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Best Bathroom 2023 Winner

The goal of this winning bathroom project was to elevate a home’s powder bathroom to match the design caliber of the rest of a freshly remodeled home without changing the existing layout or square footage.

by Tessa Cooper

Jun 2023

Photo by Jeremy Mason McGraw, Global Image Creations

Winning Designe

Nathan Taylor, Obelisk Home

Project Goal Summary

To elevate a home’s powder bathroom to match the design caliber of the rest of a freshly remodeled home without changing the existing layout or square footage.

While a powder bathroom doesn’t account for too much in terms of a home’s footprint, this small corner is often a key component of guest-facing real estate.

Nathan Taylor, principal designer and owner at Obelisk Home, kept this in mind when decorating this powder bath that was part of an entire home remodel. The homeowners were immediately on the same page as Taylor: Although petite, this space wasn’t going to be an afterthought in the home.

Taylor used a combination of existing and new elements in the room’s design. The wainscoting was already there, but he gave it a second life by adding a fresh coat of warm putty-hued paint that he color-matched to the patterned wallpaper. When paired with marble flooring, this new backdrop gave the 1990s powder bath an updated look on par with the rest of the home.

Swapping out the pedestal sink for a vanity with open storage gave the room a more open and functional feel achieved sans layout changes. Designing any small bathroom presents sourcing challenges, and Taylor had to come up with a creative workaround in a couple of instances throughout the project.

Photo by Jeremy Mason McGraw, Global Image CreationsIn this powder bathroom, Taylor paired design elements that complement rather than copy by selecting items with a common thread sourced from different manufacturers. For example, the gold ball-and-chain frame on the mirror is a nod to the gold spheres on the vanity’s pulls.

“We were very fortunate to find a vanity that fit through the door with barely any room to spare,” he says. “For the chandelier, we had to modify it by half an inch because the door wouldn’t open. So, we shortened the cables holding it up at the top. We love the light fixture because it has a pleated fabric on the inside of its shade that gives it a historical feeling.”

The accessories and patterns Taylor brought together in this project create a timelessly elegant space that doesn’t take itself too seriously. A watercolor portrait of a deer and neutral animal print wallpaper combine classic with whimsical. Mixing metals is one of Taylor’s signature design touches, so glimmers of gold next to nickel break the traditional mold via the vanity, faucet, mirror and light fixture. “Our idea was to create a tone-on-tone color scheme with just a little bit of the reflectivity of gold,” he says.