So this is an overview of the bathroom we have completed in Ottawa in the beginning of 2026. This one is one of my favorites, even though I think for every project I say the same: that is one of my favorites.
Before the Renovation
This bathroom came to us, as you look through the original before photos, straight from the builder’s standard 1980s–1990s townhouses. Many of them exist in Ottawa, and you might be living in one of them. The bathroom was elongated, nothing special. It was still functioning, but it was absolutely lacking character.
The Reason for the Bathroom Update
As many customers age, they find that using a tub/shower combination becomes not practical, and I would almost say difficult. The idea was, it’s time to renovate the bathroom, it’s time to update it. We’re not moving fixtures to a different location — we are doing what we call a like-for-like installation, except we are replacing a bathtub with an easy-to-walk-into acrylic base shower with tilework.
Design Inspiration
While we are at it, why not make it beautiful? For our customer, the inspiration, or customer motivation, was this East Coast feel — airy, almost like a seaboard bathroom. One of the things she really wanted from the get-go is shiplap, and we’ve worked on this together. Her idea was just to have shiplap on one wall, but she was very receptive to my ideas, and we’ve added the second wall of shiplap on the window wall, which I think dresses the bathroom beautifully.
Scope of Work
The scope of work included:
- Getting the entire bathroom to the studs, to the floor
- Removing an unnecessary electrical light fixture box that was housing the fluorescent light fixture
- We’ve selected a beautiful wood plank-like tile that went on the floor, with this very gentle beige color that matches the rest of the customer’s house, so the bathroom now becomes seamless with the rest of the house
- For the walls in the shower, we’ve selected a gray, large-scale tile with an easy-to-maintain but yet pleasant texture to it — thanks to Euro Tile and Stone of Ottawa for a great selection of tiles; we’ve never run out of those
- As an additional feature, because I think shiplap in and of itself is a wonderful feature, we’ve custom-built a custom in-wall niche
The Details
We have used two Schluter niches and combined them to create one oversized giant niche that can house all the customer’s accessories and essentials for her shower.
The rest of the bathroom received a very gentle light treatment of white — from the white ceiling to the white vanity, white mirror, white chandeliers and light fixtures, white casings and trim, and white baseboards.
The Final Result
All in all, our customer is stoked about this bathroom. She is taking a year off from renovation — sometimes renovation can be a lot — and next year we will be doing her powder room. Not sure if it’s going to be the same style, but we will work on something that will also inspire her and work in conjunction with the upstairs bathroom.
I am very, very happy with this project. It’s a typical three-piece bathroom with a little twist of elegance, style, and something that our customer likes.
I would love to hear from you if this is something you want to do in your home bathrooms, where we do slightly more than a standard typical three-piece or four-piece bathroom. These are truly an inspiration for me. If this is something that you are looking at, reading these words and feeling that this is something you would like to explore — what we can do in your home — do not hesitate to reach out. I’d love to talk to you.
– Ben W.