A 31 square foot bathroom and a roofline problem
The Retro-Modern Bath in Davenport is 31 square feet. The roofline over the shower was the obstacle, and a sloped tile ceiling with a matching niche was the answer.
Thirty-one square feet is not much room. In 2020 a Davenport client brought us a bathroom that size and a clear idea: combine retro with modern into a bathroom that did not look like anyone else’s. We call the finished project the Retro-Modern Bath.
The design question was easy to state. The construction question was the roofline.
The obstacle above the shower
The roofline of her home came down over the shower, so the shower ceiling could not simply be flat. A flat ceiling would have either dropped too low or left an awkward pocket of wasted space.
We designed a sloped tile shower ceiling that follows the roofline, then went one step further: the shower niche was built to match the same slope. The line of the roof shows up twice, once overhead and once at eye level, so the constraint reads as intent.
Why slopes keep showing up in our showers
This was not a one-off detail. In a 2022 Bettendorf bathroom for a client we have done many projects with, a custom steam shower needed a tiled sloped ceiling and custom made shower glass. In a steam shower the slope keeps condensation moving along the surface instead of dripping. In the Davenport bathroom the slope was solving for the roof. Same detail, different reason.
Small rooms, whole-team decisions
Our client packet describes asymmetry as the ability to make the mundane a little more intriguing by moving it off center, and minimalism as the idea that good design is not always about what we add, but also about what we remove. Both earn their keep in a small bathroom, where every inch is visible.
Getting a sloped tile ceiling right means the framing, the waterproofing, the tile layout, and the niche all have to agree before anyone picks up a trowel. When the team that drew the slope is the team that frames and tiles it, that agreement happens in one conversation. We have since built another bathroom at exactly this size, the Living Features Bath in Bettendorf, and it taught the same lesson: the smaller the room, the more the design has to do.
If your bathroom has a ceiling, a chase, or a roofline in the way, that is not the end of the idea. It is usually the start of the best one.
