Beautifully situated along the Atlantic Seaboard, House Hamilton is a family size duplex that was in desperate need of updating. This was one of our very first full time projects, it was a big one! We worked on the whole house adding finishing touches in every room but really transforming the kitchen and two bathrooms. In our previous blog entry we took a closer look at the kitchen… Now let’s break down the two bathrooms.
The Brief: Having seen the House Mackrill project in the April 2017 issue of SA Garden and Home, the House Hamilton client loved that at SML we have a contemporary design aesthetic but combine timeless classicism, with a respect for materials, natural textures and traditional craftsmanship. The brief for the bathroom was pretty open ended, having the House Mackrill project as an aesthetic guide, the client wanted to achieve a similar look and feel. They were heart-set on having a freestanding bath in both bathrooms as well as heated towel rails for when guests come to stay.
GUEST BATHROOM BEFORE AND AFTER
The challenges; this bathroom is small and the layout was most certainly a challenge. Creating enough space for a walk in shower, free standing bath and the standard vanity and toilet was a squeeze. What added to this challenge was that we had to build the floor finish level up slightly to accommodate for the shower plumbing to give the shower the walk in functionality the client hoped for. The square off centre windows also challenged us…
The solutions; procuring the ideal sized fittings was essential in getting the layout correct, 1mm out and it would have not worked. We also cleverly made use of freestanding accessories to free up the wall space for a heated towel rail. This space came together beautifully, we created symmetry by installing one long window and specing a storage alcove below it, this is another smart way to create storage without taking up floor space…
ENSUITE BATHROOM BEFORE AND AFTER
The challenges; this dark, small space was heavily built up with masonry work to create the shower, a very dated and far removed concept from the single pane frameless glass showers we are used to today. The ensuite was also positioned at the end of a wall of cupboards, you can never really ever have “too many cupboards” but in this case it was worth sacrificing a few cupboards to create an open plan ensuite. Again, the square off centre windows also challenged us but this was easily solved the same way as in the guest bathroom…
The solutions; creating an open plan layout from bedroom to bathroom gave us the extra floor area required to include a freestanding bath in this layout, by removing the door frame/creating an arch entry and removing the extra cupboards we were able to bring the vanity into the entry passage and this freed up the rest of the space. Again we had to build the floor finish level up slightly to accommodate for the shower plumbing to give the shower the walk in functionality the client hoped for but it was more of a design feature in this scenario and didn’t hinder the layout at all. One of my favourite design features in this space is the floor finish, we created an ombre effect from under the bath to the entrance by placing the printed tiles under the bath and fading it out to white…
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Written, compiled, designed and styled by Melissa Lawrence. Photographed by Fiona Joy Photography.