Photos by Rebecca McAlpin
For a Greenville home, Liza Nicole Interiors created bathrooms awash in sleek style, without sacrificing character.
When Liza Nicole, principal of Liza Nicole Interiors, thinks back on the bathroom redesigns she recently completed for clients in Greenville, she says the originals were “not horrible” in comparison to a lot of bathrooms that are due for a rehab. Still, when the North Wilmington–based designer redid two bathrooms in the clients’ home, it was clear that a lot of work would be required: The main bathroom, for example, had “peachy terra cotta floor tile, a vanity with kind of creamy pink undertones and a very intricate, overdone mirror with a very swirly frame around the mirror.” The lighting, she recalls, “was not modern.” And the ceiling was “falling apart.”
In addition, Nicole had to redo the plumbing and remove an “old-school” bidet. In came a high-tech Toto bidet and a steam shower that was important to the husband. “Before, [the bathroom] didn’t really reflect their personalities,” the designer recalls, “so I was trying to get in touch with who they are. They have a beautiful space that backs up to a lot of open land.” Nicole felt she could imbue this tranquil space with everything her clients loved when they vacationed “in their happy place”—their Caribbean property in Antigua.
The main bathroom is now vast and luxurious, a serene space that nevertheless engages the senses as the eye moves from the craftsmanship of the vanity to the bright steam shower finished in Arabescato marble and outfitted in Jaclo fixtures and the Maidstone soaking tub, which is bathed in natural light from the windows above. All the bathroom’s nonnatural lighting came from Visual Comfort.
“I thought, let me bring in a little of the British colonial vibe—old world yet modern…[and] warm it up with that vanity that we had custom-made with black walnut, and keep everything light and bright—everything they spoke to me about when they returned from their trips to Antigua,” Nicole explains. “That was really inspiration for this bathroom.” (The walnut vanity is topped with white quartz.)
Another inspiration was hummingbirds—which the clients love and attract with backyard bird feeders. The water closet features wallpaper covered with the type of birds that flock to their yard.
The floor is covered with the same marble, with its rich gradations in color, as the steam shower: “That’s the beauty of Arabescato marble—I was able to identify which lots had that best variance in tone, because that’s what makes the marble really pretty.”
In the guest bathroom, Nicole had to work her magic on a space exemplified by a huge vanity with only one sink, “so it wasn’t very functional—and a teeny shower.” The couple’s son, a college student who often comes home for visits, had some input on the redesign. What resulted was a sage-colored vanity on the modern end of transitional and a more youthful variation of the main bathroom’s shower—this one clad in small vertical tiles on the walls, offset by multicolored, porcelain penny tiles on the floor.
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