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A home renovation may only involve a smaller project, but that doesn’t preclude incorporating a bigger design concept beyond mere functionality and updating materials. For a bathroom transformation in an older New Westminster property, the homeowner had a unique and highly specific request that defined the remodel plan: She envisioned reclining in the bath, a glass of wine in hand, while staring up at the stars.

Fulfilling that brief meant not just reworking the floor plan but making the bathtub the focal point of the space. Though an averaged sized bathroom at 80 square feet, the room felt smaller because it was long and narrow. For Rebecca Foster, principal and lead designer at Align Interior Design , the solution was to reposition the tub at the end of the room against the outside wall.

“It had just a tiny window there,” Foster explains. “We made that window bigger and centred it on the wall. There was no skylight there. We totally opened up the ceiling to make this beautiful skylight.”

To emphasize it as focal point, Foster’s concept involved adding an arch to frame the tub — an idea that came from the homeowner discovering an inspiration image of a built-in tub with an arch detail. Foster’s interpretation of the arch was finessed to integrate with the home’s mid-century modern style.

“It was a really traditional bathroom design in the inspirational image, and it didn’t suit the rest of her house,” Foster recalls. “So, we took the arched tub inspiration and modernized it in a way to make it feel a bit more transitional. The style worked with the current mid-century modern house.

“We wanted to make sure that all your attention was drawn through that arch to the window at the back and the skylight because, ultimately when you walked into the space, we wanted it to feel like natural light was flooding into the space and that bathtub just felt so inviting.”

For the colour and texture of the materials, the overreaching theme was a calming, beach vibe. Again, considering the mid-century style of the home, Foster eschewed any obvious coastal motifs or nod to seaside living. Rather she mixed textures and hues that are evocative of water and sand — a feature wall of aqua zellige tile over the natural-wood vanity and at either end of the tub, white shiplap on the wall opposite the vanity and creamy tiles on the floor accented with polished nickel hardware and plumbing fixtures.

“The back wall is just white zellige because we loved the texture of it and how it felt, very much like the flooring, like a sandy beach,” Foster notes. “We’ve got layers of texture. We’ve got the shiplap which is vertical texture. We’ve got floor tile positioned in a diagonal to give that texture.”

Foster continued the white zellige on the apron of the tub for both esthetic and practical reasons: there isn’t a visual break between the tub and the back wall, and the tile is impervious to water. Though as the tub is undermounted under the quartz ledge, which is slanted inward on the edges, the water flows back into the tub rather than the floor but remains the perfect resting spot for a wine glass.

The repositioning of the tub, while visually dramatic, also created greater functionality in the space introducing more creative storage — a built-in spot for a Kitty Litter tray — and a dedicated makeup station for the homeowner.

From the perfectly positioned window with the meticulous tile placement — no odd offcuts to break the visual flow — to the subtle mix of textures, the result is a fresh, serene space. Much of which Foster credits contractor Fifth Element Construction ’s attention to detail.

Foster says she’s pleased with the effect of all the textures play together without it being overwhelming with texture. “It just kind of layered the kind of warmth that you feel when you’re on a beach,” she says.

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Can you see them all? A record 10 private residences are featured on this year’s New West Heritage Homes Tour, showcasing styles that range from mid-century modern to Romantic Revival-era English cottage design.

Stops include a residence once inhabited by the head of the famed Hollywood Hospital, a pioneering centre for addiction treatment, and two homes designed by Vancouver architect R.A. Berwick.

Also on the tour is Irving House, the oldest intact house in the Lower Mainland. The restored home features the original 1887 metallic gold wallpapers in the parlours, which have been painstakingly cleaned to remove over 130 years of soot and coal dust. The hallway papers were redrawn and colour-matched to the original palate.

Now in its 44th year, the self-guided tour includes knowledgeable volunteers and a detailed guidebook. Details on all homes and venues on the tour can be found on an interactive Google map at newwestheritage.org .

New Westminster Heritage Homes Tour

When: May 31, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Tickets and info: newwestheritage@gmail.com; 604-862-2867. You can also buy tickets online at newwestheritage.org

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Marie-Eve Baril knows the faucet game. Her parents launched Montreal-based Baril 40 years ago, after her mother became frustrated by how difficult it was to find beautiful faucets for the home.

Her parents began importing high-end Italian faucets and the company grew from there.

Today, Baril designs its faucets in Montreal and assembles them at its manufacturing facility in Trois-Rivières, Quebec, with products now sold across North America.

Since Marie-Eve Baril and her brother, Jean-Sébastien Baril, took over the company in 2010, the brand has expanded dramatically.

“We’ve grown about five or six times bigger in terms of volume and employees. We’re all across North America,” she says.

New collections inspired by fashion and nostalgia

This growth has not pulled the company away from its original design-first philosophy. It is visible in Baril’s latest collections, which lean into colour, tactility, nostalgia and softer forms.

To mark its 40th anniversary, Baril launched Archive 40, a limited-edition reinterpretation of one of the company’s original bathroom faucets from the 1980s. The pink-and-gold-toned design embraces vintage-inspired details and soft pastel finishes, with only 40 numbered pieces produced.

“We had fun with it,” says Baril.

One of their most striking collections is Marie Kitchen, created in collaboration with Montreal fashion designer Marie Saint Pierre. This sculptural collection includes tactile spherical handles and bright tangelo-orange accents inspired by food and colour.

“The sphere itself is not perfectly round. It’s organic. So when you touch it, you feel a movement on the sphere,” says Baril.

The collection was inspired by elemental forms and sensuality, she says: “The sphere was the earth and the spout was the thing that delivered the water out of the earth.”

A family business built on beauty

Despite the company’s growth, Baril says its original philosophy remains unchanged. Her mother started the business to bring beautiful products into people’s homes, and this hasn’t changed.

That design-first thinking feels increasingly relevant as kitchens and bathrooms continue to evolve into spaces that are as emotional and expressive as they are practical. According to Baril, homeowners interact with these spaces more intimately than they may realize. “The faucet, especially in the kitchen, is the product that you will touch the most in your house every day.”

Baril, now president of the company, says she always knew she wanted to work in business and eventually join the family company. As children, she and her brother regularly accompanied their parents to trade exhibitions and were immersed in conversations about suppliers, customers and design trends.

“We were hearing about faucets and customers and suppliers all the time at the house,” she says.

The company’s direction shifted after Baril’s father died while she and her brother were still young. Their mother continued running the company alone.

Some years later, her mother asked her to join the business, Baril says her answer came immediately: “The decision was made in like 30 seconds. I said I’m coming in,” she says. Her brother joined the company too, and they’ve never looked back.

It’s very difficult to be an entrepreneur and start a business, and Baril says she and her brother are grateful their mother had built a business with a solid customer base and brand recognition. Their job has been to structure and grow it.

Bathrooms and kitchens as emotional spaces

Baril says homeowners are increasingly moving away from harsh minimalist looks and embracing softer, more timeless forms.

“We see more rounder shapes,” she says.

And while trends continue to evolve, she believes quality and longevity remain essential. For Baril, that combination of beauty, practicality and emotional connection has remained at the centre of the company for four decades.

“Bringing beautiful products into people’s homes is still the basis of it,” says Baril.

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