Renter-Friendly vs. Full Bathroom Renovation With a Pro Designer

Architectural Digest

Today Architectural Digest welcomes back pro interior designer Darren Jett for a new edition of Re:Design. Today he is offering his expert advice on two small NYC bathrooms in serious need of help. With two very different budgets, Darren shares his ideas for a high-cost full renovation versus a cheaper, renter-friendly remodel.   Fill out this submission form of your space to be considered for future episodes: https://bit.ly/3oDyPjT   Check out Darren Jett here: Website: http://jettprojects.com/ Instagram: @jettprojects | https://www.instagram.com/jettproject...    Renders by Duke Renders   We Serve Busy Interior Designers With 100% Accurate Photo-Realistic 3D Renderings Of Their Creative Designs. We make you and your clients proud, confident and empowered at every step of the design process. Visit http://www.dukerenders.com/start  Director: Alice Roth Director of Photography: Charlie Jordan Editor: Sammy Cortino Host: Darren Jett Senior Producer: Vara Reese Associate Producer: Chloe Leung Production Manager: Melissa Heber Production Coordinator: Fernando Davila Camera Operator: Cloud Corredor Gaffer: Rebecca Van Der Meulen Audio Engineer: Kurt Seery Production Assistant: Noah Bierbrier

Transcript

00:00 Aaron hates this tile, I hate this tile.

00:02 All the tile goes down the toilet.

00:05 I'm Darren Jett, I'm an interior designer.

00:07 I'm going to be helping two people redesign their bathrooms

00:10 with two very different budgets.

00:12 And this is "Redesign."

00:13 [upbeat music]

00:16 This is John.

00:23 John wants to brighten the space, but on a budget.

00:26 And this is Aaron,

00:27 and Aaron wants to do a full renovation on his bathroom.

00:30 I would say the first thing that I noticed

00:31 about both of these bathrooms

00:33 is that their footprint is quite small.

00:35 We're going to have to definitely optimize

00:37 what we're working with.

00:38 And two, there's no window.

00:40 So both of these are quite dark.

00:42 You might look at the footprint of these bathrooms

00:44 and think, "There's nothing I can do."

00:46 But actually you can really do so, so, so much.

00:49 All right, let's do it.

00:50 [paper crinkling]

00:52 The main issues of the space

00:53 are that we have tiles that we don't like.

00:56 We have bathrooms that need more storage.

00:57 We have bathrooms that need a bit more personality.

00:59 And we're going to have to figure out ways

01:01 to brighten them up.

01:02 The first issue we're going to tackle

01:04 is this horrible tile.

01:05 This tile is not great.

01:08 I don't think we have all the time

01:10 to talk through all the reasons why it's not great.

01:13 I see this tile all the time.

01:14 You know, it's a new development tile.

01:16 It's sort of a contractor special.

01:18 The reason why you see it is 'cause it's cheap

01:19 and it's available.

01:20 I think though that for a bathroom

01:22 that is lacking natural light,

01:24 for a bathroom that is relatively small,

01:26 to me this feels a bit dark

01:28 and it honestly just feels a bit dingy.

01:30 If you don't have a big budget

01:31 and you want something that's very quick and easy

01:33 and also can be removed later on,

01:35 do a peel and stick tile.

01:36 John told us he loves mid-century modern.

01:38 Why don't we do something that has a bit of

01:40 a geometric pattern?

01:41 Perhaps we do a checkerboard for instance.

01:43 How cool would that be?

01:44 I think doing a very simple textured wallpaper on here

01:48 would go miles.

01:49 If you want something that reads almost like a neutral

01:52 and reads almost as though it is one surface

01:55 but has slight variations and slight interest,

01:57 grass cloth is a great way to go.

01:59 It's also quite mid-century modern.

02:01 For the renovation, we will replace the tile with stone.

02:06 Aaron hates this tile.

02:08 I hate this tile.

02:10 All the tile goes down the toilet.

02:13 Tile in general, especially a subway tile

02:15 that's a smaller format,

02:16 it has a lot of grout lines.

02:18 Grout lines in a bathroom are always a problem area.

02:21 So think about removing all of that tile

02:23 and replacing it with something beautiful,

02:26 large format stone perhaps,

02:27 and what that might feel like and look like.

02:29 I wanna keep that slab material at Wainscot height.

02:33 Wainscoting simply means that it comes up to about

02:36 waist height or a little bit higher.

02:38 Above that, I simply wanna paint everything

02:40 a beautiful color.

02:41 The second issue is that there's not enough storage.

02:45 Currently, John has a few things

02:47 sort of kind of all over the place.

02:48 All of this stuff right here on the toilet,

02:50 let's move it.

02:51 Let's get it off the back of the toilet.

02:53 I never like that.

02:54 It never looks good.

02:54 He has a lot of space up here above the toilet,

02:57 a big empty blank wall.

02:59 I think what would be so nice is for him

03:00 to actually get a shelf that runs the full length here.

03:04 And look, he can do something very simple.

03:06 He can move the diffuser up there.

03:08 He can have some towels nicely rolled up right there.

03:12 Maybe he could even lean some art up against the wall

03:14 to give a little bit of personality.

03:15 Little things like this go a long, long way.

03:20 And for Aaron's bathroom,

03:21 I really want to give him space for all of his products.

03:25 So Aaron wants to convert his tub into a walk-in shower.

03:28 I think that's a really smart thing

03:30 from an investment point of view.

03:31 A lot of times when we do a shower for clients,

03:34 we run into the situation where we realize

03:36 that all of their products are sort of out on display.

03:38 You really want all those things

03:40 to be sort of tucked away and hidden.

03:42 What we can do in a bathroom like this

03:43 is actually do that by building out

03:46 the sort of wall right here

03:49 between the shower and the vanity.

03:51 So if we're working within a small bathroom already

03:53 and someone says to me, "I don't need a bathtub.

03:56 "I really only take showers,"

03:58 get rid of that tub, give you more floor space

04:01 within the same square footage,

04:02 and you just have a much nicer experience when you shower.

04:05 Aaron has a lot of product.

04:06 Having storage is paramount.

04:08 The third main issue is a lack of lighting.

04:12 Lighting in a bathroom, you never only want light up here.

04:16 You're only gonna see all of the stuff

04:18 up here on your forehead that you don't wanna see.

04:19 So with John, right now the lighting

04:22 looks kind of like a serial killer lives here.

04:24 They make medicine cabinets on the market right now

04:28 for very, very cheap.

04:29 They actually have integrated lighting within them,

04:32 and that light is so flattering.

04:34 A bathroom should never have cold lighting like this.

04:37 No room should have cold lighting like this.

04:39 You don't look good.

04:41 What you need to have is very, very warm lighting.

04:44 Typically in an apartment, I would say 2,700

04:46 is a great temperature.

04:47 When you go to the hardware store,

04:48 we'll say what temperature the light is.

04:51 Oftentimes, if it doesn't have a temperature,

04:53 like 2,700, it might say soft white.

04:56 It might say daylight.

04:58 You always wanna go towards soft white.

05:00 Soft white is just a warmer light.

05:02 Some people in a bathroom want it to be a little bit bluer,

05:04 so it's a bit more true to daylight.

05:07 This bathroom looks like it's almost 4,000.

05:09 I would say definitely 3,000 max.

05:13 For Aaron's bathroom, we will maintain the lighting

05:15 that's in the ceiling.

05:16 That will be on its own dimmer.

05:17 We will also have separate dimmers on lights

05:21 that are integrated into the medicine cabinets here.

05:23 That would be behind a diffused piece of glass

05:25 so that whenever you turn it on,

05:26 you don't really see all the bulbs.

05:28 All you see is the beautiful light coming through.

05:31 We wanna make it lighter and brighter on a budget.

05:36 I think if I came in and I said,

05:39 "You're gonna have to keep the tile.

05:40 You're gonna have to keep X, Y, Z,"

05:41 what you can definitely do on a budget is styling.

05:44 Let's replace the things that are easily replaceable.

05:47 The shower curtain, the bath mat, towels on the rod.

05:50 Keep those nice, fluffy, and white.

05:53 Keep them very simple and very beautiful,

05:55 and it makes everything just feel cleaner and fresher.

05:58 For the renovation,

06:00 we would get rid of all of the plumbing fixtures.

06:03 I really, really dislike a white fixture.

06:06 To do a renovation and end up with a white toilet

06:09 and a white sink and a white tub is so uninspiring to me.

06:14 I think that for someone like Aaron,

06:16 who constantly has people over,

06:18 not only do you want to have your own personal,

06:20 beautiful space,

06:21 but you also want to have people who come over

06:23 and remember something, right?

06:24 I think a very easy solution

06:26 is to simply have different colored fixtures.

06:30 Why have white when you can have a color?

06:33 So we're gonna give him a black toilet.

06:35 [soft music]

06:37 We walk into John's bathroom,

06:43 and we can't even tell that it wasn't renovated.

06:46 It actually looks really, really cool.

06:48 We have a checkerboard floor.

06:50 We have cool tile on the walls.

06:53 We have a beautiful textured wallpaper.

06:55 We have a lot more storage and styling,

06:57 and everything feels much more fresh than it did before.

07:00 Walking into Aaron's bathroom,

07:03 I'm entering Aaron's world,

07:05 a space that has a beautiful stone on the floor

07:08 and on the wainscoting.

07:10 We're giving him a lot of storage with a medicine cabinet.

07:13 We're also replacing his tub with a shower.

07:16 The same footprint, but it actually feels so much bigger.

07:19 It's much cleaner, it's more modern,

07:21 it's more user-friendly, and ultimately, it's more Aaron.

07:24 Do you want advice on your space?

07:25 Submit in the description below.

07:27 (upbeat music)

07:30 ♪ Okay ♪

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