My Family Bathroom Reveal With Amara
New year, new reveal! Hope you all had a cracking Christmas break. January is a strange beast isn’t it?
I don’t do resolutions, and especially not in January(!) but once the kids are back at school and the Christmas cheese hangover has passed, I quite look forward to getting started again in a fresh new year.
Over the break, whilst everyone else was winding down, I’ve been working on various projects and blog posts (that’s freelance life for ya!). One being this bathroom reveal in collaboration with the lovely folk over at Amara.
So, let’s get stuck in... this bathroom is on the entry level of our house, directly off the entrance hall, along with two bedrooms – an unusual set-up – as we have our kitchen and main living areas on the semi-basement level downstairs. So although it’s a family bathroom, mainly for the kids, it is also used by guests, so I wanted to include some luxurious grown-up elements too.
The Plan
This is not a large room, at about 2mx3m, I had to be clever about the use of space and choosing the sanitary ware. As this bathroom is directly off the main entrance hall, the last thing I wanted, was that a toilet be the first thing that arriving guests see on entry! So I placed the more attractive vanity opposite the doorway and went from there. To increase the feel of spaciousness, I chose the wall hung Duravit toilet and an Artelinea vanity in matte black glass from CP Hart.
The wall-hung sanitary ware increases the feeling of space. Towel: Hay Towel. Bin: Woodrow Waste Bin.
Another space saver was to include the shower over the bath, as no amount of frantic-floorplan-Tetris would allow a separate shower in this space! More space saving tricks include the Keuco recessed mirror cabinet, as well as the full length Cordivari polished radiator which is also a mirror and has a towel rail, so triples as a towel warmer as well (also from CP Hart).
Placing the shower over the bath is another space saver in a small room.
The Finishes
Always on my mission to make my newly-built home feel homely and characterful, I’ve used a tactile materials palette of polished plaster, encaustic tiles, marble and natural brass. Sticking to light greys with a punch of black and brass in this room – I think keeping similar tones in a small space also adds to the illusion of space.
The encaustic Bert & May Inverse Salon tiles were chosen first, then great effort was put into finding the right materials and plasterer to do the grey polished plaster on the walls, the colour was mixed bespoke by the plasterer to compliment the tiles. Using the polished plaster inside the shower area is a bit of a risk, it is meant to be waterproof, but as even the tiniest of cracks will let water seep in, possibly causing the plaster to come away, it can be quite high maintenance in wetter areas of the bathroom.
The Salon Inverse tiles by Bert and May run along the floor and retain the pattern up the side of the bath panel. The sleek polished plaster compliments the tile and keeps things simple on the walls, letting the floor take centre stage.
The brass frame around the mirror cabinet is a complete mess-up turned-design-detail on my part! I’d given the builders the finished size instead of the recess size of the cabinet, meaning the hole left for it was way too big, leaving a messy unfinished area around the fitted cabinet. To fix it, I sourced some strips of natural brass and had the frame made to hide the messy areas.
The brass frame around the mirror is flanked by two lights from Astro Lighting – there’s always a way to make a mistake look good!
The brassware is The London collection by The Watermark Collection, I chose natural brass as I love the way it gains patina and becomes more and more tactile over time – it’s only been six months since we moved in and these are coming along nicely. Another detail that streamlines the look (as well as the budget!) is doing away with the bath taps and using the shower control and the overflow/filler combo instead.
The Hay flowerpot and saucer is from Amara. The shower and bath brassware is by The Watermark Collection.
For just a touch of luxe, I added some marble, the black marble basin is a random internet find and the countertop is an off-cut from my kitchen worktops in Compac Unique Calcutta.
The countertop is a kitchen off-cut and the flushplate in the background was coated in a bespoke matte black finish.
I had the chrome flush plate and shower hinges specially coated in matte black to match the other details, the lights are actually outdoor lights by Astro lighting which are also suitable for bathrooms.
The Details
Thanks to Amara, the bathroom is now finished with some gorgeous accessories that add some extra storage and compliment the overall style perfectly. The Hay Volet hooks in brass work so well with the Watermark Collection brassware, and keep the hand towels conveniently by the basin area.
A perfectly organised home is my absolute dream (I have kids, I’m working on it!) so I just love storage baskets and jars to keep things in their place. The Hay grey glass containers are so good for all that bathroom paraphernalia, and the Aquanova and Muuto baskets are great for organising towels and to pop laundry into - hopefully putting an end to my 6 year-old storing her clothes on any available floor.
And by complete happy accident – The Aquanova Hammam tray and accessories in grey marble could not have matched my basin more perfectly.
This post is a paid and sponsored post in collaboration with Amara.
All accessories seen are available on the Amara website.
All photography: Tash South