When Gold is Understated
It was an exercise of fusing subtlety with a lavishness that adds grandeur but doesn’t go over the top. In keeping with his client’s tastes, Daniel Hopwood explains how he created the modern and classy ambience in the washroom of an 1820s building for the residence of a London celebrity in the city’s up market Bayswater area.
To design the interiors of an 1820s early Victorian house on the north side of London’s Hyde Park at Bayswater is any day an exciting proposition. If the client is a celebrity, used to a house in the country and now looking to lead the same sprawling lifestyle in central London, the challenge can be really acute.
Central London can be cramped for interior space at the best of times. So, I knew spatial planning was to be the vital theme when I took up this assignment for one of the UK’s quite popular and well-known celebs. This client, as I discovered, was as deep a thinker with an understanding of intelligent design as was his serious vocation of spreading mirth.
The idea was to make it a well-thought-out area in an interesting way with no decoration just for décor’s sake. There were other washrooms in the house but we focus here on the en-suite washroom in the master bedroom.
As a traveller, the owner had seen the best of hotel washrooms and knew those can be stylish yet impersonal. This bathroom had to correspond with the client’s expectations of grandeur but reflect a distinct personality of its own.
So we decided to keep it simple and build a keen personality for that simplicity to add elegance and uniqueness to the space. The choice fell on basic materials- some marble- mostly white, used sparingly with glass in different colours plus brass with a dash of gold.
The Washroom
The building was constructed almost two centuries ago, so adding the weight of heavy materials and fixtures on the first floor of wooden construction was a challenge that restricted any generous use of marble. Technology came in handy to settle this issue.
The floors and walls in the design appear covered with a limestone-like material but they are not. We used porcelain tiles which give the marble and stone effect that gave the ambience of marble and stone sans the weight.
As far as off-the-shelf fixtures were concerned, Dornbracht fittings were my choice – showers, faucets et al- but the ones with the gold finish. The new line from the brand has the real gold finish – whether it was the faucets, showers, or even towel rails. Other than these and the tub and washbasins, everything else in the washroom was handmade to offer a unique custom design flair.
I personally designed the cabinets for the very reason that we wanted the cut and class of a high-end hotel but the personality and individuality of an individual boutique look to the interiors.
The inspiration for this custom design stemmed from the same space crunch issue. We wanted to give the feeling of space hence the vanity unit was designed as free-standing. That gives a pronounced individual style, doing away with an assembly line manufacture look, despite the finesse that might accompany it.
In a limited space, the products have to make a statement without being verbose. The selection of gold finished fixtures was to softly underline the subtle elegance of other materials. The yellow and gold afforded a warm, rich and unusual glow to provide sophistication and balance the subtleties.
The glass on the wall above the vanity unit follows the line and looks like a single piece. There is no plain mirror here but comes in different shades. The wall behind the free bathtub has three panels of handmade glass that has a gold leaf to present a soft reflection. The special treatment and design of the glass surface were intentionally created to give an oxide finish to the surface.
By way of decor, we decided to keep it to a minimum with just one egg-shaped sculpture piece in bronze and gold below the vanity unit. The vanity table top features a faux coral decoration between the washbasins as a quiet attention seeker that doesn’t rub anything in too hard.
The old bathroom had a window that faced a garden. We rebuilt the window with Louvre panels for privacy despite letting in natural light and also a view of the garden if the vents are shifted accordingly.
Lighting
Any washroom needs good lighting at the vanity table but the mood-creating effects of subtle lighting can never be underestimated. We decided to embed LED lighting into the floor behind the bathtub and vanity unit to enhance the relaxed atmosphere. The most commonly used light-enhancing materials in bathrooms are coloured or mirrored glass, reflective wall panels and tiles. They reflect the light well and obscure the need for bright lights unless specifically required.
Managing Space
In the original structure, the bathroom was slightly bigger but we made it slightly smaller to include a dressing room that would connect the washroom to the master bedroom. I have been singularly impressed by the Japanese style of having sliding doors to conserve space. By using sliding doors and cutting down the space gobbling propensity of swing doors, the space crunching was almost obliterated, visually and practically as well.
The doors and wooden floor in the dressing room are in stained grey oak to match the vanity counter. This also helped to lend continuity from the dressing room to the washroom. The commonality of colour and material lent greater width and breadth to the area and added seamless connection to both, creating the illusion of greater space.
The Dressing Room
The dressing room becomes an integral part of the washroom’s extension, as it were, and adds an element of progression from the bathing area to the dressing space, right up to the bedroom. There is talk of luxury washrooms being an incipient spa. I would say washrooms have now graduated to being ‘wannabe-living- rooms’. The living room has all to do about relaxing. The washroom is now not only a place to relax and unwind but a space where the homeowner might prefer to spend more ‘me’ time.
For this, we used subtle and concealed lighting even in the dressing area. Downlighters cast elegant pools of light over surfaces and recess LEDs behind glass for a diffused, soothing light were the perfect way to build that soothing aura.
A Touch Of Individuality
The placement and angle of the WC are such that it is not immediately visible unless one goes right up to it. As mentioned earlier, most people today have seen the fancy bathrooms in hotels. Our client was well familiar with luxury across the world, so fancy was never a novelty for him.
One major difference between a hotel washroom and that in a residential apartment or house is that residential ones are built for an individual’s use, unlike hotels where the grandeur and luxury have to appeal to numerous guests who could have different tastes and preferences. That is why hotel washrooms can be extravagant but those for homes, especially fastidious owners, have to blend with their personalities.
To ensure that the design was entirely acceptable and appealing, I took care to involve them from the beginning. I worked in a way that involved the client at every step of the design process. The personal involvement was essential to understand the thought process over every little element in the interiors and incubate the idea as his own.
The sizes of all fixtures their height, angle and placement all have to be perfect; even colours. There is no scope for errors, especially the ones of the judgment of clients’ tastes. Placement of WC and bathtub is all said and done, a complicated decision. An understanding of ergonomic issues takes years of practice as it is a big skill.
It involved a lot of drawings and approvals. When the client is intelligent and knowledgeable, it gets keener, more challenging and a much more interesting and enjoyable work experience. Building the entire interiors for this residential project was a great experience and this washroom was one of its highlights.