Bathroom Planning

Bathroom designing is one of my favourite aspects of the job.

I generally encourage my clients to inject some character with for example quirky lights or vintage decorative pieces or plants to avoid their bathrooms looking clinical and bland.

Read on for inspiration and my top dos and dont’s:

Careful space planning and playing through a number of layout options even if the placement of fixtures seems obvious is important to make sure you end up with the optimal design in terms of functionality and aesthetics.

Tiled partition walls can work very well for small as well as large spaces:

They can provide privacy, creating a shower or WC nook and pipes for basin taps or shower mixers can run inside it so not all fixtures have to be placed along the existing four walls of the room. Arranging all fixtures along the outside perimeter and leaving excess empty space in the middle of a large bathroom usually doesn’t look great.

Above is an example by studio MRS cleverly separating shower from bath and providing a toiletry niche which houses the bath taps as well as a very handy towel hook.

Colour and pattern are obvious components of any successful bathroom scheme and can give your space an individual slant.

Heidi Callier has created many iconic but timeless bathroom looks, such as the one pictured. I love the patterned tiles, mixing warm reds with pink: an unusual but charming colour combination. To recreate a similar look on a budget the pink tiles could be replaced with painted wall to save cost.

Decorative mirror and walllights complete the look. Consider vintage mirrors and accessories even for contemporary bathrooms.

This almost monochrome interior by Giancarlo Valle oozes elegance and eclecticism and is a great illustration of how well it can work to have a patterned floor with plain bathroom walls.

I generally start a scheme with having a dominant pattern or texture on either walls or floor.

A flush-fitted, custom-sized mirror can be an economic alternative to buying a feature mirror and can look just as smart if you already have other character features elsewhere as shown here and is worth looking into.

Wallpaper in bathrooms can look stunning, especially in a powder room / guest WC situation but one has to think of the practicalities of how steam and water splashing will affect the wall coverings. I would usually advise to tile or panel around 110cm from the floor up like in this image as the lower half of the walls gets scuffs and water marks easily and use the wallpaper for the top half of the walls only or at least away from water sources to keep the room looking pristine for longer.

A spectacular example of a wash room with wallpaper by Salvesen Graham with wallpaper by Antoiette Poisson.

How cute is this tiny closet, again by Heidi Callier which could be a bit old-world if it wasn’t for the interestingly-placed, modernist and oversized lamp.

This is also a great example of triumphantly matching wallpaper and window dressing fabric. In my view this usually works best, when the pattern is subtle such as this lovely design by Nicholas Herbet Ltd.

I would not advise to recreate the minimal splash back with wallpaper either side of the sink unless you are prepared to repair the walls in regular intervals.

In the past I have generally advised clients to tile only where the wall needs protecting, inside the shower or half way up behind the bath and sink to keep the å bathroom design airy but there have been many recent examples of tiling all the way up to ceiling on every wall and I think especially in traditional themes, where a contrast colour border at high level is introduced, this can look amazing, like in this pretty shower room by Studio Duggan.

Using a variety of different textures and consider slightly unusual material combinations can have exquisite outcomes as in this bathroom from Stephen Pierce Jordan.

Microcement and elaborate veined marble detailing are not often paired but this is simply stunning. I also love how some of the shower is tiled in an accent colour adding a third wall texture.

Do consider feature lights in your bathroom: wall lights and/or a pendant depending on room size - Do not just rely on spots and LEDs

around the mirror if you want a sumptuous look. Having said that, often a central pendant or two wall lights either side of the mirror are not enough even for a smaller bathroom and some architectural lighting such as recessed spots should be fitted as well.

The picture shows Anna Khouri’s minimal, carefully curated bathroom in her beautiful NYC apartment. It is simple, yet stylish and the oversized paper lantern gives it the wow factor.

I also love the collection of antique apothecary jars and how old and new and in between happily mingle in this space.