Home Design
Opening the bath to the outdoors
By Madeleine McDermott Hamm
Houston Chronicle Home Design Editor
Texas – Houston Chronicle Magazine, July 13 1997 Issue
If Kelly G. Amen played baseball, he would be an outfielder, prowling the warning track that signals the wall is near. But Amen is an interior designer, usually balancing on the cutting edge, and sometimes going over it.
In 1980, after living in highrise apartments, houses and even a client’s attic, Amen bought a 1940s-vintage cottage in the Montrose area. Thus began an ongoing design odyssey characterized by unexpected touches and creative twists.
Although one of his objectives has been to maintain the integrity of the house’s inner-city cottage structure, Amen has freely experimented with the decoration of the interior. He padded the walls of the cozy guest room and covered them in painted canvas. In a center space, he mirrored all the walls and removed the furnishings. In the living room, upholstered chairs – each different – encircle a large Amen-designed bronze-and-glass table, perfect for conversation or dining.
But until recently he had made only simple cosmetic changes, such as painting, to the dated kitchen and bath.
“Two ingredients make a difference in the American lifestyle today – a beautiful kitchen and a luxurious bath,” Amen says. “I don’t cook, so I started with the bath.”
The 9-by-12 foot bath had a window but no view. Part of Amen’s plan to make the space seem larger was to open it to the outside with double glass doors. The other part was to mirror all of the long wall opposite the shower.
“Originally, I planned an outside terrace in stone. Inside we were going to work with tile and less complicated materials. But the Oklahoma stone proved to be so beautiful and natural-looking, the tile just would not look right next to it. We decided to extend the stone inside for the floor and do plaster-concrete walls and ceiling.”
That, Amen says, is when the process became more complicated, costly and exciting.
“The space was gutted all the way down below the beam support to the dirt. They reworked trusses, plumbing, wiring, everything. They even had to resupport the attic trusses.”
A sleek pedestal sink along the mirrored wall replaced the original wall-hung sink. The toilet, originally on a long side wall, was moved around the corner to the right of the interior door, so that now you look over it rather than at it when you enter. The new geometrically shaped glass shower doesn’t take up much more space than the old bathtub but seems larger because the plaster-concrete support columns extend floor to ceiling.
For the stone floor, Amen worked closely with Bobby Broussard of Advanced Growth Technologies, who already had built a stone fountain on Amen’s covered deck. “Then to make the concrete walls look gray and aged, artist Barbara Jones painted (faux) lichen on it. Ron Read painted the cube table to blend in,” Amen says.
While the remodeling was under way, Amen had two speakers built in, but he says it sounds like Surround Sound with all the echoes on the hard surfaces.
Outside screen doors allow Amen to leave the glass doors open to a fenced area about six months out of the year and remain comfortable.
“With the fresh air and the steam shower, this becomes my mini spa,” he says. “The outside door gives access to the deck just around the corner, and the high fence makes it all very private.
“This is all part of a healthy approach to living. At night I’ll steam and then go relax on the deck by the fountain. I did this for myself, but this also functions as the powder room and guest bath. My overnight guests consider it a full spa retreat.
“When my parents were here from Oklahoma, my conservative father fell in love with the steam shower. Now he wants to convert their big whirlpool tub, which they don’t use, to a steam shower.”
The designer also has shown the bath to clients and several want to incorporate some of the same ideas into their much larger bathrooms.
The unusual bath design follows in the steps of Amen’s other changes to the cottage, which have included connecting the house to a master suite above the garage-turned-office by building a glassed-in bridge/sitting area overlooking enclosed bonsai gardens.
His next project: The kitchen.
