Following a full renovation of her Victorian terrace in north-west London – restoring it from multiple dwellings back to a single home – Kate Lynch finally turned her attention to the tiny shower room on the ground floor. 'It was like a study in functional modernism – white tiles, harsh lighting and devoid of any decorative flourishes,' Kate explains. 'Simply put, the space had reached the end of its useful lifespan.'
Whilst the entire basement level, much like the rest of the house, was stripped to the bones, the layout of the shower room was broadly reinstated, but with a seriously design-savvy upgrade.
The inspiration on Kate’s moodboard ran the gamut from a holiday to Marrakesh to the salt flats in Australia. 'It’s a cliché, but a trip to Marrakesh inspired me. I wanted to bring an imperfect, artisanal influence into this small, contained space.'
The inspiration
'The ombré shades and evocative textures found in aerial views of the salt flats in Australia, which I stumbled across in my research.'
The plan
Working with an architect, Kate opened up the layout of the entire basement, adding an ensuite guest bedroom. ‘We snuck in a shower too in place of the bath, for the benefit of overnight guests. While it wasn’t conscious, the walk-in shower offers an element of future-proofing in a house where the main bedroom and bathroom currently sit on the top floor!’
As the shower would only see occasional use, Kate didn’t feel hampered by the constraints that guided her design decisions in the more frequently used bathrooms. ‘It was the perfect opportunity to incorporate encaustic cement tiles,’ she says. ‘They are porous and require proper sealing but will still age and patinate over time.’
The process
Kate’s favourite tiles shaped her design. The matt-pink, floral-motif Deia cement tiles from Bert & May offer a contrast to the metro tiles in a warm shade called Leather. Then came the floor. Kate says: ‘I gravitated towards the Bejmat tile [also Bert & May] in a rosemary shade.’
She advises playing with tiles before committing to their arrangement: ‘When choosing between a basket-weave or herringbone pattern, there’s no substitute for laying the tiles in situ.’
Kate turned to Ripples for some of the more technical tasks, specifically 'their expertise with spatial design, underfloor tanking and plumbing essentials as well as sourcing the sanitary and brassware.'
The biggest challenge
'Impressing upon the builders the care with which they needed to treat the cement tiles and concrete basin without seeming too neurotic or precious!'
The design hero
‘The sculptural form and silky texture of the sink grounds its frivolous bubble-gum shade. Ripples procured a cement-basin repair kit, which could come to the rescue in the case of any accidental scrapes’
The biggest splurge
Tiling so much of the space with encaustic cement tiles – a great design statement particularly for shower rooms that won't see heavy daily use.
The best bargain
The sweet, clover-shaped towel hook from Matilda Goad, which echoes the pattern on the wall tiles, was a snip at £35.
Sourcebook
- Brassware and accessories, Graff, Ripples London
- Shower screen, The Shower Lab, Ripples London
- Wall tiles, shower and floor tiles, Bert & May
- Wall, ceiling and woodwork paint, Mylands
- Mirror and towel hook, MG&Co.
- Over-mirror light, Corston
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