West U Realtor’s bathroom redesign grows into second floor renovation
Heidi Dugan is on her cellphone early in the morning, responding to emails and texts and tending to last-moment facts of her serious estate operate. She could sit and sip coffee in a attractive courtyard outside or any just one of the cozy rooms in her household, but it really is not unconventional to find her in her recently renovated major bathroom, in which she can maintain court docket with mates, co-staff and consumers — electronically — for several hours.
Dugan, a Real estate agent for Greenwood King who has lived and labored in West U for 40 a long time, sees what she feels is the very best of what is accessible in Houston area houses, irrespective of whether it really is renovations in loos, kitchens or even outdoor areas. Though she bought her house some 20 many years in the past and beloved it then, she’s accomplished a range of renovations as new matters in residence style and design grabbed her notice.
For the past handful of a long time she’s renovated a person place or a further with the enable of inside designer Elizabeth Donnelly of Elizabeth Donnelly Interiors, updating furnishings and bringing in antiques and artwork and even sprucing up outside spaces. A large element of the most modern round of updates was gutting and remodeling her principal lavatory upstairs, and refreshing the relaxation of the upstairs of her household. The job commenced as a redo of the principal bathroom and closet, but grew from there.
Right before, her key rest room was octagonal in form — a not-so-effective ground strategy with uncomfortable corners and doorways put in on the angles, a designed-in spa tub and an angled shower. Dugan realized that she wanted antique tile, beautiful marble and a stunning chandelier.
“I sit at my vanity for a genuinely lengthy time each working day. It’s not because I’m vain it is due to the fact I’m there with my cellular phone and responding to texts and e-mails. My do the job by no means stops,” claimed Dugan, a native of Miami Seaside who arrived to Houston in her early 20s. “It is really tranquil in this article. I really do not have a 9 to 5 position I work 24/7. I start answering messages when I get up and I can go to 11 p.m.”
Donnelly brought in interiors architect Nadia Palacios Lauterbach of Nadia Palacios Residential Style to to design a custom made vanity and operate on the wonderful aspects of the place. Erin Stetzer of Stetzer Builders was the contractor.
“The concept was to just take a regular builder residence with his-and-hers vanities on opposite walls and reconfigure the space. It can be not more place, but it is laid out in another way, and what we accomplished was an open up, streamlined place with materials that are light-weight and ethereal,” Donnelly claimed. “We took absent uncomfortable angles and mixed two closets, which gave Heidi her wonderful, really substantial closet.”
The reimagining of that lavatory positioned a cost-free-standing tub about in which the built-in variation was. Then, the shower was moved up coming to it with one particular side “bumped out” with a pony wall and sheets of glass to make it really feel even even larger. Inside of that shower, a pair of shampoo niches and a bench that feels like a little piece of home furnishings are covered in the exact same Calacatta you are going to uncover on the vanity counters.
Dugan fell in like with the Outdated Globe feel of antique tile and other architectural antiques stocked at Ruth Gay’s Chateau Domingue store in the Heights space. She found some lovely tile there, acquired on Gay’s last buying excursion to France prior to the COVID shutdown. The marble had been applied as flooring in an 18th century chapel at a monastery on the grounds of the Basilic Saint Aphrodise in Beziers in southern France.
The chapel was about to be torn down, so Homosexual bought the tile and many columns right before it was demolished, she claimed.
When the tile arrived at Dugan’s house, she, Donnelly and Lauterbach bought it out, hand washed it and carefully determined the placement of just about every tile.
Other European decorations involve the new Murano glass chandelier, built in Italy, and an antique Murano-framed mirror that hangs more than Dugan’s tailor made-manufactured makeup vainness. That piece of home furnishings was designed by Lauterbach, a typical model with Art Deco touches designed with walnut wood.
“We wished the vainness to sense glamorous, however its 1st priority was to be purposeful considering the fact that it serves as a second desk for Heidi,” Donnelly explained. “She receives prepared there in the morning, but she can plug in her notebook, way too. It has hidden plugs and chargers everywhere you go, and the drawers are developed to property her products she takes advantage of to get all set every single working day.”
She also keeps her terrific-grandmother’s vanity set there, a pretty tray and antique perfume bottles.
Not only did they change two lesser closets into 1 bigger house, but they finished it out with exquisite detail with fumed French oak. Lighted, glass-entrance cupboards show off her collection of purses and substantial-heeled sneakers, and locking drawers are lined with suede to exhibit her jewellery.
Donnelly said that many of her customers want boutique-fashion closets that work as a dressing room, with outfits, sneakers and add-ons nicely structured and displayed. Valet rods, in addition pullout rods for scarves, belts or neckties are hand and can be house savers, as well. Lights is essential, so householders can see what they have, and glass shelving helps the gentle filter by, generating it all feel much more open, Donnelly reported.
In the relaxation of the key bed room suite, they included gorgeous Gracie wallpaper to a vestibule and a Venetian plaster complete on the walls and ceiling of the bedroom. A compact guest space with a entire tub turned her new household gym, and the toilet obtained a refresh of its personal.
The upstairs recreation area is Dugan’s Tv set area, and it received a makeover with a crafted-in console cupboard made of fumed French oak changing flooring-to ceiling cupboards that had louvered doors. The place is loaded with a lot more up to date furnishings, which includes a cushy sectional couch with an acrylic coffee table, furthermore a curvy chair with ottoman and a smaller Saarinen Tulip table paired with modern day chairs. A new brass chandelier lights up the area, and a huge Michael von Helms summary portray fills a facet wall.
Dugan elevated her two sons, Alex Dugan, now 31, and Harrison Willett, now 40, in this home, and even though Alex life and works in Los Angeles — he is a songwriter and guide singer of the band Society Wars — he insists that his bedroom and toilet stay just as they were when he was in significant school. Harrison, 40, lives in Houston and is the father of four younger youngsters.
Her sons made use of to provide their close friends below when they were being more youthful, and some even now take a look at. She was acknowledged for obtaining a big Xmas social gathering with 200 or far more men and women, nevertheless COVID compelled a pause on such substantial gatherings. Now, she’s a lot more very likely to have a supper get together for 12 in her quite dining space.
“This is my sanctuary, undoubtedly. It is extremely private and extremely a lot a reflection of who I am,” Dugan explained. “I have an art background degree, so for me, when I sit listed here and glimpse at every little thing, I see the two the elegance and the perform.”
