Upstairs in his long, narrow Seattle home, architect and homeowner Sean Bell avoided the “bowling alley dilemma” by alternating opaque and translucent sections along the long wall. A frosted-glass partition framed by simple wood shelves signals the master bath. Because the structure of the house is fully exposed, there was nowhere to hide pipes. Bell resolved the issue by stepping up the bathroom floor 6 inches. The extra space accommodates plumbing as well as a room-sized shower pan. “Water drains through the ironwood floor into the pan,” explains Bell. Those ironwood planks hold up well to moisture as do marine-grade plywood walls. Wall-to-wall windows touch the floor and fill the room with daylight and fresh air while a large sliding door opens the space to the master bedroom. “When I do bathrooms,” Bell says, “I try to get a lot of air movement to avoid moisture issues.”
Builder/Architect: 360 Design Studio, Seattle
Photographer: Lara Swimmer
