The beach is right outside this house in Marina del Rey, California, but you'd never have known it from the dark and cramped master bath. Designer Daleet Spector reconfigured the space and added large windows to let in more light. "The clients don't like a lot of color, so we worked with different textures instead," she says.
Plain shiplap on the walls, painted pure white, reinforces the casual cottage theme. And there's something almost Japanese about the vanities, which manage to be rustic and sophisticated at the same time. They're made of cast concrete, in two smooth blocks that seem to float over the oak cabinets. "Concrete can be a very sensuous material, almost soft to the touch," Spector says. "And the surface has a beautiful irregularity that feels organic."
Wall-mounted faucets free up space on the countertops and leave the lines uninterrupted. "The forms are very simple, and that helps make the room feel calm and serene." Cement floor tiles pick up the gray and "add just the right amount of pattern," Spector says. "And they're cool and fresh on bare feet. The room is luxurious but in a very modern, understated way."
This story originally appeared in the October 2015 issue of House Beautiful.
