Formal Endeavour
This house whisperer dresses up a bathroom for the gilded age.
There’s an edge of girlishness to designer Kerri Watson’s master bath: a curvy mirror, soft lighting and even a matte gold chandelier. Yet the design has its masculine side, too. “Different shades of white and cream are layered to create a subtle backdrop that shows off sexy black doors, like a tuxedo,” says Watson. “Polished chrome doorknobs are like silver Tiffany cufflinks.” There’s just something about dressing up.
Watson’s appreciation for traditional and layered design came from a stint in Atlanta, Georgia, where antiques are front and centre and “there’s no such thing as too much.” Think decorating doyenne and Southern-belle-atheart Bunny Williams, whom Watson happily met while there. “I think I must have lived in the South in a past life!” she laughs.
Watson came back to Vancouver inspired to reinstate golden-age glory in her own Vancouver home. She became the house whisperer, she says, listening to the strong underlying architecture of the 1912 Tudor-style home. “Everything that I added had to support the existing architecture,” she explains, “and not try to compete with it.” She started with the shimmer of
mother-of-pearl shell tile for a feature wall and a Venetian-style mirror that referenced the home’s past. From there, she continued reimagining and reconfiguring, bit by bit, the grandeur of the home—and bathroom.
Original solid-wood doors were stripped, repaired and lacquered in black satin; hardware was removed, repaired and chrome plated. Meticulous underpinnings were crafted: crown mouldings, door and window frames and baseboards were custom milled to match existing ones. And for a little industrial heft: Watson uncovered the adjacent chimney shaft. “The brick is the rough contrast that grounds the space and keeps it from looking too feminine,” she says.
Thoroughly revamped, this bathroom is now dressed up to fit the bones of the turn-of-the-century house—with a modern sensibility. Traditional features are the rather dapper suit for a fresh, contemporary vibe. It’s much like the Philippe Starck Ghost chair that Watson has set here: a reinterpretation of a classic. She describes the reincarnation of this bathroom as sophisticated, timeless, graceful and tranquil. And Bunny Williams would be proud.