French Pear Bathroom, His and Hers

Jan 15

This home is in the Rancho Santa Fe/Fairbanks Ranch area. It is a Country Ranch Traditional style that the family wanted to change to have more of a Country French feeling. The first project was a French china cabinet in walnut that I designed and built. After delivering the china cabinet they loved it so much and asked if I would help design their master bedroom.

For the master bathroom they wanted a "His and Hers" sink, a surround for the bathtub area and a linen cabinet. For the vanities I chose French pear, which comes from the French Alps, from old pear orchards that were dying and being taken out. It is beautiful wood; dense, live edge pieces of solid wood. I purchased plenty of slabs so everything was a match. With live-edge lumber it is difficult to determine the amount needed because the slabs vary so much in thickness and width, unlike conventional lumber where there isn't much variance.

Each piece in the bathroom was designed with different details and finishes. The vanities, as I said, are pear wood, natural color with a light glaze to highlight the details. The tub surround is curly maple with a light aniline dye, distressed, with a hint of paint on the edges and glazed, with a hand-carved floral design. The linen cabinet is made of big-leaf maple, with a light aniline dye, a distressed, painted and crackle finish, with a hand-carved basket of wildflowers.

It's hard to explain the amount of pleasure I get in coming up with a design, finding the right materials, building, finishing, and installing the projects. It's difficult work but I really enjoy it. I feel very fortunate to work with so many really nice people, and these clients made me feel like a part of their family when I was there.