We've told you about the floor plan, the vanity, and the pink mosaic. This time we're handing the mic to the person who actually lives there.
We sat down with Melissa Hassan after #TravelHome wrapped and asked her everything. What surprised her. What was hard. What her family's mornings look like now. Her answers were funny, honest, and a better case for good interior design in Michigan than anything we could write ourselves.
It started with a flood
Nobody plans a bathroom renovation around a leak, but that's how this one began.
“We started with the bathrooms because our housekeeper flooded one of them, and it was an insurance claim. We're like, well, if we're going to do that one, then we might as well do the primary bathroom, because we use that one the most.”
The primary bath was the room they most wanted to enjoy, and it was the one letting them down.
“That is a space that we really want to enjoy and be able to relax, and we just don't have that.”
Taking notes in hotel bathrooms
Melissa is a travel agent. She and Jeff stay in beautiful resorts all over the world, and somewhere along the way, they started studying the bathrooms.
“We're always in these amazing bathrooms, and it was like, oh my god, look at the drain in this shower. It slopes this way. There's no centered gross drain where the hair is getting clogged. That's amazing. Or, oh, the lighting in this mirror changes and it defogs. I would love to have that.”
It wasn't about copying a hotel. It was about the feeling.
“You realize when you're in that room, when you're traveling, you can really truly decompress. It's really important for us to have this same vibe available to us on a daily basis.”
The Part Nobody Warns You About: Decisions
We asked Melissa what surprised her most about the design process. She didn't hesitate.
“I was not expecting how many decisions you have to make. There are a lot of choices, and I am a person who gets overwhelmed by choices. So I'm like, you need to give me this and this, or you should just tell me which is best.”
Then there are the decisions most people never think about.
“Like the toilet paper holder. I literally don't care. But that's something that Jeff cares about.”
That one line sums up the whole project. Melissa wanted us to narrow things down and trust our call. Jeff wanted to see his options, what they cost, and the pros and cons of each. So for every big selection, we boiled it down to the top three. Enough for Jeff to weigh in, never so much that Melissa felt buried.
Opposites, under one roof
The Hassans know they're a design odd couple. Their friends do too.
“We are so polar opposite. One thing we get all the time is somebody will know Jeff, and then they'll meet me, and they're like, you guys are married? How does that work?”
Jeff leans modern and clean. Melissa is boho chic with a serious streak of funky. Our interior designers in Detroit see this a lot, and it's one of our favorite puzzles to solve. Good design for two people isn't a compromise where nobody wins. It's finding the overlap.
“You knew me and you knew Jeff and our styles, and you were so well equipped to merge them together to make it feel like a space for both of us.”
Honest about the hard part
We'll be straight with you. A gut renovation is tough, and we tell every client that up front. Melissa's construction phase came with more surprises than most. Her take?
“You were there for us from beginning to end, always advocating for us and helping us out and dealing with our millions and billions of questions.”
She paused, then added: “Jeff's millions and billions of questions.”
The Primary Bath: “A Freaking Masterpiece”
Remember the triangle tub nobody used and the tiny shower? Melissa does.
“Gross. Goodbye.”
In its place is a step-up wet room you can walk into from either side, a freestanding tub, warm wood overhead, and black shutters on the window. When we asked for her favorite feature, she struggled.
“The primary bathroom, that's really hard to narrow down, because the whole thing is just a freaking masterpiece.”
Pushed to pick one, she landed on the custom vanity.
“Everything about it. The custom-made sink with the inlay of the brass, and then the drawers are amazing. They slow close, there's outlets there. It's so beautiful and it's so functional.”
And guests notice.
“You walk in and people are like, that thing is awesome. And you're like, I know. Thank you. Somebody made it for me.”
Making time to slow down
Here's the question we care about most: did it actually change anything day to day?
“We're busy parents who both work full time and have schedules with the kids. Everybody lives this life. But we make the time to enjoy the bathroom. I know that sounds so weird.”
It doesn't sound weird to us. That's the whole point.
“You can just take a shower forever, and you're not trapped, because it's open air. It's such a great place to go in and relax and decompress. It offers both of us a space where we can just take our time and recalibrate.”
The kids were not allowed. The kids are always there.
“We swore the kids were not going to use it. Kids are not allowed in this bathroom. But our kids love being in that bathroom too, because the energy in that space is top notch. It relaxes you the second you walk in.”
Now, in Melissa's words, “everybody just uses our bathroom.”
That includes Jeff and the color-changing mood lighting. Rainbow in June. Red, white, and blue in July. Sunset colors after that.
“It's his favorite thing to do, change the light scheme in there. He blames it on the kids, but he likes to do it and then show the kids. Don't let him lie to you.”
“We've Never Seen Anything Like This”
The reactions haven't stopped. Friends and family tell Melissa the space looks like her. Contractors who come in for other jobs ask to take pictures.
“Anytime we have some sort of contractor come into that bathroom, they always take pictures of it. They're like, oh my god, can I take pictures of this? We get that a lot. We've never seen anything like this.”
When one of Jeff's cousins asked to see the remodel, Melissa sent a photo. The reply was that it looked like a lot.
Melissa's answer is one we think about often:
“You've got to have a budget. That's the thing. But it's like, you get what you pay for.”
A full design and a remove-and-replace with builder-grade materials are two different things. The layout alone made that clear here. You can't get a flipped floor plan, a wet room, or a vanity someone built just for you out of a box.
What's next
The Hassans are already planning their next project with us. Melissa's words: “literally everything.” (Her curtains are first on the chopping block.)
That's the best review we could ask for. If you're looking for interior designers in Michigan who will listen to both of you, narrow down the choices, and advocate for you from the first measurement to the final photo, we'd love to meet you.
We create space that becomes you.