Our Denver, Colorado client for this project was a recently retired landscape architect, and she was eager to give this well-used powder bath an update that kept with the spirit of the rest of her home, with lots of warm, homey, grounded elements.

The bathroom doesn’t get much natural light, so the challenge was finding ways to brighten up the space without a result that felt cold and out of character. She had recently painted the bathroom a warm neutral with a touch of green, which coordinated with the color scheme in the rest of the house, so we focused on materials that would add brightness and warmth and play on the wood grain cabinets and paint color we were keeping.

We pulled in a warm marble wainscot tile for the vanity wall in a playful fish scale shape, updated fixtures and accessories in rich brasses and coppers, and replaced the old laminate counter with a warm-toned quartz, dramatic undulating vein and warm white background. A warm neutral mid-sized hex floor tile was the finishing touch in marrying old with new. And, seriously!, take a look at those Mother-of-Pearl knobs!

Helpful hint for DIY-ers: the countertop fabricator we use had a remnant of Cambria Brittanicca Gold Warm, which was a lottery-winning moment. For small project like bathrooms, you can save thousands by sourcing a remnant instead of paying for an entire slab, of which you’re using only a tiny fraction. And finding Cambria in a remnant yard is a lot like finding an artist’s work at the thrift shop. Not all quartz is created equal. Cambria is a family-owned American company based in Minnesota, and their quartz is high quality and exceptionally durable, with a 93% quartz content bonded with acrylic resin. It doesn’t require any maintenance like granite, marble, or quartzite, and it’s incredibly beautiful and dramatic.