Complex Bathroom Renovations: The “Fabergé Eggs” of Home Improvement
I often compare complex bathroom renovations to Fabergé eggs — those amazing bejeweled pieces of art commissioned for members of Russia’s royal family circa the late 1800s.
While this metaphor may seem like a bit of a stretch, there are some valid comparisons to be made.
According to the Australia-based online art gallery Bluethumb, “Each Fabergé egg was unique, featuring elaborate designs and intricate mechanisms. Each took one to two years to complete and required work from multiple artisans with differing expertise, from metal smiths to diamond cutters, painters and other specialists.”
To be sure, a bathroom is also typically a small but very complex structure, with magical inner workings that are created by a collaborative team of artisans and then hidden behind an artistic surface. For these reasons, each bathroom renovation we undertake has unique challenges, one-of-a-kind outcomes, and unexpected surprises — just like the artwork in question.
Likewise, everyone admires the beautiful surfaces and slick functions of our finished bathrooms, but few people understand at the outset what goes into building them. Let’s take a deeper look at the process and how it compares to creating these extraordinary works of art.
In a bathroom, the walls are where we place all of its important mechanical functions — drains, water lines, plumbing vents, HVAC ducts, and electrical wiring — as well as features like doors, windows, and skylights.
To achieve Fabergé egg standards, we place each of these important items precisely so they have room to function well, look beautiful, and integrate seamlessly. It’s important to note that we typically try to avoid placing any bathroom water lines in the home’s exterior framing for walls, ceilings, and floors so we can avoid the risk of freezing. But this approach can sometimes eliminate 25-50% of the usable space for roughing in pipes, leaving us with a much smaller footprint for creating our masterpiece.
Once the locations are set and triple-checked, the insulation goes into the walls, and the wall sheathing go up. This creates the beautiful protective lining of the eggshell.
After all the hidden precision is completed, we finally move on to the parts everyone loves to see: the finishes!
As with theFaberge eggs, these are the jewels and sparkly bits everyone “oohs” and “aahs” over. Tile, stone, metals, lighting, faucets, controls, toilets, bidets, and tubs are all carefully fitted into their designated spaces. Moldings and trims are set, sanded, and painted, followed by a final polish and the big reveal of our finished shiny space.
As you would expect, a Fabergé egg-caliber bathroom takes a significant amount of time to plan and execute because it’s an enduring investment. To avoid quickly dated results, we avoid trendy choices and instead opt for the highest-quality products and materials that stand the test of time.
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