Room of the Day: Brass Warms a Brownstone Bathroom

Sure, unlacquered brass has been making somewhat of a comeback in the U.S. recently, but for Shanti Crawford, the trend never went away in the first place. The co-owner of Indigo and Ochre Design in Brooklyn, New York, grew up overseas, predominantly in Asia, where brass is considered a classic finish. “I love the warmth and natural calcification of this living finish, and I knew I’d never have anything but brass in my own home,” she says.

Crawford’s favorite material features prominently in her recently remodeled master bathroom. “I wanted to use elements in here that meant something to me,” she says.

Repurposing as much as possible was also important to her. She repurposed an old dining table as a vanity. She milled the top to create the base and shelf, which she attached to the original table legs. Baskets beneath hold the items she doesn’t use on a daily basis, while the shelf provides a spot for towels.

The countertop is beautifully veined Fiore de Pesco marble she found in a salvage yard nearby. It has very subtle hints of pink in addition to the elegant gray veining. She used the leftover remnants to line the inside of the window and for door saddles. The window liner serves as a shower niche.



The mirrored medicine cabinets and brass lights are both pieces Crawford already owned. The faucets are unlacquered brass from Barber Wilsons.

Tip: If you are considering unlacquered brass, know that this is a living finish, which means it will change over time, and water splashes will speed up patination. If you love to watch a material patinate and are drawn to the warmth of brass, you’ll love it. If you need a perfectly polished look all the time, unlacquered brass will drive you batty.

Wall paint: Metropolitan AF-690 in matte finish, Benjamin Moore


Crawford says architects and contractors told her that having both a freestanding, scratch-resistant tub and a shower would be impossible — not enough room, and not enough structural support for the weight of a cast iron tub. But that just made her more determined to get what she wanted.

The solution to the first problem was installing a wall-to-wall copper shower pan beneath the entire tub area that’s welded to the plumbing underneath the slate tile floor. The water from the shower not only drains down through the tub, but any spillover goes down a drain in the slate floor. A tiled barrier and curtains prevent water from splashing into the rest of the bathroom.

As for a tub that wouldn’t fall right through the floor? That took a lot of searching. She had to give up on cast iron, but she finally found a bathtub that had a vintage look, crafted from a combination of finely ground volcanic limestone mixed with resin, from Victoria + Albert.

Many of the accessories hail from parts of the world in which Crawford has spent time. The rug is from Nepal; the chest is from Bhutan, and the carved wooden hooks were a gift from her grandmother from India.


The mouth-blown Italian glass pendant lights used to be the fixtures in a boutique Crawford owned in Brooklyn. In a happy design twist of fate, they pick up on the pink veins in the Fiore de Pesco marble.

The shower curtain rod is a wooden Indonesian piece that was used to hang textiles. She chose an open-weave, midweight pewter-gray linen that picks up on the gray marble veins for the curtains; they conceal the plastic liner and also let the light through.


Crawford had the toilet paper holder and the train rack in the shower custom made in unlacquered brass.

Next: Room of the Day: Seaside Dreaming in a Texas Study

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