The first thing that I wanted to do was to find out about the flooring option because I knew that that would be the biggest thing that we were doing. My client had already mentioned Marmoleum and I was already a huge fan of Marmoleum, I downloaded the specifications for a Marmoleum floor. I watched a lot of installation videos. I called Action Flooring, which is the company we used ultimately to lay down the floor. I chose some initial colours, and I called Forbo the manufacturer to be sure those colours choices were in stock. I found out what kind of substrate the floor needed, and I consulted with a couple of carpenters regarding the floor option. So it turns out that the main thing about a Marmoleum floor is that it needs to be installed correctly. If it isn't installed correctly it will fail. So it has to be pressed down with a hundred-pound roller, and it has a time-period in which the adhesive is setting, and you need to press down the floor with the hundred-pound roller during that window while it's drying but not dried yet - it's a very time-sensitive thing. And another thing is that the floor has to be completely level and it has to be smooth. So because the floor was going to be ripped out anyway, it was fine. I was able to tell my client about it needing to be level and smooth and the client put two plywood subfloors, one over the other, to ensure that it was level and to make sure that the floor was nice a smooth so that they could apply the Marmoleum. As a result the floor is absolutely perfect and came out really well. So I'm glad I did that footwork.
During our second consultation we went to visit Action Flooring. We asked them some questions and we got some catalogues to take a look at. We went to Habitat for Humanity Restore so that we could find some lighting and vanities and things like that. And as we were sitting in the parking lot, we chose the floor that we were going to use based on Archon Code that was in my phone and a picture of the sauna that's in the bathroom. It was really easy and it was obvious to both of us which one was right. There were only really a few options of flooring that would be perfect and there was one called 'Rust' and that was the perfect colour. We chose one initial colour and two backup complimentary colours. The first complimentary floor was greenish white with flecks of yellow and brown and kind of reddish colours in it. Then we had a second colour and it was kind of an orange colour.
Anyway, then we went into Habitat for Humanity to look for lamps and vanities and everything. None of the lights were exactly what I was looking for. Now I feel like I should really should put some lighting together to purchase, because there are so many things I was looking for that I just couldn't find ready to buy. That's something I'm kind of interested in doing. Anyway, there were lots of great things at Habitat for Humanity Restore. I very much recommend checking them out if you have a product you're looking for. And it keeps some of these perfectly useable products out of landfill which is a really good thing to do.
So the first lights that I saw that were really all the things that I wanted were a pair of red hanging lamps that came down from the ceiling with a red cord with a red plastic base and a plastic red shade. What I wanted was something that attached to the ceiling to give a feeling of height, because height corresponds to the element of fire. I also wanted the light to be a fire colour like red or orange or yellow - or even white. This red one was really good and was fulfilling a lot of the things that I wanted. In order to show my client what the pendant lights would look like on either side of the vanity I showed her some examples of other bathrooms where the designer employed this scheme.
Then it was time for some technical drawings. I sent her a plan for where to put the lights so that she could give this to the contractor. There was a possibility of having a larger vanity, so I made a plan for the smaller vanity and the larger vanity. And I also submitted my opinion that the vanity should be placed in the centre of the wall to make it a feature of the room. I also sent her four different options for dimmer switches and the pot-lights on the ceiling. The first was to have all four pot lights on the same dimmer switch, and the hanging task lamps over the vanity on a different dimmer switch. The second option was to have all the three main pot lights on their own dimmer switch and the one over the sauna on a different dimmer switch, with a separate dimmer switch for the task lamps over the vanity. I also suggested to have a pink or green coloured light over the sauna so that it would glow like a time machine. And that was my favourite option. I also included an option where all the lights were on the same dimmer switch. I had already decided to have the pot-light over the sauna centered over the top of the sauna for drama. I was pretty happy about that. The fourth option was to have the vanity task lights and all the pot-lights on the same dimmer switch.
While I was doing drawings, the next thing I did was present options for the flooring. I laid the plan for the bathroom over a design for the floor. The first design was to have the floor all one colour: rust. The flooring would be in two pieces of Marmoleum and they would be secured a process described as 'welding' them together. The second design was that the largest piece was going to be rust and the second piece would be one of the complimentary colours that we chose, 'white chocolate'. The third option I presented was to have an equal stripe of white chocolate with an equal stripe of the orange colour instead of one smaller piece. I didn't want to break anything up from the main larger flooring sheet because I wanted the floor to be protected and especially around the sink, toilet, and the bathtub. I didn't want any breaks in those places even though they weld it together the pieces are very well joined. The fourth option I described was to have most of the flooring the rust colour and then to have a triangle of orange coming from the edge of the sauna to the door and the rest of it white chocolate.
My next drawings were on the subject of electrical outlets. First of all, I specified that all of the outlets in the bathroom should be on a different circuit than the other outlets in the house. That's important because when you're using a heater, dehumidifier, and hairdryer, then it could overload whatever circuit it's on. I also wanted the kind of outlets that would switch off if there was a power surge. I wanted to ask that she have an outlet along the wall to the left of the door, so that there was the option to put a lamp on that dresser. Then I specified where the dimmer switch should be, that there should be a vacuum outlet near the window, at least one outlet over the sink, and then underneath the vanity for hairdryers and so on.
The floorplan for the project was created by Melodie Ballard whom I used to know a long time ago and it was nice to see her name on the plan. I think she's a welder now. The next thing we were involved with were vanity options. My client sent me a picture of a couple of vanity pictures. First, there was a plain Ikea vanity with drawer, which was a very cute option. Secondly she sent me a picture of this second-hand beautiful bulbous weird vanity that I thought was really cute. It was a lot less expensive than the one she had chosen already. I thought it was really something unique and that she should snag that one. It also happened to have a stone countertop. And because I wanted as much as the metal hardware to not look like metal as possible to warm up the space, I gave her the option to get a very elegant black tap set. And the taps were by Moen, and have a lifetime warrantee, which is good. I did a crude rendering to show what the taps would look like on the second-hand vanity which I liked the best.
The next thing we were discussing was paint, and I went to Canadian Tire and got a whole bunch of samples of different colours that would fit the general feeling I was looking for. There was a paint that they had called Premier Clean at Canadian Tire that has low VOCs which I like. They had an eco paint with zero VOC at the Kingston Paint and Decorating store. That paint didn't have any mildewcide and fungicide in the paint which are important to have in a bathroom paint. This is also where I specified how much paint they would need. In the end my clients took the paint chips I gave them and went over to Dulux and got a VOC paint that was from the array of colours that I recommended. They chose the colour themselves from the ideas that I gave them. I recommended a white paint on the ceiling and the crown molding because I wanted to create that feeling of height.
At this point things were really starting to come together excitingly! The lighting option that we went with ultimately was something like the hanging red plastic lamp that I found at first, but it was something I put together from pieces Habitat for Humanity Restore. They were these kind of brass-looking hanging lamp rods and I found this nice glass shade that looked like they were painted with fur. I painted the brass parts with a zero VOC red paint and put the lamp and the shade together. I'm so proud of them. I think I might put more lights together like this in the future. I'm really proud of myself and I think the result is beautiful.
I couldn't have asked for a better client. And it really it was an honour for me to be there for her at that time. I thought the job went just as well as it could. It is wonderful, and I'm so pleased with it.
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