There’s classic elegance in a clawfoot tub—but there’s also always room for improvement. In designing this new home, Jenny Martin and her team at Jenny Martin Design were focused on bringing in modern accents along with traditional nods to the past.

By opting for a bold tuxedo-style graphite grey on the exterior of the tub, Martin created an accent piece that would draw both admiring gazes and plenty of baths. “It picks up on some of the accents in the tile,” says Martin, “and creates a statement on its own.” Painted on site, the darker bath brings the design of the bathroom together while honouring that transitional coastal feel that’s carried throughout the home. And while the look is timeless, it doesn’t have to be forever. “It’s just paint—if down the road they want to change the colour, they can change it to whatever they want.”

Allowing the metals to clash gives this bathroom a lived-in, not-so-perfect feel to counterbalance the coastal, traditional look. “We’ve got brass on the hardware but we’ve also got polished nickel on the plumbing fixtures themselves. So it kind of creates a little bit of playful contrast here,” says designer Jenny Martin. “It’s nice to mix the metals as it can very quickly start to look spec when everything is the same.” Photo by Dasha Armstrong

The homeowners were looking for a design that would allow for aging in place—and details like undercounter lighting, motorized blinds, a stylish shower bar and large doorways help ensure that the home is stylishly up to the task. “The market is adapting and giving us more options for finding beautiful things that we can use that are also very functional for aging in place,” says the designer. “The options are getting much nicer, too.”

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