Five Bathrooms, One Bold Vision: Inside a European-Inspired Home Redesign

When local interior designer Jennifer McCabe of Duck Egg Blue Interior Design sat down with two local realtors to talk through a recent whole-home redesign, the conversation kept circling back to one favorite topic: the bathrooms.

It makes sense. Out of the entire project, the homeowner singled out her bathrooms as some of the spaces she loves most, and with five of them to design, Jennifer had plenty of room to get creative.

A Shared Love of Navy Blue

Every great design project starts with a spark, and for this one, it was a shared color obsession. Jennifer and her client discovered early on that they both gravitated toward deep navy blue, and that early connection became the jumping-off point for the bathroom designs that followed. From there, each of the five bathrooms took on its own distinct identity, together giving the home a look the realtors describe as having "a very European feel": elegant, a little moody, and completely distinct from the cookie-cutter aesthetic so common in new builds.

The Powder Room: A Jewel Box Worth Showing Off

The home's powder room quickly became a standout, anchored by a moody navy palette throughout. Jennifer wrapped the room in a marble-effect wallpaper from Rebecca Atwood, creating serious visual impact in a small footprint. To ground the look, the floor was finished in a marble mosaic tile, and wainscoting was added to the walls; a combination that brings a timeless, classic feel to all that bold color and pattern.

Jennifer's philosophy on powder rooms is simple: go bold. As she puts it, these little rooms are like jewel boxes. Small enough that you can afford to take risks, and the perfect place to experiment with a pattern, color, or material you might hesitate to use elsewhere in the home.

Stepping Outside the Comfort Zone

The homeowner admitted she came into the project with one clear request: no cookie-cutter design. She wanted something different, and she was willing to be pushed a little outside her comfort zone to get there. That trust paid off nowhere more than in the primary bathroom.

By her own admission, she was nervous about that space at the start. But the room had great bones to work with, including a window positioned perfectly over the bathtub, something Jennifer calls a "designer's dream." Around the corner, the walk-in shower became another highlight, finished with bookmatched marble slabs. It's the kind of detail that keeps revealing itself every time you walk into the room.

The Takeaway

What comes through most in the conversation is the partnership between designer and client; a shared aesthetic, a willingness to take risks, and a final result that both sides are clearly proud of. As one of the realtors put it during the interview, if you're looking for an interior designer who brings something different and unique to a project, Jennifer McCabe is the one to call.

Jennifer McCabe is the founder of Duck Egg Blue Interior Design, specializing in bold, personality-driven residential interiors. She is also a licensed real estate agent in the state of California.