This Ancaster ensuite sat at the end of a hallway the homeowners had already renovated — new hardwood, fresh paint, updated lighting — which made the original bathroom feel even more out of place. Pink-beige ceramic tile from 2003, a dated oak vanity with a drop-in sink, and a basic tub-shower combo with a fabric curtain. They wanted it to feel intentional, like it belonged to the house they'd been building around it.

We designed a transitional scheme anchored by large-format 24-by-48-inch marble-look porcelain tile running floor to ceiling, a 36-inch floating vanity in matte warm grey, and a walk-in shower with a built-in niche and frameless glass door. The palette stays neutral — soft whites, warm greys, and matte black accents — but the scale of the tile and the clean lines give the room a presence it never had.

Large-format tiles are unforgiving: any lippage in the substrate telegraphs through the surface. We floated the walls with a skim coat, then applied a Laticrete Hydro Ban waterproof membrane across every shower surface before setting tile. Each 24-by-48-inch piece was back-buttered and laid with a 1/16-inch grout joint for near-seamless coverage. The cuts around the shower valve and niche were templated on-site and executed with a wet saw to within a millimetre.

The shower niche itself is a custom build — framed into the stud bay, lined with the same marble-look porcelain, and fitted with a recessed LED strip along the top edge that casts a soft wash of light down the interior. It's wired to a separate dimmer so the homeowners can use it as a night light or ambient accent independent of the overhead pot lights.

The finished ensuite reads as one continuous surface: the same marble-look porcelain wraps the shower, clads the floor, and returns along the vanity wall. The floating vanity with its undermount rectangular sink keeps the floor line unbroken, making the compact room feel noticeably larger. Matte black fixtures — shower set, towel bar, toilet paper holder — tie everything together without competing for attention. The homeowners said the LED niche was the detail they didn't know they needed; it's become the only light they turn on for late-night use.