Bathroom
Installing the shower controls at the opposite end of the bath was a smart decision, as it means the owner can turn on the shower and get it up to temperature before stepping in. “It’s much easier having the taps there, and it means you needn’t reach around the shower screen,” Small details elevate the design from functional to stylish. The simple, inexpensive white wall tiles around the bath have been given a lift thanks to a chrome tile trim, which also runs around the window frame. A full-size bath tucked under the sloping roof with a shower at the highest end offers the practicality of both a bath and shower. The folding glass screen is a neat and practical solution in such a tight space, allowing daylight to flow through from the window into the rest of the room.
If you’ve fallen for more expensive tiles, but aren’t sure the budget will stretch, consider using them in a small area of the bathroom. Here, a patterned design forms an extended splashback behind the basin, yet still makes quite the impact. Reduce usage even more if needs be by choosing just enough tiles to protect the area directly behind the basin. Keep other tiles plain to maximise your feature.
Light-filled spaces feel bigger, so adding a skylight – where feasible – will make a huge difference to a cramped bathroom. Make maximum use of all that lovely light by choosing pale finishes, but with a pleasing tactile quality to prevent any potential sterility. The downlit niches and green tiles do that job perfectly in this London shower room, built above a side return extension.
When floor space is at a premium, a wall-hung basin makes an unobtrusive addition to a bijou bathroom. As well as being a dream to clean and stylish, too, keeping the floor clear will create the illusion of a larger room. You’ll also leave space for additional storage, bathroom steps or a bin underneath.
Mirror for downstairs cloakroom?
Rethink traditional positions This is an interesting idea for a small-ish bathroom where you want both a bath and a shower. Here, building in a conventional cubicle would have been tricky without losing the bath, but by positioning a frameless screen strategically – enclosing both tub and shower – the space has been used extremely economically. Your floor in this context will almost certainly need to be fitted as it would do in a wet room, so ensure your contractor is tanking it and installing suitable floor drainage.
Keep your small space open Frameless enclosures are minimal, but they don’t have to be entirely featureless. In a small space like this, that’s pretty key information, since an open, walk-in shower wouldn’t fit. Instead, slim fixed panels sit on the right and left of a shower that has a luxury, walk-in feel, but is in fact a cubicle. In the middle, a door with a chrome handle swings outwards. Hinges and fixings are kept to an absolute minimum, which – by making the shower enclosure so barely there – enhances the sense of space in this little room.
Get creative Where natural light is limited to just one window, as it is no doubt in most of our bathrooms, here’s a smart idea. To share the light around from the window next to the shower, a half-wall has been built and tiled to support an exposed-cistern loo. Above it, the wall becomes glass and has a hinged, frameless door to the right to enclose the shower. Discreet shower storage is at play here, too: the corner provides just enough space for a few daily bottles, and keeping the tiny triangular shelves the same colour as the tiles disguises them.
Double up in style By reducing visual clutter, a frameless screen can also elevate the look of an over-bath shower, which – though it absolutely shouldn’t – can feel like a poor relation to the stand-alone shower. Again, tile and colour continuity here (the white grout tying in with the sanitaryware) enhances the smart look of this arrangement. Note, too, the ceiling lights over the bath/shower – after dark this will boost the luxury feel even further.
Derwent fish wallpaper, Osborne and Little. Bathroom cabinet down pipe F&B
120cm long piece of furniture
I like the storage and clean lines.
Interesting walk into shower, plus frosted glass wall lets in light from window. Love the floor!
Maybe classic shower over bath would be better for our space? Is the shower screen a fold out one - like the narrowness for ease of bath use. Love the floor!
lighting in niche
Q