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Today Architectural Digest welcomes back pro interior designer Darren Jett for a new edition of Re:Design. Today he is offering his expert advice on two small NYC bathrooms in serious need of help. With two very different budgets, Darren shares his ideas for a high-cost full renovation versus a cheaper, renter-friendly remodel.

Fill out this submission form of your space to be considered for future episodes: https://bit.ly/3oDyPjT

Check out Darren Jett here: Website: http://jettprojects.com/ Instagram: @jettprojects | https://www.instagram.com/jettproject...


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Director: Alice Roth
Director of Photography: Charlie Jordan
Editor: Sammy Cortino
Host: Darren Jett
Senior Producer: Vara Reese
Associate Producer: Chloe Leung
Production Manager: Melissa Heber
Production Coordinator: Fernando Davila
Camera Operator: Cloud Corredor
Gaffer: Rebecca Van Der Meulen
Audio Engineer: Kurt Seery
Production Assistant: Noah Bierbrier
Transcript
00:00 Aaron hates this tile, I hate this tile.
00:02 All the tile goes down the toilet.
00:05 I'm Darren Jett, I'm an interior designer.
00:07 I'm going to be helping two people redesign their bathrooms
00:10 with two very different budgets.
00:12 And this is "Redesign."
00:13 [upbeat music]
00:16 This is John.
00:23 John wants to brighten the space, but on a budget.
00:26 And this is Aaron,
00:27 and Aaron wants to do a full renovation on his bathroom.
00:30 I would say the first thing that I noticed
00:31 about both of these bathrooms
00:33 is that their footprint is quite small.
00:35 We're going to have to definitely optimize
00:37 what we're working with.
00:38 And two, there's no window.
00:40 So both of these are quite dark.
00:42 You might look at the footprint of these bathrooms
00:44 and think, "There's nothing I can do."
00:46 But actually you can really do so, so, so much.
00:49 All right, let's do it.
00:50 [paper crinkling]
00:52 The main issues of the space
00:53 are that we have tiles that we don't like.
00:56 We have bathrooms that need more storage.
00:57 We have bathrooms that need a bit more personality.
00:59 And we're going to have to figure out ways
01:01 to brighten them up.
01:02 The first issue we're going to tackle
01:04 is this horrible tile.
01:05 This tile is not great.
01:08 I don't think we have all the time
01:10 to talk through all the reasons why it's not great.
01:13 I see this tile all the time.
01:14 You know, it's a new development tile.
01:16 It's sort of a contractor special.
01:18 The reason why you see it is 'cause it's cheap
01:19 and it's available.
01:20 I think though that for a bathroom
01:22 that is lacking natural light,
01:24 for a bathroom that is relatively small,
01:26 to me this feels a bit dark
01:28 and it honestly just feels a bit dingy.
01:30 If you don't have a big budget
01:31 and you want something that's very quick and easy
01:33 and also can be removed later on,
01:35 do a peel and stick tile.
01:36 John told us he loves mid-century modern.
01:38 Why don't we do something that has a bit of
01:40 a geometric pattern?
01:41 Perhaps we do a checkerboard for instance.
01:43 How cool would that be?
01:44 I think doing a very simple textured wallpaper on here
01:48 would go miles.
01:49 If you want something that reads almost like a neutral
01:52 and reads almost as though it is one surface
01:55 but has slight variations and slight interest,
01:57 grass cloth is a great way to go.
01:59 It's also quite mid-century modern.
02:01 For the renovation, we will replace the tile with stone.
02:06 Aaron hates this tile.
02:08 I hate this tile.
02:10 All the tile goes down the toilet.
02:13 Tile in general, especially a subway tile
02:15 that's a smaller format,
02:16 it has a lot of grout lines.
02:18 Grout lines in a bathroom are always a problem area.
02:21 So think about removing all of that tile
02:23 and replacing it with something beautiful,
02:26 large format stone perhaps,
02:27 and what that might feel like and look like.
02:29 I wanna keep that slab material at Wainscot height.
02:33 Wainscoting simply means that it comes up to about
02:36 waist height or a little bit higher.
02:38 Above that, I simply wanna paint everything
02:40 a beautiful color.
02:41 The second issue is that there's not enough storage.
02:45 Currently, John has a few things
02:47 sort of kind of all over the place.
02:48 All of this stuff right here on the toilet,
02:50 let's move it.
02:51 Let's get it off the back of the toilet.
02:53 I never like that.
02:54 It never looks good.
02:54 He has a lot of space up here above the toilet,
02:57 a big empty blank wall.
02:59 I think what would be so nice is for him
03:00 to actually get a shelf that runs the full length here.
03:04 And look, he can do something very simple.
03:06 He can move the diffuser up there.
03:08 He can have some towels nicely rolled up right there.
03:12 Maybe he could even lean some art up against the wall
03:14 to give a little bit of personality.
03:15 Little things like this go a long, long way.
03:20 And for Aaron's bathroom,
03:21 I really want to give him space for all of his products.
03:25 So Aaron wants to convert his tub into a walk-in shower.
03:28 I think that's a really smart thing
03:30 from an investment point of view.
03:31 A lot of times when we do a shower for clients,
03:34 we run into the situation where we realize
03:36 that all of their products are sort of out on display.
03:38 You really want all those things
03:40 to be sort of tucked away and hidden.
03:42 What we can do in a bathroom like this
03:43 is actually do that by building out
03:46 the sort of wall right here
03:49 between the shower and the vanity.
03:51 So if we're working within a small bathroom already
03:53 and someone says to me, "I don't need a bathtub.
03:56 "I really only take showers,"
03:58 get rid of that tub, give you more floor space
04:01 within the same square footage,
04:02 and you just have a much nicer experience when you shower.
04:05 Aaron has a lot of product.
04:06 Having storage is paramount.
04:08 The third main issue is a lack of lighting.
04:12 Lighting in a bathroom, you never only want light up here.
04:16 You're only gonna see all of the stuff
04:18 up here on your forehead that you don't wanna see.
04:19 So with John, right now the lighting
04:22 looks kind of like a serial killer lives here.
04:24 They make medicine cabinets on the market right now
04:28 for very, very cheap.
04:29 They actually have integrated lighting within them,
04:32 and that light is so flattering.
04:34 A bathroom should never have cold lighting like this.
04:37 No room should have cold lighting like this.
04:39 You don't look good.
04:41 What you need to have is very, very warm lighting.
04:44 Typically in an apartment, I would say 2,700
04:46 is a great temperature.
04:47 When you go to the hardware store,
04:48 we'll say what temperature the light is.
04:51 Oftentimes, if it doesn't have a temperature,
04:53 like 2,700, it might say soft white.
04:56 It might say daylight.
04:58 You always wanna go towards soft white.
05:00 Soft white is just a warmer light.
05:02 Some people in a bathroom want it to be a little bit bluer,
05:04 so it's a bit more true to daylight.
05:07 This bathroom looks like it's almost 4,000.
05:09 I would say definitely 3,000 max.
05:13 For Aaron's bathroom, we will maintain the lighting
05:15 that's in the ceiling.
05:16 That will be on its own dimmer.
05:17 We will also have separate dimmers on lights
05:21 that are integrated into the medicine cabinets here.
05:23 That would be behind a diffused piece of glass
05:25 so that whenever you turn it on,
05:26 you don't really see all the bulbs.
05:28 All you see is the beautiful light coming through.
05:31 We wanna make it lighter and brighter on a budget.
05:36 I think if I came in and I said,
05:39 "You're gonna have to keep the tile.
05:40 You're gonna have to keep X, Y, Z,"
05:41 what you can definitely do on a budget is styling.
05:44 Let's replace the things that are easily replaceable.
05:47 The shower curtain, the bath mat, towels on the rod.
05:50 Keep those nice, fluffy, and white.
05:53 Keep them very simple and very beautiful,
05:55 and it makes everything just feel cleaner and fresher.
05:58 For the renovation,
06:00 we would get rid of all of the plumbing fixtures.
06:03 I really, really dislike a white fixture.
06:06 To do a renovation and end up with a white toilet
06:09 and a white sink and a white tub is so uninspiring to me.
06:14 I think that for someone like Aaron,
06:16 who constantly has people over,
06:18 not only do you want to have your own personal,
06:20 beautiful space,
06:21 but you also want to have people who come over
06:23 and remember something, right?
06:24 I think a very easy solution
06:26 is to simply have different colored fixtures.
06:30 Why have white when you can have a color?
06:33 So we're gonna give him a black toilet.
06:35 [soft music]
06:37 We walk into John's bathroom,
06:43 and we can't even tell that it wasn't renovated.
06:46 It actually looks really, really cool.
06:48 We have a checkerboard floor.
06:50 We have cool tile on the walls.
06:53 We have a beautiful textured wallpaper.
06:55 We have a lot more storage and styling,
06:57 and everything feels much more fresh than it did before.
07:00 Walking into Aaron's bathroom,
07:03 I'm entering Aaron's world,
07:05 a space that has a beautiful stone on the floor
07:08 and on the wainscoting.
07:10 We're giving him a lot of storage with a medicine cabinet.
07:13 We're also replacing his tub with a shower.
07:16 The same footprint, but it actually feels so much bigger.
07:19 It's much cleaner, it's more modern,
07:21 it's more user-friendly, and ultimately, it's more Aaron.
07:24 Do you want advice on your space?
07:25 Submit in the description below.
07:27 (upbeat music)
07:30 ♪ Okay ♪

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