Our Primary Bath Reveal

This might seem a little outside the scope of my usual content, but I’ll argue that many designers are not interested in just one area of design, but many. In fact, I almost went into interior design before ultimately designing jewelry, but am always doing interior projects here and there. 

My husband and I bought our house in northern Georgia in the spring of 2024, along with my mom. The house was built in 2000, and while it has great bones and lots of traditional-style mill work, many of the finishes seem outdated and in need of some thoughtful reimaginings.

Before

Our first order of business was to smarten up the primary closet, which originally consisted of two parallel wire racks that made the space feel claustrophobic with our clothes hung on the bars. We ripped those wire racks out and Eric built custom shelving, enhancing the entire feel and functionality of the closet. We painted the built-ins our beloved White Duck, used previously in our home in Texas, and Greek Villa for the walls. I installed some wallpaper I’d been hoarding for almost a decade (which had to be removed for the bathroom reno, but it’s all good because it was my first wallpaper attempt and I learned a lot about installing it for next time). Now I’m in love! 

When designing the bathroom, I knew I wanted to lean into the traditional style of the house. As usual, I started collecting inspiration on Pinterest until a cohesive design came together in my mind. We have judges panel wainscoting in our dining room that I wanted to copy in the bathroom and paint it the perfect green (Luxe by Joanna Gaines) to have a nature-forest-spa feel. 

As you can see, we moved everything around in the bathroom, giving it a completely new footprint. This was probably the biggest challenge considering I had to work the layout around two huge wall windows and two skylights. I thought I would probably replace those glass block windows down the line, but you know, now that it’s all said and done I don’t hate them! They subtly bring in more green from the bushes outside, which I love with the green paint. 

The beautiful marble floor tile is sourced from Castelli Marble and I feel it's the crowning glory of the bathroom. We used it on the shower floor, shower niches, and toilet room floor. I love how the color of the tiles plays so beautifully with the American cherry hardwoods we ran through the rest of the bathroom. Have you ever considered wood floors for a bathroom? My mom’s previous house had them and I just loved it. 

I chose to mix my metals in this room, which may sound like a gamble, but it looks timeless and elegant. I used polished nickel for the faucet fixtures throughout and brass for lighting, cabinet hardware, and mirrors. This particular combo works beautifully because nickel has a warm undertone, whereas chrome has a cool undertone and would have clashed. 

So that’s two projects down and probably I’ll work on the bedroom itself when we get back from Hawaii in the fall. I’d love to know what you think and answer any questions, so drop me a comment below.

As I was not around for the renovation, my mom graciously took all these photos and endured weeks of construction noise and mess. Luckily we had the best contractor around, who worked quickly and did a stellar job. If you need a contractor in north Georgia, don’t hesitate to reach out to Neeley Built Homes.