The right centrepiece can elevate an ordinary bathroom into a chic, luxe zone
Sometimes it’s only when you stop searching that you find what you’re looking for. That is certainly how it felt to the owner of this bathroom. He had been hunting for a bath that would add drama and glamour to his home, a large Georgian house in Aberdeen, and had exhausted every sanitaryware specialist in the Granite City without finding anything that had the requisite wow factor.
It was only by chance, on a journey to Glasgow to drop his daughter off at university, that he passed the window of Bagno Design’s studio on Great Western Road. The gleaming antique copper Camborne bath caught his eye instantly: it was just what he wanted. Amazingly, if his trip to Glasgow had been just a few days earlier, he wouldn’t have seen it – the brand-new showroom would still have been under construction.
“He came in and had a chat with us, explaining that he wanted to create a bathroom that would be sympathetic to the rest of the house yet still have a modern twist,” says Duncan Heeles, Bagno’s principal designer. “It needed to impress while at the same time being a practical, usable room.”
Now that he had the bath to take centre stage, the owner could go ahead with getting the rest of the room designed. “The brief was to come up with something that would complement the elegant architecture of this imposing five-bedroom, three-storey Georgian house,” recalls Duncan. “We knew that too many cold surfaces or contemporary fittings wouldn’t look right at all.”
Before Duncan could get started properly on the layout, there were a few structural issues to contend with first. The room was enlarged by incorporating a dressing area and en-suite that had previously been part of the room next door, the master bedroom. A door was then added to give this room direct access to the new bathroom, so it could in effect function as its en-suite. The original door from the hallway was retained, so guests and other family members could use it. A new partition wall was built between the bathroom and the master bedroom.
This is just a taster, you can browse the full article on pages 73-76, issue 101.
DETAILS
What The main bathroom in a large Georgian house in Aberdeen. As well as being the family bathroom, it has a second door leading to the master bedroom so that it can operate as the en-suite for this room too.
Works required A full kit-out and replumbing job was required, along with the installation of a false floor to allow a walk-in shower to be fitted. The original adjoining en-suite was demolished and the two spaces were combined to produce one large luxurious room.
Biggest challenge Arranging the furnishings and the various pieces of sanitaryware in such a way that this large room felt coherent as well as warm, relaxing and inviting, and still able to operate as a fully functional family bathroom.
Budget £25,000 for the fixures, fittings and finishes, plus another £10,000 for the trades.
Supplier Bagno Design
Photography Darren Cheung
Words Judy Diamond
