perhaps the most daring leap of all

I would say that generally there’s a rule about bathrooms, which is that should someone move to a new home, and find within it a bathroom suite that is not white, the introductory tour to friends would go something like this:

“And here’s the bathroom! Of course, we’re going to get rid of that avocado suite as soon as possible!”

And if I was asked to advise on updating bathrooms in that situation, I’d assume that the home owner was in the right.

Urk, where do we start? Apartment Therapy readers’ avocado-based dilemma posed in “Good Questions,” 2009

So I was initially surprised by a recent design job where my client wanted to Keep The Suite. The shade was one called Pampas, and actually, when I started to consider it, would fit in unobtrusively amongst the Farrow and Ball ‘Greens’ collection.

Well helloo. Pampas shade of bathroom is at home with a shabby chic vibe

It’s pale, and reminiscent with its sage tones of a lot of the upcycled furniture that populates eBay.

This cabinet is painted in ‘vert de terre’ from F&B — one of many reconditioned items to be found for auction online

With this in mind, creating a design around the suite was actually quite satisfying. These pale greens look too stark set against a brilliant white, they fit in more snugly with cream or natural woods. Any paintwork we do will be cream, and the overall effect we’re aiming for will be restful and calm.

The floor was the first thing I felt we had to pin down, and I was looking for a light, yellow-based wood effect. We found a wonderful vinyl by Amtico called Bamboo:

Bamboo theme vinyl floor by Amtico has a retro feel to it

The next challenge was the wall tiles. Lynne likes limestone with nice geological markings, so we set out to find a match for the floor and Pampas colour.

The Pampas soap dish takes an outing to Tiles UK…

It was surprisingly hard to get a complementary shade: too dark and the room would have looked murky; some tile colours looked great with the Pampas but terrible with the floor; others were too busy, or too grey, or too pink. Finally we found a lovely stone effect tile called Legend Marfil which had just the right amount of detail, a pale colour and even at a good price (around £15 a square metre).

Not too busy, not too dark, not too pink, not too pale: this tile is just right/ Legend Marfil from Tiles UK

The Seventies-design taps needed updating from the ubiquitous squat and dated basics…

WARNING: WE’RE CHEAP BUT WE WILL NOT IMPROVE YOUR BATHROOM

… to some classy crossheads:

Stately traditional taps strike a confident pose/ Coniston bath taps by Victoria Plumb

And at the windows a natural wood effect slatted blind will be fixed, to filter the light.

Sable Venetian Blinds in Ecowood by 247blinds

Another important issue was the bath side, which back in its heyday would have doubtless sported a creaky plastic Pampas panel. We intend to bring it gently up to date with wooden cladding instead: so much more solid.

Like this, but just the bath side/ photo from bighouseholidays: The Lookout House, Thorpeness

If there is room for storage (we’re going to have to wait and see after everything has been installed), we did find a fantastic range from Victoria Plumb called “Camberley.” It has cabinets in what seems like a matching shade:

What a lot of lovely storage. Camberley Sage tall cabinet from Victoria Plumb

Whether it is or not remains to be seen. If we’re feeling lucky we’ll order one up and check. Otherwise there are handy options in other stores, such as this bamboo and chrome wall shelf…

Tesco’s bamboo wall shelf

… this cool locker cabinet…

Bamboo cabinet from Argos

… or this ladder storage:

Floor-standing box storage also from Argos

If the Camberley range works for us, we can opt for their mirror and wall cabinet:

Slim cabinet for useful bathroom storage

Camberley mirror

Otherwise a wood-framed mirror and possibly a cream-coloured cabinet would work ok. We’re also toying with the idea of paint colour-matching the Pampas shade, buying a cheap wooden cabinet, and simply painting it.

Work is already in progress, it shouldn’t be long before I can show you the room in all its peaceful perfection.

In the meantime, since starting this job, I have been mulling about daring interior design – where you leap for what you love and see where that takes you – and the contrasting blandification of houses which don’t scare estate agents but equally don’t give anything away about the character of the people who live there.

The basin and bath are unashamedly green in Australian designer Luke Mortimer’s home. House tour by Design Sponge, 2012

Bold coloured sinks and taps from Byggfabriken on Pinterest

I know which side I lean on. How about you?

copper revolution

One of the loveliest interiors looks around at the moment incorporates copper in both minimalist and high-luxury settings.

Bathe in decadence/ copper bath from The Water Monopoly

Where shiny chrome and silver-shaded metallics have ruled the roost for so long, now copper is enjoying a feature role in design.

Polished copper lights stand out against a white background/ image found at lighting sales at gnr8.biz

Dark and moody: the rich brown melds with the shadows….

For a while we have seen designers showcasing the material in all its glamour in very modern and creative settings: splashbacks…

Copper load of this: tiles featured at http://www.formtrends.com

Reflective and characterful/ http://www.emmapeascod.com

…whole kitchens…

Burnished beauty: complete copper cuisine covering

…or even as a striking wall covering.

Copper clad and cosy/ pinterest lh3.ggpht.com

Though we see this warm-hued metal brazen in statement pieces currently, there is a likelihood that it will become an option for the mainstream in the future. I expect we’ll see more copper in high street retail lighting departments over the next few seasons: maybe even tiling trims and door handles. Where is the rule that says your bathroom hardware has to be restricted to stainless steel?

Tapping into a trend

Modern though these ideas are, it’s not the first time we fell in love with copper’s russet charms, and it’s possible to see it still preserved resplendent from a previous heyday. Next time I’ll show you some examples of this metal’s past glories, when we took a trip to Cornwall and found some treasure. 

 

guest rest

We love having guests to stay. The spare room is tucked away from the rest of our bedrooms so that any inhabitants can remain distant from the early morning car races, stair jumping record-breaking attempts and other such normal boy activities.

It does feel like a haven. The stripped wood floors are a nice feature, and the bay window is very characterful (rebuilt out of the rotted wood walk-in bay which hovered precariously over the kitchen roof before).

Peaceful perch: our new bay with seat

At the moment I’ve kept it very simple in there with a few of our furniture pieces and plain white walls. We’ll get around to putting pictures up at some point, but the monastic white walls and rustic-looking flooring seem to work well together, so I won’t make many more changes.

Retreat chic: simple guest bedroom

The bird and branch curtains are made from one of my favourite fabrics from Prestigious, feathered in a purple hue which I matched to a similarly coloured lamp shade for the overhead light.

Avian fabric: Berkeley Square (Damson) by Prestigious

The guest bathroom design started with a free-standing bath, and the fact that I wanted to use some vinyl flooring which I’d seen a while ago and think is fantastic. Harvey Maria is the name of the company, and they supply a mixture of tiles and planks. There are photographic images of water, pebbles and grass, as well as some geometric patterned designs. The wood effect planks are realistic, down to the grain, and of course a no-brainer for a bathroom where you want the wood look without the warp.

Inspiration: Harvey Maria’s Azure tile with a wood effect

Now our little bathroom wasn’t anything like this size, but I liked the concept of the bathmat. After perusing their wood effect tiles I plumped for one which looked a bit more “driftwood”-like, and was called Tan.

Overhead light here reddens the wood/ Harvey Maria Tan and Azure

Light off. Wistful cat is not a permanent fixture

The resulting flooring is striking, colourful, and gave a starting point for the rest of the room’s features.

I wanted to have some glittery blue mosaics in the shower. In fact, I wanted them throughout the entire shower cubicle so that it felt like you were having a shower amongst a lot of tropical fish. But when we worked out the cost of that, we thought that a statement square would do just as well. The star shower head keeps the look light, and the white tiles surrounding are actually threaded through with a line of glitter, too.

Shimmering shower

With a room full of blue and white sparkles, the dark wood basin cabinet was a good grounding point, found as an ex-display Roca model in a local showroom.

Bathe in peace

I just needed a final point to finish it off. I looked at dark wood shelves, but what I was really looking for was some sort of slatted framework on the walls, almost as decoration. The builders were dubious when I tried to explain and I couldn’t even seem to find photos when I did a near exhaustive web search. Then, miraculously, I found it – in the Outdoors section at Ikea – the Äpplarö frame and shelves which are meant to be part of a garden storage system.

Spa complete: slatted shelving

The material for the blinds has colours from the Azure flooring (in a rather satisfying way). The material is from Scion, Flight from the Melinki range, and made into blinds by my skilled and amazing sister. The glamorous glass-beaded light is from Argos, a proper bargain at under £30. Who’d have thought it?

I am glad we’ve got such a soothing space for guests, but when they’re not around we do get to enjoy the spot too. We don’t have a bath in our ensuite, so every now and then, when I feel like getting away from it all, I can grab the bubble bath and a good book, and bathe.