Project Details
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Location: Whitby Ontario
Project Duration: 7 Weeks
Construction Cost: $150,000+
🛁 Project Calico: When an Ensuite Becomes a Private Spa
There are bathroom renovations designed to update a home—and then there are bathrooms designed to completely change the experience of living in it.
Project Calico was the latter.
From the beginning, the goal for this ensuite was uncompromising luxury. We had a large space to work with, and rather than simply filling it with beautiful finishes, every detail was carefully considered around comfort, customization, durability, and the experience these homeowners would have every single day.
We gutted the existing bathroom right down to the studs and started fresh. From the heated floors beneath your feet to the porcelain slabs covering the walls and ceiling, virtually every surface and system in this bathroom was customized.
The result is less like walking into an ensuite and more like having a private luxury spa inside your own home.
✨ Built From the Studs Up With One Goal: Luxury
When you’re investing in a bathroom at this level, what happens behind the finished surfaces matters just as much as what you see.
Project Calico was a complete gut renovation, giving us the opportunity to build every part of the room intentionally from the ground up.
Layouts, plumbing, electrical, heating, lighting, waterproofing, cabinetry and finishes all had to work together to create the final experience.
There were very few “standard” details in this bathroom. Instead, nearly every decision was made specifically for the homeowners and the way they wanted to use the space.
And nowhere is that more apparent than in the shower.
🚿 A His-and-Hers Steam Shower Unlike Anything Else
The centerpiece of Project Calico is the enormous custom steam shower.
Rather than designing a conventional shower and simply making it larger, we approached this space as its own experience.
The shower features an incredible 12 shower heads, all controlled through a digital Kohler shower system. This gives both homeowners the ability to customize their shower experience and create individual settings depending on how they want to use the space.
Whether it’s a quick morning shower or slowing down at the end of the day and enjoying the steam, this shower was designed to make something as ordinary as getting ready feel completely different.
And the luxury doesn’t stop at the fixtures.
The heated flooring continues directly into the shower and through the heated bench, creating warmth throughout the entire space. Instead of sitting on a cold tile bench or stepping onto a cold shower floor, the surfaces themselves become part of the comfort.
It’s the kind of feature you may not fully appreciate until you experience it—and then you never want to go without it.
🔥 Warm From the Moment You Walk In
Heated flooring was carried throughout the entire ensuite, creating consistent warmth from one end of the bathroom to the other.
On a cold Ontario morning, there’s no stepping onto freezing tile.
The room is designed to feel comfortable from the moment you walk in.
That experience continues after the shower with two dedicated towel warmers, meaning warm, dry towels and bathrobes are always waiting.
These aren’t simply features added for the sake of having them. They’re small luxuries that change the way you experience the room every single day.
And that’s really what Project Calico was about.
🪨 Porcelain Slabs From Floor to Ceiling
Visually, one of the most striking features of Project Calico is the extensive use of large-format porcelain slabs.
Rather than relying on traditional tile throughout the bathroom, porcelain slabs cover virtually every wall in the space—including the shower walls and ceiling.
The large-format material creates a dramatic, seamless appearance with significantly fewer grout joints interrupting the design.
Where grout was required, we used epoxy grout throughout. Beyond its premium finished appearance, epoxy grout offers excellent durability and makes maintaining and cleaning the bathroom significantly easier over the long term.
The shower floor follows the same philosophy of keeping things clean and intentional, using a large single-slope shower base leading into a linear drain.
The result is a shower that feels expansive, clean and architecturally simple despite the enormous amount of technology hidden within it.
🪵 A Custom Vanity Designed for Two
With a bathroom this unique, an ordinary vanity simply wouldn’t have worked.
We created a custom Calico hickory floating vanity that acts as another major focal point in the room.
The vanity uses a distinctive two-tier floating design, with both sections suspended from the floor to give the cabinetry a lighter, furniture-like appearance while still providing plenty of practical storage.
Like the shower, the vanity was designed specifically around a his-and-hers experience.
Two faucets feed into a shared trough-style sink, giving each homeowner their own space while maintaining one clean, continuous design.
Above the vanity are individual heated, LED-lit mirrors, creating dedicated grooming areas while preventing the mirrors from fogging during those long steam showers.
It’s highly functional, but it also feels completely custom—because it is.
🚽 Even the Toilet Has Its Own Room
When you’re designing an ensuite without compromise, even the toilet deserves some thought.
Rather than leaving it exposed within the main bathroom, we created a separate water closet behind a glass door, giving the homeowners additional privacy without making the room feel closed off.
The water closet also has its own dedicated exhaust fan, helping keep odours contained rather than circulating through the entire ensuite.
And the toilet itself is anything but ordinary.
It features a heated seat, integrated bidet, built-in lighting and speakers, turning one of the most utilitarian fixtures in the house into another thoughtfully integrated part of the overall experience.
It’s a small example of the philosophy behind the entire renovation:
If you’re going to do it, do it properly.
🧖 More Than a Bathroom—It’s an Experience
The biggest difference between Project Calico and a conventional bathroom renovation isn’t any one material or fixture.
It’s how everything works together.
You walk across warm floors into a steam shower that’s already configured exactly how you like it.
The shower floor is warm.
The bench is warm.
Twelve shower heads give you complete control over the experience.
When you’re finished, a heated towel or bathrobe is waiting.
Your mirror is warm and fog-free.
And every surface around you—from the porcelain slabs to the custom hickory cabinetry—was selected and installed specifically for this room.
Those details turn something you do every morning and evening into something you genuinely look forward to.
✨ The Finished Result: Luxury Without Compromise
Project Calico wasn’t about checking boxes on a list of luxury bathroom features.
It was about asking a different question:
If we could build the ultimate ensuite for these homeowners, what would that experience look like?
The answer became a fully custom space where comfort, technology, craftsmanship and durability all work together.
From the 12-head digital Kohler steam shower and heated bench to the wall-to-wall porcelain slabs, epoxy grout, floating Calico hickory vanity, heated mirrors, towel warmers and private water closet, virtually nothing about this bathroom was an afterthought.
No expense was spared, but more importantly, no detail was overlooked.
And that’s what makes Project Calico special.
It’s not simply a beautiful bathroom to look at.
It’s a room these homeowners get to experience every single day.
Thinking About Creating Your Own Luxury Ensuite?
If your current bathroom feels dated, builder-grade or simply doesn’t provide the level of comfort you want from your home, a custom ensuite renovation can completely change that experience.
Luxury isn’t only about choosing expensive finishes. It’s about thoughtful design, quality materials, skilled craftsmanship and details that make everyday life better.
Project Calico brings all four together.
And sometimes, the best part of renovating your home isn’t adding more space.
It’s making the space you already have feel extraordinary.
