Mr. Steam

OUR NEW MR. STEAM HOME SPA FROM THE VIEW OF MR. MCGAHA

July 31, 2019 by Denise McGaha

As you already know, Scott and I are so thrilled with our new master bathroom! We specifically love our steam shower, thanks to Mr. Steam! Thanks to Mr. Steam we were able to have the the very best steam shower around. We love the iTempoPlus Steam Shower Control and the Linear Steam Head. We also are able to control the steam from our SteamLinx Mobile App. Another great part of the Mr. Steam shower is the Audio Home System. We are able to listen to our favorite music in the shower! I can’t forget the aromatherapy option and how we are able to pipe in eucalyptus and lavender at the touch of a button.

Recently I asked Scott how he feels about the new bath::

DENISE:: Talk about the process of creating our home spa, our bathroom was completely overhauled. How did you manage not to “peek” while the construction was going on? What was it like living in the guest room?

SCOTT: Well, you asked me to trust you and not to look until the entire project was installed. It was our bedroom, bathroom and closet. I knew you had some purpose for asking, so I chose to oblige:). I completely trust your ability to design a beautiful space.

Living in the guest room was a different challenge. You know that wasn’t easy. All of our clothes were on rolling racks in the living room and dining room. It’s not a lot of fun getting dressed in front of huge open windows every morning. That lasted about 90 days. Luckily we survived the chaos of a renovation.

DENISE:: Obviously, I know you extremely well! Talk about which of your favorite bath preferences that I took into account when creating the space.

SCOTT: I had no idea that you were putting a steam shower from Mr. Steam into our shower. You kept telling me you had one really big surprise for me. I was curious, but I didn’t go nosing around. With running my own business, managing the schedules of our family and everything else we have going on, I don’t have a lot of time to be nosy:)

You do know I love a great soak in the tub. You installed a deep Japanese style soaking tub as well, which makes me happy! Because we have traveled together often and enjoyed spas all over the world, you know I am a fan of a perfect bathroom. The steam shower was a huge surprise and I love it.

DENISE:: How does the renovated bath fit into our lifestyle? Are there aspects of it that have improved your quality of life?

SCOTT:: One of my favorite technology features is the ability to open an app on my iphone and turn on the steam shower. I can program the perfect temperature and the length I plan for my steam before I ever leave our bed. I also forgot to mention the Bluetooth sound system that you included in the shower. I love being able to connect to the speakers and play music from my phone while I shower or soak! Starting each day with a steam and your favorite music is perfection:)

DENISE:: According to the Kitchen & Bath article, you were uncharacteristically silent during the reveal. It’s true!! Now that you’ve had a chance to get used to the bathroom, what would you have liked to say at that time?

SCOTT:: I am laughing as I hear your question. If you know me, I am rarely at a loss for words. But I was truly overwhelmed at everything you designed. I completely understand the television reveal process and the emotions that come with it. You completely transformed our bedroom, bathroom and closet. I am not embarrassed to say that I was overcome with grateful emotion.

Now that I have been able to live in our new environment and appreciate all the perfect details that you created, I would love to say thank you so much, darling. I love you, and thank you for taking the time to make our home as perfect as you do so many other client’s homes on a daily basis. I am blessed to be married to such a talented and gifted lady.

I swear I didn’t pay him to say those things!! But being able to share my design talents with those I love makes all of the late nights and trips away from home completely worth it all. Thank you Mr. Steam for transforming our lives with healthy steam and a home spa. WE LOVE IT!!

MCGAHA MAKEOVER THE REVEAL – PART 3

April 22, 2019 by Denise McGaha

I mentioned in my last post how I had a HUGE surprise planned for Scott when the folks at Mr. Steam asked me if I wanted to install a steam shower in my bath makeover. Uh…..YES!?! So as part of that partnership, I am going to not only share with you our BIG reveal video…..I plan to share with you how much we use our new steam shower and what a difference it has made in our lives.

I am going to link the video below, but before that, a little background. I decided to repaint our master bedroom and change from a queen bed to a king bed. This was a huge change for us, and I installed a beautiful collage of photography from my friend Brownlee Currey. When you see the video, Scott had just seen the bedroom for the first time.

He was so overwhelmed at the space, that we was literally speechless. If you know Scott, he is NEVER speechless. But there were tears…… and I love making my man cry with JOY! So when you see the start of the video, you are seeing an already shocked and overwhelmed man who has just seen his new master suite. Then we walk into the bath.

Watch THIS!!

https://youtu.be/W7018EsBxbg

So as you can see, Mr. Steam offers not only an amazing steam shower. They also include music, technology and more into their systems. I am a huge fan and recommend them every chance I get when designing baths for my clients. Take a look at what it takes to build a steam shower HERE with Mr. Steam.

I plan another post soon on everything you need to know about Mr. Steam, so stay tuned for that. In the meantime, just know that a steam shower has seriously changed our daily lives for the better.

Denise

MCGAHA MAKEOVER BEFORE & AFTER – PART 2

April 17, 2019 by Denise McGaha

In my last post, I shared the before images and our design plan for our bath remodel. I hope it wasn’t too traumatic for you! Today, I want to share the marvelous partners we had in bringing my design vision to reality. As a designer, we have access to every beautiful product imaginable and it can be daunting to make decisions with so many options. Even for a designer. We are often our own worst clients.

In true fashion, I spent about 3 hours making selections for the entire bath and then never looked back. I have learned over the years that my original ideas are the ones I end up going back to, so I trust my gut now. It took years to get there, but I am still so happy with our bath design.

For plumbing fixtures, I chose Rohl and the designs of my super talented friend, Michael Berman. The Graceline collection was the perfect mix of classic, masculine and modern I was hoping for in our bath. We chose a hand shower for the tub deck, as well as a hand held shower on an adjustable rod for a shower. It has been the perfect solution for cleaning the shower, bathing my dogs and offering adjustable height for both Scott and I (and the kids when they want to use our shower).

The beautiful porcelain wall and floor tiles, as well as the marble mosaic on the shower floor and ceiling, as well as our closet, are by Crossville. The Statuario Venato, unpolished, 12 x 24 porcelain is extremely durable and offered the bright and classic look we were wanting. The Yin + Yang, 1″ x 3″ mosaic in Black Dragon is soft to the touch and the shape felt modern as well.

We also turned to Rohl for their Allia porcelain sinks made in France. I wanted a rectangular sink with rounded corners for easy cleaning and Rohl had the deep option I had been searching for everywhere.

In the photo above, there are so many wonderful product partners shown. In addition to the beautiful Rohl plumbing, you can see the blush cabinets I designed. The paint is Sherwin-Williams Blushing (SW 6617). I love using Sherwin-Williams in all of our projects and our entire home is painted in SW. The hardware on the cabinets is by Addison-Weeks and I love the long, acrylic rods with polished nickel to match the plumbing finishes.

We also installed my dream medicine cabinets by Robern. These have built-in, dimmable lighting that is PERFECT for applying makeup and shaving. We love them! They also have wonderful storage and have electrical plugs inside for charging toothbrushes, electrical razors and iPhone chargers. We love how they are dimmed by touching the sensor and we can control how bright we need them. Scott prefers dim light while I like them on high.

Next up – Currey & Company tole pendants over our sinks offer the perfect directional lighting. The metal finish holds up to moisture in the bath and the black and white finish was the perfect for our color scheme. It doesn’t hurt that they are part of the Bunny Williams collection with Currey and I love everything she designs.

I also added an original oil painting that Scott and I purchased on our second trip to Paris in 2007. It was the jumping-off point for the color scheme and a perfect reminder of our first trip to shop the flea markets of Paris many years ago. I love looking at it each morning when I am getting ready and it brings such energy to the space. Scott often goes to bed long after me, so I leave the art light on above it as a night light for him when I turn in early. I also use it when waking for my early morning workouts so I don’t wake him with bright lights.

The countertops are from Cosentino and are the Et Marquina in Eternal Quartz countertops. I also used them on our tub deck and created panels for the front of the deck. This is one of my favorite features and the one that gets the most questions when people see the bath. We carried the slab into the windowsill and I love the black and white pattern against our wallpaper and fabric.

Last but not least, is the wallpaper and roman shade fabric from my collection with Design Legacy. The Array pattern in Cinder was the perfect artistic addition to the space. I not only included it on walls, it is on the ceilings, the roman shade over the tub and even in the water closet. Our bath is oddly shaped and the pattern helps blur the edges of the room and is a statement to my love of layering patterns. Adding pattern to our bath took it from basic to dramatic immediately.

The most important addition to our remodel was the Mr. Steam steam unit. This was the surprise that I kept from Scott for the entire remodel process. He had NO idea he was getting a steam shower, which now gets daily use. If you don’t have a steam shower you NEED one!! The essential oils we use in the steam include Eucalyptus which has been wonderful when allergy season is in full swing in Texas. We also have speakers in our steam unit and are able to play our favorite relaxing tunes while experiencing a therapeutic steam.

I use the steam after a workout (I personally love Lavender oil in my steam) and cannot tell you the difference in my recovery. I feel healthier, breathe better and start my day with a relaxed mindset before heading to the design studio. I also have found that my muscles heal faster and I have less soreness after a long workout when I steam afterward.

I hope you can see that our remodel was so much more than just creating a beautiful bath. It was creating space where Scott and I could retreat from the world, relax, rejuvenate and find peace in our hectic lives. We both work long hours and have the stresses of owning two separate businesses. I would have embarked on this remodel years ago had I known the difference it would make in our lives. Let me know in the comments what your favorite part of our remodel is? I would love to hear your thoughts.

Denise

MCGAHA MAKEOVER BEFORE & AFTER – PART 1

April 16, 2019 by Denise McGaha

I am so excited to FINALLY share the story behind our recent bedroom, bath and closet remodel.

The next few posts are going to tell the story behind the McGaha Makeover of 2018. I try to do one project a year in our 20 year old home either because of necessity or design updates. If you followed along on Instagram, you saw the demo and the progress…….and then I never shared the reveal because we were waiting to see if it would be published. Luckily, Luxe Magazine loved the photos and it came out in the January 2019 issue. I was so happy to be in the national section and it made its way across all issues of Luxe. But this is the rest of the story. It’s a long one, so I want to tell it in several parts to let you know the transformation that occurred. And also share all of the AMAZING partners who played a big part in our makeover.

So here we go……..one July morning in 2017, we awoke to water puddling in our closet, which backs up to our shower. We could hear a hissing water sound, but until the plumber arrived and let us know a pipe had a leak, we didn’t know what that meant. My life was going a million miles an hour, and luckily we have two shower heads in the shower. So we capped the pipe and showered while looking at a wall covered with a trash bag. Oh – you thought our lives as designers were glamourous?? HA!!

I also need to preface this story with the fact that I couldn’t stop long enough to deal with our ugly, dated bathroom. I hated it every day I walked in and left as soon as I could to get out the door. I saw the leak as a path to finally being FORCED to stop long enough to remodel the bath. Sadly, that didn’t happen until the following April in 2018….a full 9 months later.

THE BEFORE’S – I seriously can’t believe I am showing these, but you need to know how soul crushing it can be to live in a less than beautiful space. Looking back at it now, I can’t believe we used this bath for 20 years without changing anything but a paint color over 12 years ago.

I had several big goals for the changes I wanted to make:

Create a space that promoted health and wellness and a spa like environment
Provide better cabinetry storage and reconfigure the cabinet and plumbing layout accordingly
Keep a tub deck and install another undermounted tub. We both love taking baths, so a pretty free standing tub was out of the question as we use the tub deck as an additional seat in the bath.
Get rid of two shower heads on the wall and add a rain head.
Add a glassed in shower – we had a walk in shower for 20 years and I froze to death in the winter while showering. It also made the room small and the shower dark.
Add wallpaper of my design to the space (I had a plan to create a space that was exciting and classic)

BEFORE

While we were at it, I decided our closet also needed a makeover. I can’t bring myself to show you what that looked like, but suffice it to say the space is challenging to use, at best. We made a plan to completely reconfigure the space and install a closet system. Here it is with all of our clothing removed. There was a floor safe that was full of water from the leak (oh the smell – ugh) and we also had seagrass carpet in the space. Are you getting the picture now……?

When embarking upon a project of this scale, I recommend the following::

Plan to be out of your space for at least a month longer than your contractor suggests. There will always be challenges and delays that extend your timeline. You can count on it.
Use this time to organize, purge and plan for a new organization of your space. We did a full closet clean out, organized our toiletries and makeup and bought new bath linens and bedding for our master suite.
Be flexible. There were several items we had planned for that didn’t come to fruition. We had to change our design selection and pivot to a new plan. Its all part of the territory.
Remodeling a home while living there can be super stressful. Trust me, we lived in our guest room and shared a single bath for 4 months. We got dressed each day in our living room/dining room, which was basically our closet. Nothing like waving to the contractors in your robe each morning. But I wouldn’t trade our new master bath for anything. It was worth the pain!!

In the next post, I will share the details of our partners and tips for making your bath a wellness retreat. I can’t tell you what a transformation this has been for Scott and I. Oh and I almost forgot the best part!! I wanted to surprise Scott with the design and not show him anything during the process, so I insisted that he not enter the construction zone until we could reveal it to him. And he complied. For four months, he didn’t set foot in our bedroom or bathroom. At the end of this blog series I am going to share the reveal video…….it’s probably my favorite project to date. So please leave comments and ask any questions you may have about our bath. It was the most transformative of my career. Can’t you tell by all of these ugly before pics I posted above!?!

Denise