When designer Jaimee Rose suggested putting a kitchen island in the middle of a bathroom, the client didn’t hesitate. “She was 100 percent,” Rose recalled. The project, a bathroom for two teenage sisters in Scottsdale, Arizona, became a test of whether a classic kitchen layout could survive in a space dominated by water, steam, and teenage chaos.
The homeowner wanted something “different” and “surprising” for her daughters.
The original floor plan wasn’t working. Rose, the architect, and the client kept circling the same problems. Then Rose proposed a literal circle: a floating vanity in the center of the room. “It just clicked together like magic,” she said.
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The goal was a space where the girls could gather, put on makeup, and get ready together. “With girls, the best part of going out is getting ready,” Rose said. The bathroom needed to feel like a salon, not just a place to brush teeth.
The island that had to survive two teenagers
Getting plumbing to the middle of the room meant saw-setting the concrete floor. The team had to add ceiling blocking for a heavy custom mirror that would hang above the island. Traffic flow around it was tight — the bathroom isn’t generous, Rose noted.
The solution came from clipping the corners of the island.
That softened the edges and gave enough space to walk around without bumping into sharp marble. The stone fabricator wasn’t thrilled. He asked how he could make curved marble. The answer was laminating many small pieces of stone together to create the curve.
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Rose raised the edges of the island, partly for architecture and partly to contain the inevitable clutter of two teenagers. “It was a solution that was rooted in both function and form,” she said. The raised lip keeps makeup and hair products from sliding off, while giving the eye something to stop on.
Wood floors and a Parisian hex detail
Rose wanted wood floors for warmth, but a freestanding bathtub on wood with teenage girls isn’t smart. “Teenage girls aren’t going to be careful,” she said. She remembered staying in a Paris apartment where a kitchenette flowed into the bedroom, and the floor had a hex inlay. Rose pulled that detail into the room, creating a waterproof marble surface under the tub while keeping wood floors elsewhere. The jagged line where marble meets wood traces the tub’s shape.
The mirror had to be wide enough for the girls to sit or stand while putting on makeup. Lighting required careful balance — pendants at the vanity couldn’t fight a chandelier over the tub. Rose chose smaller pendants with wood shades to let the chandelier be the “leading actress.”
Vinyl wallpaper and a hand-painted shower liner
Rose used vinyl wallpaper from Designers Guild, an ombre tie-dye pattern. “In a dry climate, wallpaper stays forever,” she said. Vinyl is also practical for a space where steam and splashes are constant. The client and her daughters loved the funky, youthful look. “They’re taking 800 selfies, they’re making TikToks in the mirror — they need a cute backdrop,” Rose said.
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The shower got a terra cotta-pink zellige tile with a hand-painted black-and-white striped liner at the top and bottom. “A little bit of mascara, a little bit of eyeliner,” Rose described it. All gold finishes were matched to the Kohler Purist line.
Construction headaches and a high school connection
The ceiling blocking for the mirror wasn’t installed during initial construction, so the ceiling had to be opened and retrofitted. It was expensive and hard to source. The stone fabricator, MJ Stone, worked through the curved marble challenge — and it turned out the fabricator, the client, and Rose all went to high school together.
The clipped corners on the island ended up matching the clipped corners on the Kohler tub. “We kind of lucked into this beautiful rhythm,” Rose said. The room connects to each girl’s bedroom on opposite sides, and the design has held up to constant use. “There’s stuff everywhere all the time — these girls are busy, they’re running to dance, they’re running to school,” Rose said. The space, she added, was designed to handle it.
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