I was down at the ‘Ann Sacks’ showroom in Chelsea recently trying to find some inspiration for a very exciting upcoming project in Baker Street. The client has specified that they want to maintain the 1970’s look of the property (that was when it was last updated which proves how long well built furniture/furnishings can last) but with a slightly more modern twist – in short, an Interior Designer’s dream! At this stage of proceedings we are really only looking to get some general ideas about how to tackle each room and, in this specific case, the bathroom.
I was keen to use ‘red’ in this bathroom as I wanted to make a statement that could be offset by milder tones in other parts of the room. One common mistake when buying tiles is that a person may believe that a tile is too ‘out there’ – what you must remember is that a tile can be used as a highlight colour – it does not necessarily need to engulf the entire room. There were 2 tiles that took my fancy:
1)
The above tile is very angular and random and does a good job of mixing the geometric 1970’s look with a more modern, less stringent twist. I very much liked how the white mosaics are dotted in and highlight the various shades of red even further. The issue that I had with using this on a wall is that it falls between 2 criteria and does not really satisfy either – it gives the impression of luxury through the use of smallish mosaics but it is too playful to be taken seriously as a true high-end highlight wall. It is not, however, tongue-in-cheek enough for it to work successfully as a playful piece of bathroom art. As a result I moved on!
2)
I love this! The curved bricks literally shimmer like hardened pieces of jelly – the blood orange colour is inconsistent and multi-faceted. As a highlight piece in a bathroom I believe that this makes a great change from mosaics and it leaves guests with no questions with regard to the product’s quality. The showroom manager was not sure about the grout colour used but I was already sold to the extent that he couldn’t put me off!
