This Designer Worked Layout Wizardry in Her Bathroom and Squeezed in a Double Shower

PublishedFeb 19, 2025 5:55 AM EST

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There was never any doubt which room Solstice Interiors founder Katie Betyar would gut first in her new San Diego home. The tiny corner shower in the primary bathroom was so cramped that Betyar—who was six months pregnant when she and her husband bought the place—could barely turn around in it, let alone bend down to retrieve a dropped bottle of shampoo. Mercifully, it was the only room in their roughly 1,900-square-foot house that needed a major overhaul. The rest of the bones were solid and, most importantly, there was room to welcome their newborn daughter.

After closing in August of 2023, the couple gave themselves two months to remodel while still living in their old two-bedroom, one-bath house nearby so they could power through construction. Her biggest tip for sticking to that brutal timeline? Commit to quick-ship materials. “If I ran into a situation where something was out of stock or took too long, I just re-selected,” says Betyar. Ahead, the designer spills everything that went into making the bathroom a mini sanctuary—pre- and post-baby.

The bathroom’s skylight was the one thing Betyar refused to mess with during the renovation. But the two reach-in closets in the hallway leading to the bathroom? She was delighted to ditch those. “It just felt like such a waste of space, even when I was looking at it from a floor plan point of view,” she says. By swiping space from the water heater closet in the adjacent hallway (they went tankless—living dangerously!) and moving the clothing closets fully into the bedroom, they gained enough square footage for a double shower, a private toilet room, and a vanity with room to spare.

Betyar had long fantasized about swathing the bathroom in green tile, mostly because she just loves the color, but when her husband pointed out that he’d grown up with a green bathroom and had zero interest in a nostalgia trip, the designer pivoted to ahoney yellow zellige from Cle. “I like it when a color can feel like it pops, but is also really subtle and earthy,” says the designer.

Betyar initially intended to use a limestone from Zia Tile for the bathroom floors, but when she saw it was no longer in stock, she pivoted to a 2×8 option fromEco Outdoorthat proved to be “a little bit more cost effective and just as beautiful.” Her order turned out to be a sneaky-smart move: at the end of the project, she had enough pieces left over to cover the baseboards and make them a touch more interesting (she just had her installer cut the rectangles in half before lining the walls).

Coming from their last house where they had to share a single floating sink, Betyar and her husband went full send with a storage-packed vanity in this space, even carving out an open niche in the bottom for stashing extra towels. To make the room feel even more expansive, the designer topped off the vanity with a66″x36″ singular mirrorthat bounces the natural light streaming in from above. Betyar stuck with a pared-back gray terrazzo fromConcrete Collaborativefor the countertop to keep with the other earthy, neutral materials. “I love a terrazzo, but sometimes when it’s really colorful, it can end up feeling trendy,” she says.

The biggest splurge during the renovation was easily the custom millwork, which spilled into the couple’s bedroom. In addition to carving out two closets for hanging clothes, she lined a wall with a built-in dresser and a wardrobe decked out with extra shelves for folded jeans and sweaters. “I was really tempted to get an off the shelf dresser and a full height cabinet, but I also know that custom millwork will stand the test of time and make the space feel elevated,” she shares.

Not wanting the units to feel so one note against the oak wood floors, she swathed the wardrobe in a creamy white paint and topped the doors with sculptural pulls from Australian brandLinear Standard. Now, every step in the designer’s morning routine—from brushing her teeth to putting on her socks—is genuinely enjoyable. Imagine that.

Lydia Geisel has been stirring the creative pot at Domino since 2017. She writes and edits her way through home tours and design stories like it's a competitive sport. She lives in Brooklyn—because of course she does.

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