They moved from Chicago to Charlotte about two years ago, and settled into a French chateau-style home in an eclectic neighborhood dotted with trees and ponds. But Maddie’s personality didn’t quite fit with that of her bathroom. “It was sad, beige, and dated,” Papier says. “It had fantastic crown molding, but other than that, nothing was salvageable.” It also had an oversized tub on an entire wall that nixed any square footage for a shower, and mirrors on all sides that reflected the dirty grout of the floor’s tiles. Papier wanted to give her daughter a retreat that mimicked her charm, while seizing the opportunity to showcase her personal talents. “Everyone in the family puts up with my design whims,” she jokes. Maddie is on the local swim team, and Papier looked to historic swim photos as the main inspiration for the renovation. “I wanted to give it a girlie, vintage-meets-modern design,” she says. She partnered with contractor Sean Carlin on the project, which became a One Room Challenge, and he devised a revolutionary idea. “We flipped the bath side with the vanity side to make room for a stand-alone tub and shower,” she says. “Everything was demoed to completely change the layout.” Yellow and white tiles reminiscent of cabana umbrellas were painstakingly installed in a running stripe down the shower wall and across to the vanity, while green and blue floral wallpaper was put on the ceiling for a playful contrast. “Sean built a custom vanity based on a design I gave him, complete with a concrete countertop and wall-mounted faucet,” she adds. Perforated sconces and chrome hardware add interesting shapes and subtle shine to the space without competing with its bolder features, and a custom window shade ties in one more bright color to match a strawberry-shaped stool. “The final components were the mirrors, and I decided on doing two of the same ones but in different sizes for a little more whimsy,” Papier says. The room was completed earlier this summer after a few months of construction, and now it effortlessly complements Maddie’s individuality. “Many components came together in this small space, so it was important to go step by step with the plans, starting with the stripes,” Papier says. “I spent a lot of time making sure my measurements were accurate, because scale was everything in this design.”
Get the Look:
Can’t find the strawberry stool at your local stores? Try this pineapple perch instead.
