Big Ideas: An Industrial Bathroom

At this year’s Ideal Home Show there were some extra kitchen and bathroom room sets right at back of the hall, and while you know how much I love a room set or several, I’m surprised that I’ve not shared any of these yet.

As well as this one, there’s another four to come in this series of posts which cover the room sets with “Big Ideas.” The first is this industrial bathroom, which has a classic and almost oriental feel to it, its Big Ideas are:

1. Wood-effect walls: tiles that are waterproof, but have an authentic look

2. Tin bath: it keeps the heat, is symmetrically shaped

3. Walk-in shower: frameless glass and easy to clean

4. His & Hers double basins: wall mounted taps

5. Patterned floor: a classic twist and budget friendly

A tin bath and patterned floor with great symmetry

That tub.

Not many rooms could take a tub like that and do it justice, it’s not one to squeeze into a space is it? For me it’s the simplicity and symmetry of the central tub, set against a relatively plain background and on that modern patterned floor, which isn’t too dissimilar to the pattern on my blog header.

Go on, scroll up and check, I know you want to. I just did too!

His and hers double sinks

But it’s not just the big impact stuff, the wire baskets under the sinks are a favourite of mine too. And wood tiles, remember when I saw those in Portugal earlier this year? I was an admirer then when I realised the tiles in the Totally tropical loos were actual tiles, and not floor tiles on the wall!

The simple lines, and lack of frame, on the shower is also a win for me. I’m not a fan of super enclosed showers, and I know that MOH would be very much up for a shower tray that’s that low off the ground. It was something we wanted when we put our shower in, but our budget didn’t stretch to that.

A frameless glass walk in shower

So Big Ideas that I think work well, what do you think?

The Wellness kitchen at Grand Designs

I saw this kitchen by FincH at Grand Designs earlier in the year, and it was clear from those also looking at the room set that it divided opinions. I was impressed by it, and while I might not go for this colour, the idea of a single colour throughout appealed, whereas for MOH and others close by us, they were less wowed. For MOH it was one element of the design that he thought impractical, but strangely it was one that I liked, even if on the whole I agreed with his impractical assessment.

But we’ll come onto that.

Dusky pink throughout with a touch of real greenery

The units and walls were all dusky pink, the worktops provided contrast with a soft white finish. The units are made from Jesmonite, a gypsum-based material in an acrylic resin, which makes it a versatile material. The cork flooring, was one of my least favourite elements, but I know that’s down to my inbuilt dislike of the material on floors and walls - yes, I’ve seen it on walls and that just makes me shiver.

A single colour throughout - does that make the cupboards camouflaged?

I liked the unfussy lines and clean spaces, although in reality my kitchen is unlikely to ever look this clear - but a girl can dream, hey? As well as liking the clean spaces, I’m also a fan of stuff and I’m learning that these two things aren’t compatible. What tends to happen is it’ll start off relatively clear like this, and over time stuff accumulates and I get used to seeing it, and so it becomes part of the “furniture” - until I remember my plan was to keep the worktops clear, and so a tidy up follows. Only for the whole process to repeat, I do think that’s a good thing, or otherwise I’m not sure I’d have enough room to use the worktops to actually prepare food…

Herbs at hand in this roomset at Grand Designs Live

Ah yes, the living herb wall. I liked it, MOH thought it impractical. I agreed, but I still wanted one. Even though our kitchen has very little, if any, natural light. I knew it wouldn’t work in our space, but I liked the idea of walking to the end of the work bench to add herbs to my cooking. Often, gathering herbs is one of the tasks that I give MOH when he regrets asking if there’s anything he can do. And that’s usually followed by a description of the herb and its location, how much simpler would it be if the herbs were at the end of the kitchen?

I know, I’m living in a dream world…

A peek into the cupboards at this roomset at Grand Designs

The other thing I admired in this kitchen was the tidy concealed cupboards. Mine would never be this empty, but they’d also never likely to be shut, or if they were it’d be because I’d crammed stuff in and wanted to keep that illusion of a clean, clear kitchen.

How would you cope with cupboards like these, or a one colour kitchen?

An art inspired lounge

Pale green and pale pink is a great colour combination and it was great to see this at Grand Designs Live earlier in the year. There they mixed in some art and the whole room set had a feeling of art deco about it. I’m not sure about the vertical battens on the wall though.

dusky pink and pale green in the lounge room set at Grand Designs Live

I am a fan of the freestanding boxed shelf unit, not only because it matches the room so well, but also because it’s not a uniform shape and because it’s so versatile, it could work in many rooms.

Dusky pink, prints and geometric designs

Look at the fringing on those cushions, and the screen. There’s definitely a 1920s feel, isn’t there, which is only accentuated with the geometric patterned rug.

soft furnishings in the lounge at grand designs live

I do like the lamp above the light box, it makes me smile in an unexplainable way. And (with clothes) it’d be a great fancy dress costume, and relatively easy to achieve. I have costumes on the mind at the moment as we’re off to a celebration of the First World War this coming weekend, and the dress code is of the era. After much research and looking at images on Google, I’ve realised it’s an era that isn’t as easy as it sounds, and it’s certainly not as fun (obviously) as the 1920s. For men, most often it was uniform, which is harder for MOH to source than a longish skirt, white blouse and hat that I sourced in the charity shops this weekend.

I’ve some final touches to put to the hat to dress it up a bit - I was thinking fabric flowers, and I’ve a suffragette ‘hunger strike’ medal to finish my outfit, and I’m sure I’ll share more here if I manage to make it work, and if I manage to persuade MOH to buy anything from a charity shop that he’ll actually wear. I got him to buy a flat cap, and it suits him, and I’ve a feeling he quite likes it too, but isn’t letting on too much just yet. Ideally with a brown coloured waistcoat and a neckerchief he could pass as a gardener, or similar, which is a lot easier than anything military. I’m not sure I’ll persuade him to wear wellies out on a Saturday night, but you never know…

a different angle of the room set at GDL18

But I digress, what do you think of this room?