Fancy yourself as an INTERIOR DESIGNER? I need urgent help with my BATHROOM!

[noonar]

dh and i are not exactly seeing eye to eye as far as our new bathrom is concerned. we urgently need help before we make a very expensive mistake!

the story so far:
we have a lovely old roll top bath which we are getting resurfaced, but dh likes contemporary designs, so we are taking a bit of arisk and mixing old with new.

he has some lovely reclaimed wood from brighton pier which he plans to have made into a wash stand for a large square basin to sit on.

he also has a squarish shaped loo with hidden cistern and a wooden shelf is to be built above it, using the reclaimed wood.

the problem is the bath, imo. i feel that it will not be in keeping with the rest of the room. i feel that we need to some how 'tie in' the bath with the rest of the room, eg by sitting it in a timber cradle/ on planks of wood (my idea), and getting rid of the very victorian claw feet.

also, we can't agree about the flooring. dh wants oak floor and limestone tiled walls. i'm worried that 2 diff kinds of wood wont work.

am thinking maybe slate floor, but then what about the walls?

so, folks, any ideas re bath, floor or walls?? tia

alos, i think limestone is a bit predictable and over done, although i do like it alot.

i like them too, but what about the clash of styles?

Your bathroom sounds unbelievably like ours - which we are due to do next year. We too have a big old roll top bath (which we are going to paint in something like eau de nil). I would never advise to get rid of the claw feet though - please sell the bath at a reclaimation yard / through the paper and get something more modern if you don't like it! I hate to see beautiful old things being cut up!

We are having tongue and groove panelling on the walls - have you considered that? We're prob going to sand and paint the original wide elm floorboards (yep, considered limestone too) and I feel the tongue and groove will go with the wooden floor.

IMO, the style of the bath will be fine if you try to keep some rusticity (SP? is it a word?!) continuing throughout, eg wooden flooring etc.

Noooooo! Don't get rid of the feet on your bath!!! It will fit in fantastically with a modern look even with the feet.

I love slate, we have black slate in the downstairs bathroom (which has a roll top) and IMO it looks fab, and we have natural slate in the kitchen, I love that too.

Can you have tongue and grove wood on the walls or get some panelling made up?

I think it's fine to mix modern and old fittings, just try and keep the overall style cohesive, eg rustic/sleek/modern etc.
I would suggest keeping the claw feet of the bath as I think they are a good feature and also think baths look quite odd propped up on wood supports.

Not sure about walls and floor, depends on who will use the room (hard flooring such as tiles/slate etc not great for kids) and also how warm or cold it is (unless you put in underfloor heating) and which direction it faces and need for light/reflective surfaces.

Oak and limestone could look fine together, or perhaps even oak and a simpler/plainer wall tile?

You could use some of the reclaimed wood to make eg a mirror for above the basin.

Don't forget about lighting and try to get the style and fittings to tie in with your overall theme.

Hope this doesn't sound too bossy. Am an Interior Designer so sometimes need to be a tad bossy with my design input...

thnaks to all for your posts. the concensus seems to be to keep the feet!

the bath is curently black/ dark pewter underneath. would it work to paint it white, including the feet? i just want to get away from the black and white victorian look.

pannacotta, your advice is v helpful, not at all bossy! but what about the 2 kinds of wood? would it matter if we matched the wood floor to the other timber? or would a contrasting colour be better?

it is a very light, large room with 2 large windows.

cant use original floorboards. they are knackered, so tahts partly why we thought of tiles.

but what to do with the walls....tongue and groove might look a bit too 'cottagey', if you see what i mean? (although i do love it.)

If you are having a lot of wood in the room, I would go for white walls and floor - the floor could be white painted floorboards or white tiles (eg marble or marble effect - if you don't want hard tiles Amtico do marble effect ones). If you are not having a shower, you could just paint the walls (inless the bath is right up against a wall and your children will splash about in it...)

KT forgot to say that we are having a huge walk in shower with glass screens too., which will need tiling anyway.

the walls are a mess due to all the plumbing in of hidden pipes, and we cant get a plasterer easily. i prefer painted walls, but dh doesnt

Hi noonar are you in Brighton?I was an interior designer in my previous life and still do a bit I can help you out iof you want

We have black slate in the bathroom.Everything else is white and we have several reclaimed bits like shelves and a big boudoir style mirror.Have brough in colour with dark pink towels and have twin sinks It didn't cost a lot and looks really good

OUr bathroom isn't tiled at all. I much prefer plastered walls in a big bathroom so it feels like a proper room. We have a roll top bath, but also a traditional sink and loo, plus a huge mahogany chest of drawers. But the walls are plain plaster and that keeps the look very simple.

That sounds lovely aloha.We had a plasterer do ours too Much more like a room rather than a municipal building It also means chairs paintings and drawers etc look lovely where they would look odd against tiles

Yes, exactly! You can have furniture in it. Our battered chair and chest of drawers would look really strange against tiles, but elegant (I think!) in a plastered room. The children do sometimes bath in the room but it is still OK. We have very dark stained floorboards that match the mahogany chest of drawers.

We have 2 huge pink and yellow glass windows in ours (sounds hideous but original and nice)and because the walls are flat white the light shines through them and it is lovely Have gone a lot more funky in ds's little en suite but not suitable for main bathroom!

oh noddy and aloha, your ideas sound perfect. trouble is dh is a property developer, so i'm battling against someone who thinks a 'wetroom' is the perfect bathroom!

am worried we'll try to meet each other half way and end up with a mess! i think we have to stick with a fairly rustic/modern look(ifkwim) as the square loo with cistern hidden away is quite modern and minimalist. rather too late to go for a country house sort of bathroom.

noddy, we are in brighton, yes, but have never thought of 'engaging' the services of a designer before!

Developers have the habit of a certain look which sells I am guilty of that myself!With this place I decided to go with what i like and sod the look that sells which has resulted in 13 viewings and no sale!!!I do think you should plaster the walls and paint the bath pure white with no other colour,feet and all.

I think a roll top is enough of a classic shape to work with contemporary fittings....but I think you are in danger of introducing too many elements, modern, rustic, vintage etc etc. Are you doing this house to live in or to develop? If develop, then I'd say that a bathroom with roll top and trad fittings and dark floorboards will be more saleable OR a modern look with slate floor, but a mix of both MIGHT not work. I am most unconvinced by the driftwood for the sink with modern walls and floor.

Slate floor with reclaimed wood makes me think of cornwall / beaches etc..

I would go for plain white tiles where necessary and walls / accent colours in marine blue or rusty red

Definitely keep bath as it is

The driftwood could look a bit changing rooms unless there is absolutely nothing else decorative in there and the bath is fairly decorative so i would be careful with it.

Yes, agree keep bath as it is and plain white. Nobody ever walked into a house and said, 'oh, a roll top bath, I hate those'.

ok, dh and i have just had a chat. we are thinking solid oak floor, the same shade as the reclaimed wood.

aloha, its not really drift wood, its dark weathered, treated planks of wood from the pier 'deck'. i THINK it would make a nice stand, similar in style to those nasty veneered ones you see in b & q- only much nicer.

oh god, its going to be a real mish mash of styles, if we're not careful. am starting to worry.

nody, yes, white for the bath sounds good.

oh god, dh is insisting that we tile MOST of the walls, as we could never sort out a plasterer in time. so we are looking at ...

white bath

limestone tiles on larger opposite walls, with 2 smaller opposite walls, which could be painted (white?)

solid oak floor

reclaimed wood stand and shelf.

total disaster?

I would go for matt tiles in white on teh walls if you are painting them white.I fyou do limestone find a matching paint colour.I think opposing walls different colours may be too many iykwim.The wood sounds good and if the match with the floor is good it will be fine.