Project Spotlight: A Fireclay Power Couple's Bathroom Remodel

Old houses come with a lot of character–and sometimes their fair share of headaches. Fireclay’s own Director of E-Commerce Annie and her husband Dave, a Commercial Sales Rep, uncovered a major issue in their historic Chicago home when a leak turned into a full bathroom remodel. With help from our Quick Ship Tile, Dave and Annie found the perfect speedy solution to their problem, and the result is pure luxury.

We chatted with Dave about the process and inspiration, and how two people constantly surrounded by tile narrowed down the choices for themselves. Keep reading for the full interview.

Meet Dave and Annie!

Hi Dave! First, can you tell us a bit about yourself and Annie, and what you do at Fireclay?

Sure thing! We’re Midwestern kids who have lived in Chicago since attending Loyola University in the early 2000’s. We were thrilled to purchase our first home a few years back in Albany Park, a wonderfully diverse, walkable neighborhood that we love. Our house is an old Victorian built in 1914, though much of the property has been updated over the years.

I’ve been working in interiors my whole career and joined Fireclay doing Commercial sales in February 2020 — weird time to start a new job! I absolutely love the Commercial interior design world and Fireclay has so much to offer for those types of projects.

Annie had built a successful career in e-commerce and joined Fireclay a few years later as our E-commerce Director after seeing how much I enjoyed my time here. I never thought we’d end up working for the same company as our careers have been completely different, but here we are!

Let’s talk about your bathroom project! What’s the story behind this remodel?

The bathroom remodel was totally unplanned — a bit of a shock, really! We noticed a leak forming on the old plaster ceiling of our dining room below which turned out to be much more severe than we initially realized. The subfloor was totally warped and the old bathtub was sinking from water damage.

We had always wanted to redo our bathroom eventually but the leak made it an urgent issue. Even worse, it was our only full bath so we showered in a plastic temporary shower in our basement while the remodel was underway. Bathing in an unfinished basement next to your Halloween decorations is a humbling experience!

What were the goals for this space? What sort of look were you going for?

We had always wanted a large shower after having stood in bathtubs for so long (even before the house, walk-in showers were hard to come by in Chicago rental apartments). So the silver lining of doing a full gut remodel rather than a smaller surface-level refresh was the ability to reconfigure a lot of the space. We actually moved the window over in order to accommodate a larger shower footprint, changed outlet & lighting locations, moved the shower plumbing, etc.

How did you settle on the tile selections?

Not surprisingly we had a lot of tile samples on hand to help narrow things down! I had an idea for the type of look we would like — serene and classy like a hotel bathroom with a floating double-vanity, wallpaper, some large artwork, brass fixtures and of course some cool tile. The design needed to feel modern but not so much that it wouldn’t fit the architecture of the house.

Thankfully, our Quick Ship collection has grown so much over the years we were able to get all our tile really quickly and avoid too much time in the temporary shower. I’ve always loved a floor to ceiling tile installation and the Essentials collection allowed us to do that while keeping costs down, with the wallpaper accent on the opposite side of the room to balance things out. For the floors, we both really loved the handmade look of Original Ceramic in Flagstone which was available stocked in both a 6” hex and a 2x8” which was perfect for the shower curb. I also love the slip resistance of our matte tile which made me feel good about using a larger format in the shower pan with minimal grout joints.

How did the tile installation go? Were there any challenges?

Thankfully the tile installation went pretty smoothly. Our installer was very experienced and I was able to explain a few things about handmade variation, grout joints, etc. before he got started.

What do you love most about your new space?

I absolutely love hot, steamy showers in the morning and having a nice big shower with natural light shining in is the perfect space for it! A month in the plastic shower makes the new space feel all the more luxurious. We even bought some fancy glass canisters and shampoo bottles to really make the bathroom feel special. The color palette turned out great and we absolutely love our bathroom, painful as it was to figure out on short notice.

If you could be any Fireclay color—which would you be and why?

Caspian Sea, hands down! It’s such a sexy jewel tone. It feels timeless and modern at the same time — that’s what we all want to be, right?

Want to bring home Dave and Annie's elevated look? Explore our Quick Ship Shop to see all of our in-stock products starting at just $12/SqFt.