynn Studio
Contractor: Mulvey Custom Builders
The overall style of the bathroom is nautical — brass accents play off a navy blue textured vinyl wallcovering, with bright white millwork providing contrast. Roberts completed a whole-house makeover that incorporated lots of traditional woodwork; the wainscoting seen here also appears along the home’s staircase. “We added lots of classic elements to ground the house with timeless details,” she says. She layered the home with personal touches atop this traditional base.
The biggest personal touch in the bathroom comes from the artwork. Her clients had friends and family pose for photos in front of street and business signs bearing their names. Roberts had 75 matching custom frames made for the photos so she could use them to create gallery walls. “These clients celebrate life and people so well,” she says.
The designer customized a dark brown vanity her clients already had by painting it white, replacing the hardware with crystal knobs, swapping in aged brass faucets and giving it a new Calacatta marble top and backsplash. The large beveled mirror helps bounce light around the room. Two globe pendant lights provide illumination.
“In a bathroom that is used daily for putting on makeup I would usually use wall-mounted sconces, but because this is a powder-guest room, we had a chance to do something unexpected with the light fixtures,” Roberts says. “And they allowed for a larger mirror.” The toilet — not shown in the photos — is across from the vanity.
Wallcovering: Phillip Jeffries
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