Cottage bathroom

A cottage bathroom designed to maximize the potential of a very limited space using fumed oak cabinets and detailing with painted panels, rubber flooring, slate worktops and large limestone wall tiles. The curved panels are used to help maximize the use of the space whilst not impeding movement and combined with the muted palette of materials and colours used , to create a calm, comfortable and useable space.

 2730mm x 2050mm x 1490 - 2310mm

Private commission designed to replace an existing compact bathroom in a Devon cob cottage

Vanity unit side view

The wall mounted vanity unit is made in fumed Oak with a solid plum slate worktop. The vanity has a single large drawer with an internal shelf and houses the towel rail thermostat and timer as well as the lighting drivers. The curved side panels of the vanity cabinet are designed to soften the feel of the unit and feed in to the overall character of the room. The inset mirror above the basin is cut to the slope of the roof eaves and has a strip LED light to either side.The fumed oak skirting continues on both walls and is deepened to box in the exposed piping around the base of the wall.

Toilet side view

Positioned opposite the vanity unit the floor mounted toilet is linked to a compact concealed cistern that incorporates a small niche to house the toilet roll holder and brush. The cistern has a removable top panel in solid oak which provides a small side shelf for ornaments in the bathroom.

Shower side view

The compact glass walk-in shower enclosure prevented the problem of opening doors in the limited space available, but had to be raised up on a separate plinth to allow for the waste plumbing due to the lack of a cavity in the floor below. The large natural limestone tiles are mounted on the two walls shown with the skirting and facing of the shower plinth in fumed Oak.

Airing cupboard side view

The bathroom was required to house the hot water cylinder which demanded quite a large amount of space in what is quite a small room. In creating a removable semi-circular housing for the cylinder I was trying to minimise its impact on the room and to use it as an integral feature of the space. I raised the cylinder up on a stand and used the space below to incorporate a laundry drawer in fumed oak with a curved painted face which when closed becomes part of the architecture of the room . The airing cupboard is to the far side of the cylinder and is faced with a pair of floor to ceiling sliding doors.

Airing cupboard side view 2

The airing cupboard with slatted internal shelving was also a very necessary element of the bathroom and so I used the adjacent heat source of the hot water cylinder to create a through flow of warm air within the cupboard as well as incorporating a pair of towel rails to hang large damp towels after use in order to keep the space free of draped towels, and to prevent the overloading of the relatively small heated towel rail mounted on the wall opposite.

Floor plan view

The very limited space in the bathroom was complicated by the very irregular nature of all the existing surfaces in the room which created added complexities for the design. This image shows clearly the sloping floor at the door threshold even after quite a lot of levelling had taken place . The restricted space and height in the room coupled with this irregularity and the level of the floors outside of this room led me to opt for a sheet rubber floor which gives a very good even colour surface and has a good feel underfoot, it also added very little weight to the floor which was also a consideration.

Vanity basin detail

This detail image shows the combination of the materials along with the rubber floor that create the visual and tactile character of this room with the pale chalky natural limestone tiles, the dense smooth deep colour of the slate and the warm subdued colour of the fumed oak cabinets and detailing.