Bathrooms: integrating period features

If you’re fortunate enough to live in a house with gorgeous period features, we’re pretty sure you’re reluctant to get rid of them even if they do make updating a room challenging.

 

Take floor-to-ceiling windows for instance. Whilst they look amazing and flood the room with light, smaller rooms such as the bathroom have to work extra hard to incorporate the fixtures and fittings we require. Given that these rooms were probably bedrooms in a previous life, how do you embrace their period features and squeeze in the necessary trappings of modern-day living?

 

Good question. Well, we’ve found some great examples that do just that.

 

Sinks

Faced with this space, most of us would probably have taken the most obvious route and worked around the generous window and fireplace. That is, found a way to squeeze in a sink, toilet, bath or shower, whilst leaving very little room for manoeuvre.

 

However, the clever cookies who did transform this space into a much-coveted bathroom opted to embrace the period features instead. How did they do it? By using a stunning marble countertop with an integral sink to bridge the two parallel walls. We love how this clever solution doesn’t distract from the character of the window or compromise the light. And by positioning the sink to the right-hand side, the necessary plumbing requirements are concealed in the adjacent wall. There’s also plenty of space for a wall mounted tap.

 

What else do we love about this bathroom? How the contemporary use of marble successfully blends into the design allowing the period features to dominate the space.

 

Baths

You’d think this narrow bathroom would have to choose between either a bath or a shower, but that’s not the case. Instead, this slimly proportioned bathroom of an apartment in a Georgian townhouse in Edinburgh makes good use of its available space to incorporate both.

 

The positioning of the deep contemporary freestanding bath takes full advantage of the urban view framed by the floor-to-ceiling window. It also allows enough room for a contemporary glass shower enclosure too. Shutters address the privacy issue, whilst allowing maximum light to flood the apartment when the bath and shower are not in use.

 

And the best bit, you can stay in this apartment when you visit Edinburgh. Might be worth a peek for design inspiration.

 

Showers

If you’re keen to install a shower or turn your cute bathroom into a wet room, then don’t let its floor- to-ceiling window hinder your creative flair.

 

This inspired shower room has a sheet of frosted glass installed in front of its period window to combat privacy. This also protects the window from its wet environment and benefits the space with filtered light.