• August 29, 2024

Evanston Mansion Renovation – Primary Bedroom, Bathroom and Closet

Take a tour through this beautiful 128-year-old Evanston mansion before we begin the renovation process. 

The primary bedroom of this Evanston mansion includes retrofit soffit challenges as well as some pretty wild design choices from the 1990s in a primary bath of wall-to-wall marble, mirrors and fancy sconces. We will be rearranging the bathroom elements to make the space comfortable and more modern for the new homeowner. The primary closet is enormous and has a beautiful, original door with original hardware.

 

Follow along!

• Episode 1 – Exterior and Foyer
• Episode 2 – Library and Family Room
• Episode 3 – Dining Room and Porch
• Episode 4 – Kitchen and Pantry
• Episode 5 – Stairwell and Landing
• Episode 6 – Primary Bedroom and Bathroom
• Episode 7 – Porch and Third Floor
• Episode 8 – Lower Level
• Episode 9 – Laundry and Guest Bath
• Episode 10 – Kitchen and Pantry After Demo
• Episode 11 – Primary Bath and Closet After Demo
• Episode 12 – Laundry and Guest Bath After Demo
• Episode 13 – Third Floor After Demo
• Episode 14 – Temporary Primary Bedroom

Transcript – Primary Bedroom

Welcome to one of the most beautiful mansions in all of Evanston that was built more than 100 years ago. From the primary bedroom, another fireplace. The previous owner added forced air into this house so you can see we have a bunch of soffits that are running on the perimeter. The soffits are a little bigger than I’d like them to be and a lot of ins and outs. So we floated an idea to actually take the soffits down, see how tall that ductwork actually is. Maybe we can modify it, maybe we can push it up to the existing structure.

We have a finished third floor above, which is why the ductwork is below the ceiling. The room would feel more cohesive if we had one finished ceiling. It’ll also allow us to maybe add some beams or a coffered ceiling to make a distinction between one sitting area and sleeping area. And by having one clean ceiling, it’ll also give us an opportunity to work on centerings of chandeliers and getting recessed lighting in where we want to.

Right now, this is the door to the bathroom. It’s just hanging out here in the bedroom. If you want to open it, you have to have it all the way laying against the wall, when really we want this door to swing into the bathroom. And we’re going to take this door opening and we’re going to shift it over this way. And when that happens, the center of the fireplace, the light fixture, and the new door opening will center on the door opening to the primary closet, which will center on the window beyond. So we’re going to create this access of view and light.

This doorway opening is so close to this vanity that if someone is using that sink, you’re going to feel like you have to shift around them to get in the bathroom. So function, beauty, harmony with getting this alignment. It’s going to be awesome.

 

Transcript – Primary Bathroom

Welcome to one of the most beautiful mansions in all of Evanston that was built more than 100 years ago. Welcome to the primary bath. This is another room that we plan to completely gut.

It is very dated. Every surface is either marble or mirror or some combination. We are on the second floor.

This house has a very steep mansard roof. You can see there’s a fold in this mirror here. That’s where the exterior wall stops and the roof starts.

So it’s like being in a fun house. I can see myself 40 times right now. Something else we’re going to do in this bathroom, besides completely gut it, is to look at raising the countertops.

Right now the countertops that are here are set low. They’re set at 30 inches. These days we’re typically setting bathroom counters at 36 above the floor, which is the same as what you would do in a kitchen.

The way it’s set up, we have two sinks. We have a built-in tub with two steps that are like 10 inches tall. We’re going to restore this to a freestanding tub. Something that would feel a little bit more classic and what you would expect in a house like this. Behind me is a shower. It’s tiny. It’s like three by five. I know that’s not tiny, but it’s tiny by today’s standards. On the other side here, we have a big toilet room with a bidet.

We discussed with the owner actually flip-flopping those. This wall that you see here that’s all mirror can actually become glass so that we can get some light into that shower. It’ll also offer them some privacy. Right now, with the glass shower here, anyone looking from the street across the street can probably see them. Also gives us the opportunity to expand this room just a hair. The size of this vanity is quite large. We don’t need that much space. I think that’ll be a nice change.

We are standing in the primary closet. This is the window that will be on access with the door from the bath through the bedroom centering. Nice and beautiful.

This is going to be a project of elimination. There’s some built-in closets around that we’re going to strip out. We’re going to keep the windows. Like so many other things in this house is this beautiful original mortise lock and it still works, like perfectly. It’s an old house. Do you know how rarely that ever happens? It’s just such smooth operation.

Someone can get up early, close the door to the bathroom, come in here, close the door, get dressed and escape. It’s another sort of level of privacy and it’s also just a really beautiful door. We’re going to work on the function so that getting to these you don’t need a step ladder to. I think it’s going to be a spectacular transformation.