Project Description
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Best Master Bath in a Custom Home
Leapin’ lizards! The client wanted a reptile habitat in his new master bath. Now that’s not a request custom home pros get everyday. Nor is a reptile expert a member of every custom home design team. But the lizard terrarium is just one of the features that make this stunning master bath addition out of the ordinary.
The project started out simply as a redo to the existing master bath, but soon evolved into an addition—a pavilion entered through two existing doors in the master suite. At the threshold of each door glass floors lit from below signal that this isn’t an ordinary bathroom. Its 1,300-square-foot size alone puts the bath in the extraordinary category, and so do the room’s finishes and features.
The idea was to create a Zen-like structure in the garden, explains architect Rebecca Swanston, “and that drove all the natural finishes.” The bath is a study in stone and wood. Douglas fir clads the interior space that soars above the slate floor. Light fills the room from bands of clerestory windows that run along the monitor roof and from sliding doors that open to the private garden. Glowing onyx counters, lit from behind, contrast with the stacked stone wall, embedded with fossils, that separates the dressing area from the shower. (A shelf at the top of the wall sends water cascading down the stone into the shower.) Onyx also surrounds the Sō k tub.
Completing the natural setting is the walk-in terrarium. Plants growing from its stone wall provide food for lizards, and special light filters on the clerestory window panes prevent harmful rays from reaching them. For more creature comfort, a dedicated HVAC system keeps temperature and humidity at lizard-friendly levels. The panel judged this bath a great place for man and beast.