This master bedroom and bath occupy a second-floor addition to what architect Sean Bell calls an “old 1940s war box.” The house's narrow, wedge-shaped site imposed a strict limit on interior square footage, but Bell's design makes every inch count, pairing bedroom and bath functions in a continuous space that maximizes the sense of volume in both. “They're not quite the same room, but they're connected together,” Bell says. The link is a clever piece of work that serves as vanity cabinet, mirror, privacy screen, and even headboard. Built around a stock cabinet box, the sink base wears a countertop, end panels, and drawerfronts of bamboo. Its doors and backsplash are stainless steel. The mirror hangs on a screen of spaced poplar boards held by a pair of clear-coated steel uprights.
An L-shaped partition offers privacy at the water closet, but the bedroom/bath is otherwise free of interior walls. A pre-finished cork floor extends from the sleeping area into the bath, and the same ceiling (paneled, like the walls, with sustainably produced hardwood-veneer plywood) slopes over both. A fixed panel of obscure glass catches spray from the oversize bathing compartment. “It's a wet room,” Bell says, “so you have the bathtub and the shower in the same room.” The raised shower pan is made of the same exposed-aggregate concrete as the adjacent rooftop deck, he adds, “so when you're in the tub, you feel like you're almost sitting outside.” The tub's location created still another function for the do-it-all vanity cabinet, which neatly conceals a plumbing chase.
Project Credits
Builder: Brian Tittel, Seattle
Architect: 360 Design Studio, Seattle
Project size: 150 square feet
Construction cost: Withheld
Photographer: Lara Swimmer
Resources: Cabinets/plumbing fittings/fixtures: Ikea; Flooring: I-Floor; Windows: Milgard.
