The house is very unique and was featured in several magazines back in its glory days. It is midcentury modern style, so I would like to update, but stay true to the modern feel. The draftsman loved my general ideas for finishes, thought they were great for the house, but I don't know how how to roll that into a design.
Thanks for any words of wisdom!
Since the other bathrooms in the house are functional, I think you need to live in the house for awhile and get to know it... as strange as that sounds.
Right now, it would be too easy to "wreck" it and not stay true to the mid century modern feel. However, I feel your pain with wanting to have a nice master bath.
Hiring a designer won't really net you much. As someone else said, they're going to push the year 2013 modern finishes and designs on you, not the mid century modern. And in ten years, it's going to look dated.
Since the house has been in magazines, is there anyway to get those old articles and pictures and use that as your design template? I imagine over the past 50 or 60 years, the house has probably been molested to some degree.
I really like mid century, its just really hard to get right I think. Then again, any era of architecture is hard to get right. Most people do not have the eye for it. They know what looks good, but don't know how to create it.
Another thought is, there has to be a way to find old copies of Better Homes and Gardens Magazines from the time your house was built. You should be able to find lots and lots of ideas in there that would keep with the spirit of your home.
Depending on the area of the country you live in, there might just happen to be a mid century antique store with furniture and other home finishings from the era. There is one where I live.
The only other piece of advice I have is to not rush. Other than the getting the water damage repaired, I'd tread really cautiously even with repainting and updating fixtures now.
One thing to keep in mind is if the interior of the house has been painted with latex paint, and a primer was not used on top of the 1950s oil enamel paints, the latex is pretty easy to remove with a vinegar poultice. Then you could easily restore it to the original color scheme.
I've removed two layers of latex paint in my upstairs bathroom recently and very easily. Ugly white on top, then a seafoam green which was covering a beautiful gold colored oil enamel paint. Matches really well with the varnished woodwork I have throughout the house. The paint is still in pretty good shape. And saves me the hassle and expense of having to repaint.