Paris Kostopoulos and Tina Psoinos, designers at Paris K Design in New York City, were challenged to design a powder room in a two-apartment conversion to meet city codes and the owner’s fondness for all things theatrical. For the bathrooms, they chose an in-wall toilet system from Geberit, an outstanding performer that helped set the stage for an award-winning design.
The Challenge
The owners of two adjacent apartments in New York City decided to combine them into a single dwelling. Like many New Yorkers, they are avid theatergoers and wanted their home to reflect that interest, with bold color and dramatic finishes. They approached designers Paris Kostopoulos and Tina Psoinos with their specific – and somewhat unusual – requirements.
The original layout consisted of two living spaces: a three-bedroom, two-bath apartment and a separate one-bedroom, one-bath apartment. Kostopoulos and Psoinos eliminated the larger apartment’s original 1960s bathroom in the redesign to make room for a hallway connecting the two apartments into a single 2,200-square-foot, four-bedroom, four-bath apartment.
The walls of the apartment and powder room are very thin and had to accommodate both electrical and plumbing equipment. The water lines had to be diverted to the building’s existing risers. The powder room had to meet accessibility requirements in order to pass city building codes and to comply with New York’s strict water usage and pressure restrictions.
The Solution
Kostopolous and Psoinos chose the slim Geberit 2x4 in-wall toilet system as a basis for the powder room remodel. The system easily accommodated the requirements for water and electrical lines, and hiding the toilet tank inside the wall allowed the theatrical elements of the design to take center stage.
“To add an aura of mystery in the powder room, we chose sparkling green Italian handmade relief tiles from Alchemy Tile ,” says Kostopolous. “For the back wall and the large rust-toned wall, ceiling and floor tiles were chosen from Florim to match the corridor’s gold-toned Romo wallpaper with its look of vertical ‘slabs’ of rusted steel. We stage-lighted the room with concealed LED lighting behind the circular mirror and in the ceiling, accentuating the powder room and its white fixtures as well as the very architectural gold-tone circular sconces.”