Open spaces

When the owner of this home moved from a rural area surrounded by large tracts of land to an urban environment, he did not want to feel caged in. So his request to designer Robert Cole was to design a master suite that created a sense of those wide open spaces.

This, he achieved, by gutting the entire 400sqft second level, converting the original two bedrooms, bathroom, two closets and corridor into a single, loft-style master bedroom suite.

The first step was to remove the ceiling, exposing the rafters and 13ft pitched ceiling.

"Lying in bed, you now look up and get that big open sky feel," Cole says.

He reinforced the design concept by using an MDF floor in the bedroom and staining it to represent packed earth. For the wet area, a lacquered-look black rubber tile was chosen.

The entrance to the bathroom is a gap in the dividing glass wall through which peeks the bath. Natural light floods the room from an end window.

This acid-etched glass wall divides the bedroom and bathroom, but has the translucency of rice paper when lit at night.

At the far end of the bathroom is a glass-reinforced plastic resin wall, double layers of which wrap around three sides to form the shower. Lights have been inset between the layers for dramatic effect.

"At night, the whole wall glows," Cole says.

Over the tiled shower tray sits a rustic wooden grate. It is designed to allow water to quickly drain away, since the shower is not enclosed.

All the bathroom fixtures line the back wall. Behind these runs a continuous granite ledge for storage. Granite is also used to frame the windows.

A polished chrome basin is flanked by a streamlined Philippe Starck-designed toilet and free-standing bath.

The color palette is predominately black and white, balanced with four shades of gray.

Story by: Trendsideas