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When purchasing a home in Philadelphia, few buyers ever have the experience of finding a house that is in the right location, right price and that fits their personal design taste. You should consider yourself lucky to hit two out of three of these goals. Location and price both worked out for one of our clients last year, when they purchased a historic Center Hall Georgian Colonial in Mount Airy. They chose this house as a perfect location, which makes sense considering it overlooks a corner of the 1800 acre Wissahickon Park.

The house was beautiful but most of the bathrooms would need to be completely overhauled without disrupting the delicate plasterwork and other finishes in the adjacent rooms. To accomplish this, they would need more than just an architect or interior designer firm. They understood the value of partnering with a firm that would take full design and production responsibility for the building’s historic elements. In Bellweather, they found seasoned team members that would provide them with a solid education about how to approach their home, thoughtful design options and some great advice for renovating their historic Philadelphia home.

Our clients approached us for 3 bathroom remodels, including a master suite remodel, a jack-and-jill kids bathroom renovation as well as this guest bathroom remodel. All three bathrooms required full gut-renovations, as well as some floor plan reconfigurations. This allowed our architectural designers maximum creativity to propose the most functional layouts for the owner’s intended uses.

Designing a New Guest Bathroom

The family wanted to protect the original character of their home during the design process. For the guest bathroom in particular, our client's primary goal was to modernize the space while still being sympathetic to the original architectural style of the home.

In order to preserve much of the character, carpentry and original details, we needed to maintain the existing location for the window, plumbing, linen closet and door to the guest suite. While this made space planning more complicated, Stephanie (one of our architectural designers) was able to develop floor plans that improved efficiency and flow through the space, but retained these elements in their original location.

The new proposed floor plans included maintaining the tub location, which was in the corner of the room. During exploration, it was found that the original clawfoot tub had leaked into their music room below, so we ultimately repaired the structure below and advised them to purchase a new tub rather than repair the old historic fixture. Our designers worked diligently to find a similar corner style tub that our clients would enjoy. We love how this space turned out and how it integrates with the style and character of the rest of the home.

Designing a New Guest Bathroom

The most challenging aspect of renovating old homes is improving the space without dramatically changing the architectural style. We presented several material and finish options to our clients that all had a slightly modern interpretation of bathrooms found in well appointed homes in the late 19th century.

This guest suite follows the same timeless and classic design as the master suite. The brass finishes against the white Carrara marble are examples of design elements that allowed us preserve the history and character of the home while respectful of turn of the century influences.

Remodeling with Bellweather Design-Build

At Bellweather Design-Build, we bring all aspects of a remodeling project together to efficiently plan, design, and build projects. We've created a streamlined process that aligns the architectural, interior design, and construction services to successfully design and build projects on budget and on time.

Interested in learning more about our process? Contact us today!