Bathroom

Renovating the old mill was a family effort, and Blee called on his sister Kate, a textile designer based in London, to lend a helping hand with the tile work. Kate's repertoire also extends to building installations, including a ceramic wall in the City and Islington Center for Lifelong Learning in North London. "She had several boxes left over," Blee recalls, "which meant another opportunity to use something that was lying around." The tiles, with finishes ranging from heavy glazes to matte coats, offered textural variety, which brother and sister used to "play around with the idea of reflection from the roof light."

To create a bit more texture in the kitchen and baths, the couple added classic checkered tiles from the local hardware store—an inexpensive option that broke up the polished concrete floors spanning the rest of the house. Pavonetti designed and built the pedestal sinks using reclaimed cedar siding.

In the serene upstairs bathroom, Kennon paired Chinese Bluestone floors from Defazio with white ceramic wall tiles from local supplier Classic Ceramics. The tub is by Bette with a Roger Seller faucet, while the bathroom sink is by Argent with a Grohe faucet.

For the bathroom, the architects designed a clever tub that can serve as a shower, too. “Curved bath edges are not great to stand in so we wanted it to have a flat base,” Bright says. “We also didn't like that you would have to step over the edge of the bath to get in the shower. The solution to this was to sink it down.” The light is by Tub Design and fixtures by Duravit.

For the bathroom inside a renovated Hollywood bungalow, architect Noah Walker used a simple palette of gray and white tile, black countertops, and stainless steel fixtures.

Prioritize either storage or easy cleaning. While extra storage is always nice, it is important to note freestanding vanities are also known for being harder to clean, since there are more corners and nooks where dust can hang out around them.