Tiles/fittings for a 1930s style shower room?

[Pannacotta]

We are putting in a new shower room and have decided on an Art deco/classic style but I'm not sure about which tiles and style of shower to choose.

I know that metro/brick tiles would be in keeping but am worried these will look busy when used on large area (we'll tile mid height but the ceiling is approx 3.2m high).

Also I'd like to find a fairly classic looking shower (on a rail rather than a rose), but with a decent sized head and flow rate (which rules out Aqualisa really).

Any suggestions would be great, I am drowning in a sea of bathroom catalogues and overwhelmed by the huge choice....

If it helps, the basin will be along these lines
www.victorianbathrooms4u.com/Burlington-Edwardian-560mm-Basin-and-Wash-Stand-(6774)

TIA

The DEVA TAP COMPANY do a decent range of traditional style showers as I recall. As for Tiles, have a look at wallsandfloors.co.uk who are a great company to deal with

Thanks, will check them out, I think I have seen the tile company recommended on here before.

I am so envious! I used to live in my Grans old house built in 1937. It had the original white rectangular tiles and 2 rows of small black ones with a rounded edge type (do not know proper tile lingo sorry)tile along the top. They only went about 5ft up the wall.

Someone bought the house nextdoor -also in its original state and did a beautiful refurb on the whole house - keeping to the art deco and 1930's style.

Their bathroom was stunning. They kept the same style rectangular tiles with the black and white stripe halfway up and then continued to the ceiling above the bath (shower over bath). They had another row of the black and white small tiles near the ceiling which finished it off. It looked fab IMO. They kept the tiles only halfway up the wall on the other walls where they were not needed to the ceiling.

Someone else I knew 2 streets away did pretty much the same but they had the green tiles. They used original - what they could save from their own bathroom and lots from reclaimation.

I love 1930's houses and thats what I want to get when OH leaves the forces and we can buy a place of our own and settle down.

These are the type of tiles I am on about
www.hp-nw.com/tile.htm

and

blog.redfin.com/sfbay/2008/03/subway_tile_will_it_become_the_next_great_trend.html

Sorry I cannot help with supplier etc. Good luck with your renovation!

Thanks Mum72.
I love the look of the bathroom pic from the Soho Grand hotel, which has similar tiles to your first link (second one didnt work for me).

Our house is actually Victorian but I think that 1930s bathrooms are much more stylish and classic than fussy Victorian style.

Did you find the tiles easy to clean when you lived in your Grandmother's house?
I'm bit worried that small tiles and lots of grout will mean it's hard to keep clean, though am thinking of using pale grey grout rather than white.

whoops, here is the link, Soho Grand pic is a few from the top
www.katyelliott.com/blog/labels/bathrooms

my sister was looking at a 30s house, it was fab, the bathroom had jade rectagle tiles with a black line of tiles through the middle (iykwim) the colour was really good

was quite a large bathroom

Yes I think 1930s bathrooms were usually large, ours is not that big, around 2m x 3m so we have decided to leave out a bath and put in a large shower.

Will google now for tile inspiration...

That sounds lovely Pannacotta, I adore thirties bathrooms. An elderly relative had their original thirties tiles, and like Mum72's grandmother they were white with black trim. What I always liked about the was that the grouting was very narrow, and the tiles very flat. There wasn't nearly so much of a gap between them so the whole surface felt more flush than most modern tiling. I don't know if there's a technical reason for that.

We have just been renovating a thirties house and we incorporated a jade green into the bathroom in an effort to echo the peirod. I borrowed lots of library books on the thirties house which really helped me get into the detail more, and also to get a sense of the colours they used beyond black and white. I remember seeing a lovely bathrooom with dull yellow tiles and black trim, though that's quite full-on! I also hadn't realised that coloured sanitaryware came in then, so those powder pink or turquoise sinks, combined with black, can be part of it.

Heartease I like the sound of slim grouting, I'll try and use that idea, am not too keen on grout generally.

Did you use the subway/brick tiles on your bathroom? Have seen some nice ones in Fired Earth, but suspect we will have to get them from somewhere cheaper...

The grouting was gorgeous, I used to run my hand over the tiles and relish the smoothness. The picture of the Soho Grand is actually quite similar. The tiles look like they are very flat.

We didn't use subway tiles -- our bathroom did not end up conspicuously thirties, I should admit, as my DP and I have different tastes and he has a different cultural heritage. Lots of the reading and pictures were aimed at conveying my back story about what I found pleasing about the period, the history of the British semi, and the kinds of things I thought were appropriate or not in this kind of house .

I would probably have used subway tiles if I'd had free rein, but I have to say I didn't like lots of the ones I saw in shops as they seemed to have a deep bevel which looked a bit crude compared to the real thing. On Fired Earth, I much prefer the Retro Metro to the Metropolitan, but that's because, evidently, I am fixated on flatness , and you might not be.

Have you done a Google image search for "1930s bathroom"? Quite a good mix of historical reference and repro projects comes up.

Yes I agree, I much prefer the flat tiles, we had them in our last kitchen. Johnson tiles does them and they are not too pricey, unlike the F Earth range...
Yes I have googled 1930s bathrooms and have found some nice pics, though we aren't too worried about being historically correct as our house is mid Victorian.

Which tiles did you end up with in the end Hearts?

I just added a photo -- it was not very exciting or very thirties really, but the sea green mosaics are beautiful in real life because they are totally flat, and they are made of glass (the colour is on the back). So they have an interesting aqueous look and the light (which is northern) hits them in a satisfying way. The white tiles have a slight ripple and are quite thin also so I did at least escape the bulky look I was desperate to avoid.

It might not look very exciting given my raving on the subject of tiles (and grout!), but it was the result of long months of earnest negotiation. He used to admire higgledly piggledy mosaics, I admired eau de nil glass subway tiles. we each thought the other was deranged. Some of the debates got quite out of hand, so when I look at this my liking of the tiles is partly bolstered by relief that we ever made a decision .

Your bathroom looks lovely Hearts and the tiles look very stylish - I can't wait to have a nice, clean bathroom again, with a decent shower.

Our only shower since we moved (nearly 3 years ago) is electric and the shower cubicle leaks...

Where did you find your tiles btw, liking the idea of glass mosaic (our bathroom-to-be also faces North so is quite dark)?

Thanks! It's my PFB .

The glass tiles are so beautiful -- they come in about 20 different colours. They are called Reflections but googling is not bringing up anything which I'm sure is the same. If I find the photo of the colour samples I'll upload it later tonight.

We bought them from a local independent supplier (Cambridge Tiles and Bathrooms), and the white ones were from there too. There were lots of bigger coloured glass tiles in Ridgeons also.