Galley Kitchen and Tub-to-Shower Bathroom at 345 East 81st Street

The starting point: white shaker and a black counter

The kitchen worked and looked like every other galley in the building. White shaker cabinets that stopped short of the ceiling, a black counter the length of the run, a pale grey subway backsplash and grey floor tile. The appliances were full-size and the room was not, so the counter was mostly occupied before anyone started cooking. The bathroom had a pedestal sink with a glass shelf above it for storage, white tile to chest height with dark paint above, and an alcove tub behind a curtain.

What the crew did, in order

1. Protect the building first

   Hallways and common areas were prepared as the building required, the door, jamb and hardware in the bathroom were protected along with the window, and rubbish left the site the way an eighteenth-floor co-op allows. On a high floor every piece of cabinetry and every appliance goes up in the service elevator, which sets the pace of the whole job.

2. Strip both rooms back

   The kitchen lost its floor tile, baseboards, wall and base cabinets, countertops, backsplash, sink, faucet, shut-off valves and plumbing branch lines, the ceiling light and four above-counter outlets, and every appliance. The bathroom lost its floor and wall tile, the alcove tub, the pedestal sink, the toilet, the recessed medicine cabinet, three sconces and the hot, cold, waste and vent branch lines.

3. Replace the branch lines back to the risers

   New shut-off valves, check valves and water hammer arrestors went in, with hot and cold branch lines run back to the risers in both rooms and new waste and vent lines in the bathroom. An icemaker line was run to the refrigerator position. None of this is visible in a finished photograph and all of it is the part that decides whether the room is still quiet in ten years.

4. Waterproof and soundproof both floors

   A waterproof membrane went down in the kitchen and the bathroom, turned up the walls six inches in both. Acoustical underlayment was glued down over it before any tile was set. The co-op requires the soundproofing; the membrane is what keeps a leak on the eighteenth floor from becoming someone else’s ceiling.

5. Build the shower where the tub was

   A lead pan and curb were set in the tub’s old position, cement board went up in the enclosure, and a recessed shampoo niche was framed into the wall. The walls were resurfaced where they needed it before any tile went on.

6. Tile

   The kitchen floor took Emser Terramor Bianco in a large format, with an Emser Kudo Indigo polished backsplash above the counter. The bathroom floor took Zia Tile Pomelo in Midnight and White at eight inches, the shower floor took Emser Catch Glossy in Ice at twelve inches, and the walls took the same Catch Glossy in a narrow format, stacked vertically, carried to the beam in the shower and to roughly four feet outside it.

7. Set the cabinets, the stone and the fixtures

   Three Fabuwood finishes went in across one galley: Catalina Matte, Bianco Matte and Rosales 2. The Caesarstone Blizzard counter was templated to turn down as a waterfall at both ends. In the bathroom the same Blizzard slab produced the vanity top, both saddles, the shower seat, the two niche shelves and the window sill and returns, so the stone reads as one material throughout.

8. Finish

   Appliances were installed in their existing positions, the shower glass went in, and both rooms were skim-coated and painted. Two grab bars were cleated into the shower wall rather than screwed to tile.

The kitchen

The bathroom

Materials and finishes

Kitchen

Primary bathroom

The result

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