Tag: Bath Remodels

Blue Harbor Kitchens + Baths| A Collaboration of Style & Convenience

With lots of strategic planning and a great vision came a beautifully designed showroom and new Kitchen and Bath division.

Thorson Welcomes Blue Harbor Kitchens + Baths | A collaboration of style and convenience.

The Thorson team could not be more thrilled to share this extension of our company with our clients & family.

Blue Harbor Kitchens + Baths was a vision many had and hoped for – especially BHKB General Manager, Jill Muldoon. Jill has been in the kitchen and bath design/construction industry for over eighteen years. Specializing in high-end residential projects and top-notch customer service.

Get to know Jill Muldoon!

Our showroom serves as an opportunity for clients to be able to work closely with Thorson to plan their next home improvement project/new build and also work in-house to review and select design finishes. We hope to see many familiar and new faces at our Blue Harbor Kitchen + Bath showroom and trust the convenience + style of this “one stop shop” allows for a memorable and seamless experience.

The indoor/outdoor bathroom

Design & Detail Spotlight

Living in a coastal community as we do here in the Northeast means that many design details in a home are catered to the coastal lifestyle. Whether you are planning for your main residence or a summer home, any home in proximity to a beach is often going to have (or want) an outdoor shower. It’s a matter of practicality really; the comings and goings from the beach can get messy and having a space to rinse off before entering the home means less of that sand and grit make it into your living space.  Plus taking a shower out in the open air with a view of the sky & stars is just plain AWESOME. If you’ve never had the opportunity to do it then you’re missing out, but back to the topic at hand. When planning for an outdoor shower why not take it a step further and amp up that functionality ten-fold with an indoor/outdoor bathroom.

While not a new idea this one is definitely one we don’t see too often. This design detail was incorporated into one of our Plymouth Whole House Renovation projects that architect Jennifer Drain of Archiplicity worked with the homeowner to develop the layout that essentially combines an outdoor shower with an adjacent half bath accessible from the showering area on the exterior. I have to admit that it’s not too often you see an exterior door that leads directly into a bathroom but in this case it’s just pure genius.  Let’s face it when you are gearing up for a shower there are inevitably other areas of the bathroom that are needed.

This particular home has the toilet and sink portion of the bath on the interior and the mahogany enclosed shower & changing area on the exterior. The frosted glass door allows light to flow to the interior while still providing a measure of privacy to the showering area. Another bonus is the ability to have direct access to a bathroom from the exterior.  Perhaps the kids are having fun in the mud and you ask them to come in and get cleaned up for dinner. Instead of trailing that mud through the house they rinse their feet off in the shower and hands in the sink and are cleaned up and ready for dinner before even setting foot in the main living space.

Keep in mind though that an outdoor shower will require a bit more maintenance than the indoor variety especially if you live in the Northeast or any other cool weather climates. The piping will have to be winterized to prevent freezing so the outdoor portion of the bathroom will be out of commission during freezing temperatures. Even with limited use in the winter months we feel an indoor/outdoor bathroom should be on most coastal New England homeowner’s wish lists.

If an indoor/outdoor bathroom is on your wish list, contact us to get the planning process started and let’s make that wish list a reality!

 

Plane Large Format Tile

Product Spotlight: Plane Large Format Tile

Plane Large format tile installed in an entire bath.

This new product has been creating a lot of buzz among industry professionals. Why you ask? Simply put because it brings the best of many products together into one.

The look of expensive marble or stone slabs with the durability and ease of porcelain tile. Super durable and versatile for any surface inside or out. Some may hesitate to install natural stone in certain environments or settings due to it’s porous nature but with porcelain as the material and highly convincing printing techniques that mimic real stone veining this large format Tile has the look and feel of polished stone but can hold up to a lot more abuse. 

The large format, as large as 5’x10′ tiles, means fewer grout lines. For many showers this could mean no grout lines to clean at all!

PLANE is available in 15 different colors from several variations of marble/stone prints to the look of concrete or metal.

Want to incorporate Plane Large Format Tile in to your next project? Contact us to start planning!