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$75K+ specifications-driven luxury · Fixed-price contracts · In-house 3D design or your designer · Premium material sourcing · 2-year workmanship warranty · 4.7★ on Google
Book-matched slab, Waterworks and Newport Brass and Brizo fixture lines, curbless walk-in showers, freestanding tubs, in-floor radiant heat, vapor steam, custom millwork vanities. Real luxury primary baths for Forest Hills, East Grand Rapids, Ada, Cascade, and Grand Rapids Township homeowners. No allowance games. No shower-liner gimmicks. The price we quote is the price you pay.
Book Your Free Discovery Call619 36th St SW, Wyoming, MI 49509 · About 20 minutes from most Forest Hills, EGR, Ada, and Cascade homes. By appointment only — we come to you for in-home consultations. · Open in Google Maps →
At $75K and up, the bathroom project stops being a renovation and starts being an architectural decision. The remodeler you pick is no longer judged on price — they're judged on spec literacy, project management, finish-grade discipline, and whether the number they quote is actually the number you pay. Four real things separate Thornapple at the luxury tier.
Most contractors operate on cost-plus or open-allowance contracts at the luxury tier — convenient for them, painful for you when the slab supplier’s pricing “shifted” mid-project. Thornapple writes a true fixed-price contract on every luxury bath, no matter how complex. We walk the slab yard with you, lock the tile lot, price the Waterworks order, and freeze the number. The only way it moves is a written change order you approve. See the full process.
About half of our luxury Grand Rapids clients bring their own kitchen-and-bath designer, interior designer, or architect to the project. We absorb their drawings, value-engineer where structural or trade reality requires it, and execute. The other half use our in-house 3D design, which is built live during the discovery visit. Both paths land at the same fixed-price contract, with the same project portal, the same crew, the same warranty. Bring your designer or borrow ours — no upcharge either way.
At the luxury tier, the materials don’t come from Home Depot. We have trade accounts at premium plumbing showrooms (Waterworks, Newport Brass, Brizo, House of Rohl, Watermark), book-matched slab sourcing through regional stone yards, and direct relationships with the lighting and millwork specialists who serve the West Michigan luxury market. You see the slabs in person. You touch the Waterworks Henry handles. You pick the Sonance speaker locations. We handle everything else.
A $150K bath has 200+ scheduled decisions, 30+ trade days, and millions of dollars of supplier relationships running through it. You get a dedicated Thornapple project manager from contract through walkthrough — one phone number, one inbox, one human accountable to your schedule. Every milestone, every delivery, every inspection, and every photo lives in your project portal so the build never disappears into the contractor’s phone.
Anyone can charge $75,000 for a bathroom. The question is what shows up at the install. At Thornapple, luxury is defined by specifications — not just by the invoice. Below is the spec list a primary bath has to hit to land in our luxury tier. Mid-luxury hits most of these. Ultra-luxury hits all of them, plus structural expansion and integrated systems.
Stone and tile. Book-matched slab on at least one feature surface (waterfall vanity edge, shower wall, or feature niche). Premium tile beyond builder-grade porcelain — large-format porcelain slab, handmade zellige, hand-cut mosaic accents, or natural stone with documented quarry origin.
Plumbing fixtures. One of: Waterworks, Newport Brass, Brizo Litze or Levoir, Kohler Artist Editions (Components, Purist, Stillness), Watermark, or House of Rohl. Not the standard Kohler or Delta line you can buy at a big-box store.
Cabinetry. Custom millwork vanity — rift-cut walnut, quarter-sawn white oak, lacquered MDF, or stone-clad — with soft-close drawers, integrated lighting, and joinery you’d see in a custom kitchen, not a vanity assembled in a warehouse.
Systems. In-floor radiant heat (electric or hydronic by zone). Layered lighting on dimmable scene control (Lutron Caséta or RA3). Premium ventilation — sized to actually move steam, not just satisfy code. And on at least one project in three at the luxury tier, vapor steam in the shower envelope.
Generic “premium materials” copy is what most luxury remodelers default to. We name the categories specifically so you can compare apples to apples when you’re interviewing builders. At the luxury tier, the difference between a $75K bath and a $150K bath is rarely labor — it’s the materials and the integrated systems.
Calacatta marble, Cristallo quartzite, leathered granite, Roman travertine. Two adjacent slabs cut from the same block and mirrored to create a continuous veining pattern across a feature wall, waterfall vanity edge, or shower surround. The single most striking move available at the luxury tier.
Continuous porcelain panels (5x10 ft or larger) on shower walls and floors. Reads as natural stone, performs like porcelain — near-zero absorption, no sealing, easier to maintain. Particularly useful for vapor-steam showers where natural stone is overspec’d.
Rift-cut walnut, quarter-sawn white oak, painted or lacquered MDF, or stone-clad. Built to room dimensions by trade partners we’ve worked with for years. Soft-close drawer hardware (Blum or Salice). Integrated under-cabinet lighting on the same scene control as the room.
Waterworks (Henry, Easton Classic, Etoile). Newport Brass (Astor, Priya, East Linear). Brizo Litze and Levoir. Kohler Artist Editions (Components, Purist, Stillness). Watermark. House of Rohl. We help you pick a line that fits your aesthetic and stays coherent across faucet, shower trim, tub filler, and accessories.
Electric mat under tile (cost-effective, zoned by area) or hydronic loops integrated with the boiler (whole-room comfort, ultra-luxury). Programmable thermostats so the floor is warm before your alarm goes off in February. One of the most-requested features in luxury Grand Rapids primary baths.
Mr. Steam, ThermaSol, or SteamSpa generator sized to the shower volume. Commercial-grade waterproofing. Chromatherapy lighting, aromatherapy ports, and a programmable digital control. A daily spa session without leaving the house. Add $8K to $15K all-in including the waterproofing upgrades.
Kohler Sensate touchless faucets. Kohler DTV+ digital shower with programmable presets. U by Moen voice control. Toto Neorest or Kohler Veil toilets with heated seat, integrated bidet, and night-light. Built-in tech that disappears into the architecture instead of looking like a gadget.
Lutron Caséta or RA3 scene control. Dimmable LED in shower niches and vanity-mirror perimeters. Sonance in-ceiling speakers on the same audio zone as the closet. One programmable “morning,” “evening,” and “spa” scene that controls light, audio, and the in-floor heat together.
Wall-mounted towel warmer or warming drawer integrated into the vanity. Toto Neorest or Kohler Veil with built-in bidet, dryer, and seat heat. The finish details that come up every morning and never feel like extras after the first winter.
Most luxury bath competitors show one layout and call it “the spa.” In real homes, the right layout depends on whether you and your partner share a vanity, whether the bath needs to integrate with the closet, whether you want a tub at all, and whether the room is expanding into the next room or staying inside its walls. Five distinct primary-bath layouts cover 90% of what we build at the luxury tier in Grand Rapids.
Single open volume. A freestanding soaking tub as the focal point — cast iron, copper, or stone resin (Victoria + Albert, Kohler, Waterworks, Signature Hardware). Curbless walk-in tile shower along one wall. Double vanity opposite the shower. Layered lighting with dimmable scene control. This is the most-photographed layout in Grand Rapids luxury baths.
Two distinct vanity volumes, each sized to one person’s routine. Often facing each other across the room with the tub as the centerpiece between them — or back-to-back on a central plumbing wall. Each vanity gets its own height, finish, drawer configuration, and integrated lighting. Common in his-and-hers primary baths where the morning routines don’t overlap.
The primary bath opens directly into a built-out dressing room or closet behind the vanity wall. Same flooring runs through both rooms. Same Lutron scene control. Same in-floor radiant zone. Often involves taking a small adjacent bedroom into the bath envelope — ultra-luxury territory and the highest-value remodel we build.
A freestanding soaking tub placed inside the curbless glass-enclosed shower volume — one continuous tile floor with linear drain, one waterproofing membrane envelope, optional vapor steam for the whole zone. Continental-spa influence, lots of architectural drama. Best in larger primary baths where the volume can carry the gesture.
A small dedicated alcove or room for the toilet (almost always a Toto Neorest at this tier), with its own door, its own ventilation, and its own niche lighting. The rest of the bath stays open. Strongly preferred in his-and-hers primary baths — nobody has to coordinate. Common architectural move in newer Cascade and Forest Hills builds.
In practice, most ultra-luxury primary baths combine layouts — his/hers separate vanities with a water closet alcove and a dressing-room integration, all wrapped around a centerpiece spa volume. The 3D design phase exists to figure out which combination fits your room, your routine, and your partner’s without forcing one of you to compromise.
About half of our luxury Grand Rapids clients bring an outside designer to the project — a kitchen-and-bath designer they’ve worked with for years, an interior designer who designed the rest of their home, or an architect overseeing a larger renovation. The other half use Thornapple’s in-house 3D design, which we build live during the discovery visit.
If you bring an outside designer: We absorb their drawings into our process. We value-engineer where the structural reality, the plumbing stack location, or the trade scheduling requires it — flagging every change for the designer’s sign-off before construction. We coordinate showroom visits with the designer present. The designer stays in the creative seat. We stay in the build seat. The fixed-price contract still locks the entire scope.
If you use Thornapple’s in-house design: Our designers build a real 3D model of your bath during the first visit, walk you through layout options, and hand back a budget range tied to actual scope choices — tile, fixtures, shower configuration, vanity style — before you commit to anything. You leave the discovery call knowing what’s possible in your room and what it would cost.
Either path costs the same. The design path is part of the discovery conversation, not an upsell, and we’re comfortable in either seat. We’ve worked with most of the bathroom-and-kitchen design firms operating in West Michigan and we’ll happily refer you to one if you don’t already have a designer relationship.
Most luxury remodelers hide pricing behind a contact form. We publish honest 2026 cost bands on-page so you can size your project before you book the discovery call. Final pricing is always locked into a fixed-price contract after design and selections. For mid-range and refresh-tier numbers, see our full Grand Rapids bathroom remodel cost guide.
A premium primary bath inside the existing footprint. Curbless walk-in tile shower with frameless glass. Freestanding soaking tub. Double custom-millwork vanity. In-floor radiant heat. Premium plumbing fixture line (Newport Brass, Brizo Litze, Kohler Artist Editions). Layered Lutron lighting. Real ventilation. The right scope when the room volume already works and the spend is going into materials, fixtures, and finish detail.
Mid-luxury scope plus one or two specialty systems: vapor steam in the shower, book-matched slab on a feature wall, smart fixtures (Kohler DTV+ shower, Toto Neorest toilet, Kohler Sensate faucets), integrated audio, or a separate water closet alcove. Inside the existing footprint or with minor wall removals. The right scope when you want a few signature moves without going to full structural expansion.
Full structural expansion. Walls pulled. Footprint expanded into the closet or an adjacent bedroom. Book-matched stone slab on multiple surfaces. Custom dressing-room integration. Vapor steam shower with chromatherapy and aromatherapy. Tub-in-shower wet room or his/hers separate vanities with water closet alcove. Top-tier fixture lines (Waterworks, House of Rohl). The right scope when the goal is a private wing of the home, not a bath.
Multi-room scope — primary bath plus closet plus laundry plus sitting area treated as a connected primary-suite renovation. Architect-led with structural engineering involvement. Whole-home audio and lighting integration. The kind of project where the bath is a piece of a larger design conversation. We work with West Michigan’s top architects and interior designers on these scopes — bring your team or we’ll refer one.
These bands are published honestly, but they’re not estimates — only your fixed-price contract is. Run a quick range for your specific scope in the cost estimator, or book a discovery call to walk the project in person. Also useful: our deep dive on whether premium fixtures are worth the extra cost.
The Thornapple process is the same at every tier — only the design depth, the material sourcing, and the trade choreography expand at the luxury level. Five phases run every project. Full breakdown lives on the process page.
We come to your home, walk the bath, measure the room, talk through your routine, and start a real 3D sketch in front of you. We pull preliminary scope, name fixture-line candidates, identify structural realities, and hand back a budget range tied to actual scope. No commitment, no pressure, no upsell. About half of our luxury clients walk us in alongside their outside designer.
3D renderings iterate until the layout reads right. We walk the slab yard with you, walk the Waterworks or Newport Brass showroom, pick the tile lot, source the millwork vanity, choose the Lutron scenes, and lock the lighting plan. Every selection is documented and priced. Book-matched slabs are tagged at the supplier. Long-lead fixtures are pre-ordered.
Once design and selections are locked, we write the fixed-price contract. Every line item is itemized — every fixture, slab, tile lot, light, trade. You see the full number before you sign. No allowances. No end-of-project reconciliation. The only thing that moves the number is a written change order you approve before the work happens.
Demo, framing, plumbing rough-in, electrical rough-in, in-floor heat installation, waterproofing, tile, slab, fixtures, cabinetry, paint, finish trade. A dedicated project manager runs the schedule. Every milestone, every delivery, every inspection lives in your project portal. We bring our own portable restroom so the crew never uses your other baths. Dust barriers contain the work zone.
We finish the punch list before the final walkthrough — the walkthrough is to confirm, not to identify problems. You get the operations manual for every smart fixture, the warranty documentation for the fixture lines, the spec sheet for every material, and a 2-year Thornapple workmanship warranty in writing. We’re a phone call away after that — for 2 years and well beyond.
No allowance-game pricing. No mid-project “the slab supplier raised our cost” conversations. No subcontractor handoffs you have to manage. No one-day shower-liner gimmicks. No timeline that disappears into the contractor’s phone. A real luxury design-build is supposed to feel boring in the best way — the schedule is mapped, the price is locked, and the team executes.
Real Thornapple luxury bath projects from across Grand Rapids and the surrounding Kent County communities. Descriptive names — no client names, no street addresses. Each one shows the spec, the layout, and the materials so you can see what the dollar figures in the cost bands above actually buy.
A primary bath taken to the studs and rebuilt as a daily spa retreat for an East Grand Rapids family. Spa Primary layout with the freestanding soaking tub as centerpiece. Scope: curbless walk-in tile shower with linear drain, double vanity with quartz tops, custom tile feature wall, in-floor radiant heat under porcelain, layered Lutron lighting, upgraded ventilation. Mid-luxury tier finish.
A dated 1990s primary bath transformed into a clean-lined modern luxury retreat for a Cascade Township family. Spa Primary layout inside the existing footprint. Scope: bold statement tile, frameless glass shower enclosure, custom floating vanity with integrated under-cabinet lighting, statement pendant lighting, quartz tops. Mid-luxury tier focused on finish quality rather than structural expansion.
A classic-meets-modern luxury primary bath built for a Forest Hills family planning to stay in the home long-term. Spa Primary layout designed so the lifelong-design features read as luxury today and serve as aging-in-place infrastructure for the next 30 years. Scope: custom tile, dual vanity, freestanding tub, curbless walk-in shower with built-in bench, reinforced wall blocking for future grab bars, slip-resistant luxury tile, layered fall-safe lighting.
A Forest Hills primary bath connected to a coordinated kitchen renovation. Mid-Luxury Plus tier. Scope: deep navy custom millwork vanities with brushed gold hardware, Brizo Litze fixtures across faucet, tub filler, and shower trim, marble-look large-format porcelain slab, frameless glass shower with brushed gold accents, in-floor radiant heat under porcelain, Lutron RA3 scene control coordinated with the kitchen.
A moody nature-inspired primary bath for an Ada Township family. Tub-in-Shower Wet Room layout with vapor steam. Scope: rift-cut walnut custom vanity, leathered stone slab on the feature wall, brushed nickel Newport Brass fixtures throughout, freestanding soaking tub with floor-mount filler, vapor steam shower with chromatherapy lighting and aromatherapy, in-floor radiant heat, Lutron scene control integrated with the adjacent dressing room. Ultra-luxury tier finish across the room.
Our full bathroom portfolio includes additional luxury primary baths, mid-range remodels, guest baths, and lifelong-design projects across Grand Rapids, Forest Hills, East Grand Rapids, Ada, Cascade, Kentwood, and Rockford. Each project includes scope notes, material selections, and process photos.
We serve Grand Rapids and the surrounding high-end communities from our Wyoming, MI office. From a vapor-steam primary bath in Ada to a book-matched-slab primary in East Grand Rapids to a his/hers separate-vanity remodel in Forest Hills Northern, we bring the same fixed-price, spec-driven, designer-friendly process to every neighborhood. This page is strictly our $75K+ high-end, specifications-driven luxury primary-bath lane. If you're planning a standard or mid-range bathroom instead, our hub page owns that work — see standard bathroom remodeling in Grand Rapids, part of our broader Grand Rapids remodeling practice.
Ten real questions Grand Rapids luxury homeowners ask before booking a discovery call. Not the generic FAQ recycled across competitor sites — the ones that show up on the second call after they’ve seen our 3D rendering.
A Thornapple luxury bathroom remodel is defined by specifications, not just by price. The baseline starts around $75,000 and includes some combination of: book-matched stone slab or premium tile, custom millwork vanity, premium fixture lines (Waterworks, Newport Brass, Brizo Litze, Kohler Artist Editions, Watermark, or House of Rohl), a curbless walk-in shower with frameless glass, a freestanding soaking tub, in-floor radiant heat, layered designer lighting, and integrated detail work like towel warmer drawers, heated toilet seats with bidet function, and dimmable scene control. A standard mid-range remodel might check one or two of those boxes. A luxury remodel runs the whole list.
Mid-luxury primary baths in Grand Rapids run $75,000 to $120,000 — premium materials and fixtures inside the existing footprint, curbless tile shower, freestanding tub, double vanity, heated floors, layered lighting. Ultra-luxury primary suites run $120,000 to $200,000-plus — book-matched slab, vapor steam, dressing-room integration, smart fixtures, structural expansion into adjacent space, and concierge-level finish work throughout. Every Thornapple luxury project is locked at a fixed-price contract after design and selections are finalized. The quote is the price. Full breakdown in our bathroom remodel cost guide.
Mid-luxury ($75K to $120K) keeps the bathroom inside its existing footprint and focuses spend on materials, fixtures, and finish detail. Ultra-luxury ($120K to $200K-plus) typically involves structural expansion — pulling walls, integrating an adjacent closet or bedroom into the bathroom envelope, building a separate water closet alcove, adding a vapor steam shower or dressing-room circuit — plus book-matched stone slab, smart fixtures, and integrated lighting and audio systems. Mid-luxury is a beautiful primary bath. Ultra-luxury is a private wing of the home.
Yes, and it’s one of the most common engagement models at the luxury tier. About half of our luxury bathroom clients bring their own kitchen-and-bath designer, interior designer, or architect to the table. We respect their drawings and selections, value-engineer where structural or trade reality requires it, and execute the build under our fixed-price contract. The other half of our luxury clients use Thornapple’s in-house 3D design. Both work. Neither costs you more — the design path is part of the discovery conversation, not an upsell.
The lines that show up most often in our luxury Grand Rapids primary baths: Waterworks (Henry, Easton Classic, Etoile), Newport Brass (Astor, Priya, East Linear), Brizo (Litze, Levoir, Allaria), Kohler Artist Editions (Components, Purist, Stillness), Watermark, House of Rohl (Perrin & Rowe), and Victoria + Albert for stone-resin freestanding tubs. Toilets at the ultra-luxury tier are typically Toto Neorest or Kohler Veil with heated seat and integrated bidet. Smart shower controls are Kohler DTV+, U by Moen, or Brizo SenseRain. We help you pick lines that fit your aesthetic and stay coherent across the room. More on whether premium fixtures are worth the spend in our premium fixtures guide.
Design and material selection runs 6 to 12 weeks at the luxury tier — book-matched slab sourcing and premium fixture lead times push it longer than a mid-range remodel. Construction typically runs 8 to 14 weeks for mid-luxury and 12 to 20 weeks for ultra-luxury with structural expansion or vapor steam. A full Thornapple luxury bathroom project from first call to final walkthrough usually lands between 4 and 8 months. We map every milestone in your project portal before demo day so the timeline never disappears into the contractor’s head. Week-by-week breakdown in our bathroom remodel timeline guide.
Vapor steam is a true residential steam shower system — a dedicated steam generator (Mr. Steam, ThermaSol, or SteamSpa) sized to the shower volume, vented and tiled to commercial-grade waterproofing standards, with chromatherapy lighting, aromatherapy ports, and a programmable digital control. It is not a glorified handheld shower. Done right, it transforms the shower into a daily spa session. The honest answer on worth: clients who add it use it. Clients who hesitate at the spec stage almost always regret skipping it. Budget around $8K to $15K all-in including waterproofing upgrades and the digital control system.
Yes — and it is one of the strongest design moves at the luxury tier. A properly built curbless walk-in shower (slope-to-drain membrane, linear drain or trench drain, large-format porcelain or stone slab, frameless glass) reads as spa-luxury today and quietly serves as aging-in-place infrastructure for the next 30 years. The same detail that makes the shower walkable at 70 makes it visually open and architectural at 45. Curbless is luxury — not accessibility — when it’s executed with the right waterproofing and the right tile selection. Full detail on the related accessibility remodeling page.
Yes. Book-matched slab — where two adjacent slabs are mirrored to create a continuous veining pattern across a wall, a waterfall vanity edge, or a shower surround — is one of the most striking moves available at the luxury tier. It requires sourcing slabs from the same block, planning the cuts before fabrication, and choreographing the install so the seams disappear. We handle the slab selection at the supplier yard with you, walk the cut layout, and coordinate fabrication so the finished install matches the rendering. Common stones we book-match: Calacatta marble, Cristallo quartzite, leathered granite, Roman travertine.
Same way it works at every Thornapple tier — only the dollar number is larger. We complete the in-home discovery call, build the 3D design (or absorb your designer’s drawings), walk every material selection at the supplier, and price the entire scope including every fixture, slab, tile lot, light, and trade. The fixed-price contract you sign is the final price. No allowances. No end-of-project reconciliation. The only thing that moves the number is a written change order you approve before the work happens. At $75K and up, that certainty is what separates a real luxury design-build from a punch-list nightmare. See the full process.
The hub for standard, refresh, and mid-range bathroom remodeling in Grand Rapids — scope, process, what’s included, and FAQs across every non-luxury tier.
Geo-specific page for our deepest luxury-bath market — Forest Hills Northern, Central, and Eastern.
What a bathroom remodel actually costs in Grand Rapids across every tier — refresh, mid-range, luxury, and ultra-luxury.
A deep dive on whether Waterworks, Newport Brass, and Brizo Litze actually justify the price step over standard lines.
Week-by-week breakdown of a real bathroom remodel — from demo to final walkthrough.
Run a quick range for your specific luxury bathroom scope before booking the discovery call.
It starts with a free discovery call — a quick conversation to talk through your project, your designer (if you have one), your budget range, and your fixture preferences. No commitment. No pressure. Just clarity.
Book Your Free Discovery CallOr call us at (616) 404-3400
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