Fabulous Fade

Ombré tile brings style and sophistication to a Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey, bathroom

“It’s sophisticated yet fun,” Lauren Cherkas says of the bathroom featuring an ombré tile pattern.

‘We wanted a modern, cool, transi­tional space,” Lauren Cherkas says of the Jack-and-Jill bathroom adjacent to her son’s room. “It was important that we included color, but we were interested in having an aesthetic that wasn’t directed toward a little boy. It was important that our son could grow up in the space and appreciate it more as he gets older.”

To achieve that look, Cherkas, president of Secaucus-based Artistic Tile, swathed the room with ombré-effect glass tile, but she decided to modify the standard motif. “The original version of this tile has a lot of repetition. Instead of repeating the pattern down the wall, we decided to make it very bold on top and then white to the ground. We knew it would fulfill his needs better.” The result is a striking color shift from deep gray to white with a buffer of gradually lightening tiles between the two.

“This project proved to me that ‘more is more.’ So many people would use this tile on a single feature wall. In this room, we’re surrounded and it’s fabulous,” Cherkas says. “I’m glad I chose to tile floor-to-ceiling on all four walls.”

Though it’s gray, the deep-toned tile at the top of the wall “reads” blue, Cherkas explains. “So we paired it with a blue vanity.” The floating vanity, featuring brass hardware that coordinates with the faucets and the sconce accents, brought unforeseen benefits. “We are a very clumsy family,” she says, laughing. “We drop a lot of things that roll under the vanity. Having a wall-mounted vanity that doesn’t touch the floor makes it easy to pick things up. I’m really glad we did that. I didn’t realize it would be such a benefit.”

The family also didn’t realize how much they would appreciate this room. “It’s our happy place. Everyone loves walking through that bathroom.” “Everyone” includes a great-grandmother who often stays in the guest room that forms the third space in the Jack-and-Jill configuration.

“We wanted something that, quite literally, spanned generations from a preteen boy to his 100-year-old great-grandmother. When she walked in, she was stunned. She said ‘look at this beautiful bathroom that you gave me!’ I knew immediately we had nailed it.”