The Gunter & Co Guide to practical bathroom design ideas: part 2
part 2 of Our guide to making sure your bathroom has substance as well as style, by London interior designer Irene Gunter
In our first part of sharing how to design the ultimate bathroom sanctuary in your home, interior designer Irene shared her expertise on the bare necessities of a bathroom design - the practical things like which shower or bath tub to opt for and why. This time, she’s talking all things bathroom storage, bathroom walls and bathroom flooring!
Bathroom Storage
Whatever size the bathroom, aim to implement hidden cupboards that you’d normally find in small bathrooms. Creating cupboards in wasted space is the definition of clever storage; above loo’s, underneath baths. This allows you to make the most of every inch, ensuring you keep surfaces free from clutter and enhancing the calming influence of uninterrupted lines.
Below are some great examples of hidden bathroom storage - above the toilet and hidden in a partition wall above a vanity unit:
Image: House & Garden
FREESTANDING BATHROOM STORAGE
Freestanding vanity units, armoires, consoles, tallboys and linen baskets all offer a flexible, unfitted feel, which creates the illusion of added space, as the eye is drawn to the overall outline shape of the room. It really creates the feeling of a living space that happens to have some elements of a bathroom in it, which feels incredibly luxurious.
We find that freestanding pieces are really most suited to the most generous of bathrooms, typical found in country manors, whereas townhouse bathrooms benefit much more from bespoke solutions as every centimetre matters. Love the feeling that the freestanding furniture creates in this beautiful suite;
Fitted bathroom furniture
Fitted furniture on the other hand is a fabulous way of gaining bespoke bathroom storage solutions as you can have everything tailor-made to fit your home space, making the most of any wasted space you have. Built-in laundry bins (a personal favourite) and discreet and hidden mirror cupboards are invaluable when it comes to storing toiletries as well as providing an opportunity to install a de-mister pad within the mirror, whilst hidden shaving sockets set within bathroom cabinets can be combined with Bluetooth technology or integrated with your wifi system to allow you listen to your favourite tunes as you shower or bathe.
Image: Torel 1884
Bathroom walls and floors
Once you have the key elements planned out – bath, shower, basins, WC and storage – consider the walls and floor to determine which tile or surface cladding is most suitable.
Tile, stone or wood?
The best flooring for a bathroom is that which is compatible with underfloor heating – a must-have for that cosy feeling underfoot – as well as a material which is waterproof, low maintenance and easy to clean.
When bathrooms are large enough you can consider continuing the wooden floor from a bedroom into an en-suite bathroom providing the wet areas are tiled or you’re careful not to leave any standing water.
I personally love the idea of wooden floors in a bathroom and grew up in a Belgian house where this was the norm. I know it’s most certainly not the first thing you think of when specifying a bathrooms but this image from Hotel Torel 1884 shows you exactly what I mean!
Other examples of flooring that just works is another from our projects with selective use of tiles in this wooden floor bathroom, a painted wooden floor for a gentle Scandinavian feel in this Cotswold bathroom and one of my favourites, the Calacatta bath surround from The Stone Collection:
Natural stone is stunning to look and comes in beautiful oversize slabs or stunningly detailed mosaics as shown in the images below. The preference between porcelain/ceramic and stone is very much a personal one. Some people just love the authentic feel and patina that stone and marble create, others prefer the sleeker aesthetic of ceramic or porcelain. For me the main driver is what the shape of the tiles does to the overall sense of space; I avoid options where you can you easily see where one tile starts and another stops as you often do with generic 60x60cm tiles, and lean towards either supersize tiles or slabs with minimal grouting, or a mosaic or terrazzo flooring which hides the joints of tiles incredibly well. A visibly seamless floor just makes for a much more elegant impression and it’s something I’ve always felt strongly about.
This is a great example of a tile design where you can’t quite tell where one tile starts and another stops - this visually makes the bathroom floor seem like one consistent surface making the entire room feel more generous with space.
This lovely large format stone gives the whole bathroom a great sense of generosity. It transforms it into a contemporary bathroom with impact.
A lovely Carrara marble mosaic floor in three different textures by one of our favourite floor producers Mandarin Stone.
