Overlooked Design Details: Bathrooms

Dear Alice | Interior Design

This episode of Dear Alice focuses on overlooked bathroom design details that improve function, comfort, and visual polish in primary and powder bathrooms. The hosts discuss

Key takeaways

• The hosts recommend vertical storage towers in bathrooms because many skincare products, electric toothbrushes, and hot tools work best when stored upright rather than lying flat in drawers.
• They suggest adding refrigerated drawers for skincare items such as eye patches and lotions to keep ingredients fresh and reduce morning puffiness.

Main topics

• Bathroom vanity storage and makeup organization
• Layered bathroom lighting and dimmer switches

Notable quotes

I always find that getting overhead lighting in bathrooms, guys, this is the lighting you look the ugliest in.

Conclusion

The episode offers practical, detail-oriented bathroom design advice for

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:00) If anyone ever sneaks into my bathroom and takes a picture, gosh darn it's gonna look pretty. Speaker 3 (0:03) I always find that getting overhead lighting in bathrooms, guys, this is the lighting you look the ugliest in. Speaker 2 (0:09) Nothing's worse than going to a hotel and the can is tied in with the fan. Speaker 1 (0:13) And it's the loudest fan in the world. Speaker 3 (0:15) You're gonna be able to wipe that spray wax that I like so much. It's working well. Speaker 2 (0:18) Thank you so much. Jessie looks great. Yeah, Speaker 3 (0:21) thanks. Speaker 2 (0:21) I know. You should tune in if you're not. Link below for her routine. Yeah, yeah. Speaker 1 (0:24) Please. Speaker 3 (0:25) Hello everyone. Welcome to Dear Alice. If you're new here, welcome. We're so glad you found us. We are the designers behind Alice Lane. I know that's confusing because we're called Dear Alice. But we thought it'd be a fun little take on the old advice column, Dear Abby. Remember that? I do. Speaker 2 (0:41) And Speaker 3 (0:41) so we thought, let's call it Dear Alice because our company is called Alice Lane. We've been doing interior design for about 20 years. We're designing custom homes, remodels, interiors. And each week we sit down to share what we're learning, Speaker 2 (0:53) the Speaker 3 (0:53) mistakes that we've seen. insider knowledge that we use every day with our own clients we just share it all right here so we're glad that you found us today Speaker 1 (1:00) is episode five of our overlooked design details we've covered the entry finish work stairways in the kitchen uh in that series and today we're gonna do bathrooms okay Speaker 2 (1:11) we're Speaker 1 (1:11) gonna start with primary and then give them a little bit on the powder as well yeah Speaker 2 (1:15) and if you haven't listened to the series go back and listen to those because i think all of them give a lot of like really good details and that's what we're going to be focusing on today is the overlooked design details, not necessarily overall everything you should know about redoing a bathroom. It's just the little things that you don't want to miss when you're going through the efforts to make it more beautiful and more functional. Speaker 1 (1:35) Should we start with the cabinetry? Oh my gosh. Let's go. Speaker 2 (1:38) Okay. The cabinetry, I think, especially if you're going through a remodel, I think this is very, very important because you know how the last bathroom worked. And so you know what was successful, but you also know what wasn't working. And I feel like we've had experiences like this, not only like with our clients, but with our family and our own personal bathrooms of just understanding this is my best lighting right here. I want to do my makeup right here. So make sure when you are, again, we're not going to talk about overall cabinetry, but understanding where things should be. So if I know that like my best lighting is going to be over here, I've planned all the cabinetry to make sure that my vanity is going to sit there and I'm going to do my makeup right there in front of that window. What we're going to talk about right now is, once you understand those zones, is how to organize your cabinetry. So if it is a vanity and you're going to have all your makeup drawers, how much makeup do you have? What kind of organizers do you need? Speaker 3 (2:31) It's such a good question. I mean, I feel like I don't have enough storage, honestly. And as I know you look surprised. I really do have to keep my skincare routine on my counter. My makeup fits in my drawer or in my drawers, plural, but I could use more storage. And I'm jealous always in our Desert Oaks projects, they have two towers on both sides of their vanity. And I wish I had Speaker 2 (2:56) that. Speaker 3 (2:56) Each of their Speaker 2 (2:56) vanities. Each of their vanity. And here's why. Speaker 3 (2:58) It's because I have certain... I'm going to Speaker 2 (3:00) be Speaker 3 (3:00) very specific. I have certain hair products. One of them is the Kevin Murphy spray wax. If I lay that bottle down in my drawer, that spray wax clogs and then the whole... The whole thing is ruined. Speaker 2 (3:11) Sticky city. I've thrown away so Speaker 3 (3:13) many bottles of that. And I've learned it can only stand up. So guess what it does? It stands up right on my vanity. I want so badly for that to be in Speaker 2 (3:21) a Speaker 3 (3:21) drawer. But there's certain things also like the electric toothbrush. You don't necessarily want to put that in a drawer. You Speaker 1 (3:27) don't want that clanging and banging of everything else. Like your Speaker 3 (3:29) skincare routine, in the bottles, it's hard to sit and pump them if they've been laying down. And then you have to pull them up. Some things you actually want to be standing up. So I don't know if that's a really tall drawer for you. but this is why we're being so specific because it's not about just designing it but you're like how am I going to actually live with this and how do these products function best and so I'm jealous of our Desert Oaks project because they have these sort of shallow towers which you know they have a stand-up toothbrush in there you know they're Kevin Murphy spray waxes in there or whatever products their skincare routines everything it's just opening up the cupboard it's all standing up. Certain things can go in drawers, but certain things you really do want standing. So either make a deep drawer if you are designing new cabinetry or Speaker 2 (4:12) do a tower. We are employing those on every bathroom, new build or remodel, just because like that is how we live. We just have more things, more things, like our skincare routines. are more complex. And so we have to be standing those girls up. Yeah. You know, we're even doing refrigerated drawers, guys. I'm so jealous. I know. I'm so jealous of them. It's Speaker 3 (4:29) a thing. Speaker 2 (4:29) A Speaker 3 (4:30) refrigerator drawer in the bathroom. Can Speaker 2 (4:32) you imagine Speaker 3 (4:32) all your skincare just going on cool? Diet Coke? Speaker 2 (4:35) Crystal clear in the morning? Speaker 1 (4:37) Your eye patches? Your cold Speaker 3 (4:39) eye patches? Like, these... These would be so un-puffy. I know. I'm like, deep Speaker 2 (4:45) puff those girls in the morning. Speaker 3 (4:46) You know what I Speaker 2 (4:47) mean? Speaker 3 (4:47) That's what I want. I want a refrigerator drawer in my next bathroom. For Speaker 2 (4:50) your Speaker 3 (4:50) birthday. Yeah. Speaker 2 (4:52) For Jess's next birthday. Yeah. That really does Speaker 3 (4:55) seem like the ultimate luxury. And I think you could probably prolong how long these things last too. Yeah. The fresh ingredients in those lotions would be so fresh. Speaker 2 (5:03) Honestly. Yeah. When you're working with your cabinet maker, knowing what product you're putting in there, because to even get like the right organized inserts and things custom, made for those. We talked about makeup and skincare, but even like with your hair tools, your hot tools, that's also another annoying thing is when you have to like have all your stuff plugged in and it just looks messy. You have to unplug it to let it cool down. So much of the time what we're doing is on like if you stand up while you do your hair, if you're sitting down while you do your hair, know that and then build the station for that. So we'll actually do the organizers and do nice. Tall, deep drawer. It might, even on the front, it might look like two drawers. So I'm not messing up my rhythm of cabinetry. But it's one deep and it has actual moments that hold my strainer. They're like canisters. Where it has the hot tools for like curling irons, your blow dryer, your strainer. Speaker 3 (5:49) And Speaker 2 (5:49) they just stay Speaker 3 (5:50) plugged in. They stay plugged in. Speaker 2 (5:51) Yeah, because you've actually like you've thought about it. It wasn't an overlooked design detail. And you wired for that, for behind those drawers. So everything could stay plugged in while you pull out and use it. So when you Speaker 3 (6:01) plug it in, are you actually plugging it in just in? into the drawer is there a station for those yeah Speaker 2 (6:06) and Speaker 1 (6:07) then the whole drawer is like that way you have like the Speaker 2 (6:09) full as far as like extension of the cord it's not like it's plugged into the back of the cabinetry and yeah Speaker 3 (6:13) that's what i was wiring Speaker 2 (6:14) through no it's actually like there's outlets within that drawer and Speaker 3 (6:17) clients love it Speaker 2 (6:18) yeah no it's incredible can you imagine not having to plug that in every single time you just put on like the on switch Speaker 3 (6:23) on the counter and a flat iron and so you can just turn off and Speaker 1 (6:27) everything's no longer plugged in wow that is an Speaker 3 (6:30) overlooked Speaker 2 (6:30) design detail guys so Speaker 3 (6:32) go double deep on a set of drawers and then you can get all of that make Speaker 2 (6:36) sure when they're doing all the electrical to make sure that they have stuff plenty of things for like above counter for those switches but also below counter so you can have everything plugged in and in those towers for the Speaker 3 (6:47) tower above the tower above Speaker 2 (6:49) and we'll get into that a little bit more but just for electrical you want to make sure that you can plug in your toothbrush you want to make sure that you can be charging your like your trimmers and your razors for my husband you know those things and i feel like more and more we're just charging everything yeah and so making sure he has Speaker 3 (7:03) a watch that he charges on his vanity at night it'd be cool if it was inside of a tower cool yeah it'd be Speaker 2 (7:09) so fun okay you know another Speaker 3 (7:11) overlooked detail i don't know about you guys but i find that my bathroom trash cans fill up faster than anything in my, well, I mean the kitchen garbage, but I think because they're so petite. Speaker 2 (7:23) Yeah. Speaker 3 (7:23) I think because they're so petite, like the cute little ones. And I have a garbage in my potty closet. I have two little trash cans under my vanities, one for him, one for her. Speaker 2 (7:33) Guys, Speaker 3 (7:33) these things fill up so fast. I could literally have a trash drawer the size of my kitchen one in my bathroom, just one. And then we wouldn't have to have garbages everywhere. I Speaker 2 (7:42) was talking with one of our designers the other day and we're like, we're noticing more and more of trying to put those in vanities that we're designing. So again, if you're in the middle of this, you're remodeling, you're building new. Think about that. Who likes to look at the trash in a bathroom? I emptied that thing probably more than not just because I don't Speaker 3 (7:58) want Speaker 2 (7:58) to see what's in it. Speaker 3 (7:59) Yeah. And Speaker 2 (7:59) so if you could have it like just in a cabinet drawer and have it be the size that you need. Speaker 3 (8:04) Yeah. And Speaker 2 (8:04) you have the real estate to kind of like. I guess set it up for them. Then Speaker 3 (8:08) this is the dream bathroom. Guys, we know that most bathrooms are, you know, don't have this much cabinetry, but in some of the ones that we're working on right now, you do have the space and the trash drawer is a great idea. The refrigerated drawer is a great idea. And Speaker 2 (8:22) you took out the jetted tub. So you actually do have room. Yeah, that's so true. So we have some width to take advantage of. Go ahead and put a trash drawer. that nobody has to see what's in that trash yeah Speaker 1 (8:32) if you're remodeling take advantage of the square footage that you're not using and make it useful Speaker 2 (8:37) another thing i just wanted to say we did this in on our little primary bath a lot of times underneath your sink you'll have like the one dummy drawer like where the actual sink vessels like bowing into but then a lot of people just say okay i just have to do two doors below that i love the look of drawers i love the rhythm of it i think it looks like a pea coat and so it was important for me i'm just like i just want to do just drawers, even if they're shallow, you can go around kind of the plumbing and P-trap and it kind of creates like a U when you open up that drawer for storage. Speaker 1 (9:08) A U Speaker 2 (9:08) -shaped drawer box. A U-shaped drawer box. Frankly, I think those wings, you can if you're like really stingy about storage and you're like, no, I'm going to utilize every single inch. I don't like those little wings. So I just like make it a more shallow drawer on that second one. And then your third drawer is full. depth. So, and I think it's like easier to organize again, those door cabinetry underneath sinks is where things go to like topple over and die. And to never be Speaker 1 (9:33) seen again. Speaker 2 (9:34) Exactly. You could, if you have that currently and you're like, what do I do? I'd rather see a trash door. I Speaker 3 (9:39) do have what you just described. I'd rather you do Speaker 2 (9:40) like an actual trash door underneath your sink so no one has to see it. Yeah. Because like, that's the only thing I can see like that I would. promote for underneath that space because every time I open up one of those and a client's like, oh man, Speaker 3 (9:51) we don't, we have no idea what's under there. Especially in the back corners. Like think how nice if you could pull it out. Exactly. I have no idea what's under there. Nobody's business. Nobody's business. Not Speaker 2 (10:02) even yours, unfortunately. Anyway, but yeah, but do the shallow drawers, even if it's not as deep. I actually am like, I keep my makeup in that second one. It's so great. I have organizers in there and it's not too deep that it gets lost. So anyway, it's a really great system. I Speaker 3 (10:14) love that. Speaker 2 (10:15) Okay. Let's talk a little bit more. about the vertical storage tower as you were mentioning it before just all the product that we need i need at my age i need so much product shut up i'm using all of it baby angel no but every everybody does like they have product and i just think that there's more things that we need like we need more hand towel storage we need more things that are close to like the zone that we're using every single day a lot of that stuff just like wants to be at eye level and so when we are doing those we try and like at least get one vertical tower per person that's using that bathroom for so for one partner in our desert oaks we they're opposite vanities so they're mirroring each other so each of them have two towers framing in that whole scene and it's so so so beautiful and they don't