West U Realtor’s bathroom redesign grows into second floor renovation

Heidi Dugan is on her phone early in the morning, responding to email messages and texts and tending to previous-minute information of her serious estate work. She could sit and sip espresso in a lovely courtyard outdoors or any a person of the cozy rooms in her home, but it really is not unconventional to discover her in her newly renovated main lavatory, exactly where she can maintain courtroom with friends, co-personnel and shoppers — electronically — for several hours.

Dugan, a Real estate agent for Greenwood King who has lived and labored in West U for 40 several years, sees what she feels is the most effective of what’s available in Houston space households, regardless of whether it is renovations in bathrooms, kitchens or even outdoor areas. While she bought her home some 20 a long time in the past and beloved it then, she’s completed a range of renovations as new issues in dwelling structure grabbed her awareness.

For the earlier handful of decades she’s renovated 1 place or one more with the assistance of interior designer Elizabeth Donnelly of Elizabeth Donnelly Interiors, updating furnishings and bringing in antiques and artwork and even sprucing up out of doors spaces. A significant element of the most the latest spherical of updates was gutting and remodeling her key rest room upstairs, and refreshing the relaxation of the upstairs of her home. The project started as a redo of the key toilet and closet, but grew from there.

Just before, her major rest room was octagonal in condition — a not-so-effective flooring program with uncomfortable corners and doorways set up on the angles, a crafted-in spa tub and an angled shower.  Dugan knew that she preferred antique tile, beautiful marble and a attractive chandelier. 

“I sit at my vainness for a seriously lengthy time each individual working day. It is not simply because I’m vain it is mainly because I’m there with my mobile phone and responding to texts and email messages. My do the job by no means stops,” claimed Dugan, a native of Miami Seashore who arrived to Houston in her early 20s. “It’s extremely peaceful below. I do not have a 9 to 5 career I get the job done 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 Household Structure to to design a tailor made vainness and do the job on the high-quality facts of the home. Erin Stetzer of Stetzer Builders was the contractor.

“The concept was to get a typical builder dwelling with his-and-hers vanities on opposite walls and reconfigure the house. It really is not extra area, but it is laid out in different ways, and what we accomplished was an open up, streamlined room with components that are light-weight and airy,” Donnelly claimed. “We took absent awkward angles and combined two closets, which gave Heidi her gorgeous, incredibly big closet.”

The reimagining of that rest room put a free of charge-standing tub about exactly where the constructed-in version was. Then, the shower was moved up coming to it with just one side “bumped out” with a pony wall and sheets of glass to make it feel even even larger. Within that shower, a pair of shampoo niches and a bench that feels like a tiny piece of furniture are covered in the similar Calacatta you can obtain on the vanity counters. 

Dugan fell in appreciate with the Outdated Globe really feel of antique tile and other architectural antiques stocked at Ruth Gay’s Chateau Domingue shop in the Heights location. She found some attractive tile there, bought on Gay’s very last shopping for trip to France right before the COVID shutdown. The marble had been utilised 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 purchased the tile and many columns ahead of it was demolished, she mentioned.

When the tile arrived at Dugan’s house, she, Donnelly and Lauterbach acquired it out, hand washed it and cautiously made the decision the placement of each individual tile.

Other European decorations contain the new Murano glass chandelier, manufactured in Italy, and an antique Murano-framed mirror that hangs over Dugan’s customized-designed makeup self-importance. That piece of furniture was intended by Lauterbach, a vintage fashion with Artwork Deco touches created with walnut wood.

“We wished the vainness to come to feel glamorous, nevertheless its very first precedence was to be useful due to the fact it serves as a next desk for Heidi,” Donnelly stated. “She receives ready there in the morning, but she can plug in her laptop computer, far too. It has concealed plugs and chargers almost everywhere, and the drawers are built to residence her solutions she uses to get all set every working day.”

She also keeps her wonderful-grandmother’s vanity set there, a pretty tray and antique perfume bottles.

Not only did they turn two smaller sized closets into 1 bigger space, but they completed it out with exquisite detail with fumed French oak. Lighted, glass-entrance cupboards demonstrate off her collection of purses and superior-heeled footwear, and locking drawers are lined with suede to display her jewellery. 

Donnelly reported that many of her clients want boutique-design and style closets that run as a dressing place, with dresses, footwear and accessories effectively structured and shown. Valet rods, as well as pullout rods for scarves, belts or neckties are hand and can be house savers, way too. Lighting is important, so property owners can see what they have, and glass shelving can help the mild filter as a result of, making it all really feel far more open, Donnelly said.

 In the rest of the major bedroom suite, they included stunning Gracie wallpaper to a vestibule and a Venetian plaster end on the partitions and ceiling of the bed room. A little guest home with a total tub turned her new residence gymnasium, and the rest room bought a refresh of its possess.

The upstairs recreation area is Dugan’s Tv set home, and it bought a makeover with a developed-in console cabinet built of fumed French oak changing ground-to ceiling cabinets that experienced louvered doorways. The place is filled with much more contemporary furnishings, together with a comfortable sectional couch with an acrylic espresso table, as well as a curvy chair with ottoman and a tiny Saarinen Tulip table paired with modern chairs. A new brass chandelier lights up the room, and a substantial Michael von Helms abstract painting fills a facet wall.

Dugan raised her two sons, Alex Dugan, now 31, and Harrison Willett, now 40, in this household, and although Alex lives and works in Los Angeles — he’s a songwriter and direct singer of the band Tradition Wars —  he insists that his bed room and bathroom keep specifically as they had been when he was in superior school. Harrison, 40, life in Houston and is the father of 4 youthful kids.

Her sons utilized to carry their pals below when they were more youthful, and some still go to. She was recognized for obtaining a major Xmas celebration with 200 or much more folks, though COVID pressured a pause on these types of significant gatherings. Now, she’s much more likely to have a supper party for 12 in her rather eating room.

“This is my sanctuary, absolutely. It’s very personalized and incredibly a lot a reflection of who I am,” Dugan stated. “I have an art record diploma, so for me, when I sit here and seem at everything, I see each the splendor and the operate.”

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