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INTERIORS
Decorate with Take inspiration from the best new-build houses around the world, says interior designer Gail Abbott. Forget tiled walls and floors and go with natural textures for bathroom design with heart.
Gail Abbott
Architectural
Bathrooms 1
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nternational architects and designers are using traditional materials in surprising new ways, and their approach to bathroom design is no exception. Reclaimed fittings and natural materials like wood and slate are high on the list and fit very well with an ethos of sustainability. Only a few miles from downtown Miami, a family home was conceived to be built using local resources as much as possible, and its en-suite bathroom features an old bath salvaged from the garden. In 25 acres of South African bush outside Cape Town, the concept for a couple’s holiday home was ‘barn-meetswarehouse,’ and the use of raw slate in the bathroom makes a cool retreat from the heat of an African summer. On Florida’s Emerald Coast, a contemporary house in the new community of Rosemary Beach emulates the beamed structures of a working building, but with sleek lines and plenty of richly-coloured walnut throughout the interior. These architects and designers have creatively used juxtapositions of textures; copper pipe against rough-hewn
Anthony Tulleken, a wall of slate brings a rich, multi-faceted texture to the room. The roughness of the slate is thrown into relief by the smoothness of the ceramic bath and polished plaster of the surrounding walls. 2. COPPER Recycled copper pipe has been used as a utilitarian mixer tap behind the contemporary square basin and makes an unusual and individual statement. The cream-painted mirror frame brings a touch of Baroque style.
2 slate, smooth concrete and rich walnut panelling, or creamy polished plaster with unsophisticated plumber’s tubing. They have created bathrooms that are sometimes raw and uncompromising, but always unique and inspiring. 1. SLATE In the bathroom of a country farmhouse outside Cape Town, designed by architect
3. WOOD The walls and floor of this rustic, walkin shower are skimmed with waterproof Tadelakt. The glass shower screen fits into a base made from a reclaimed wooden post and the antique door from Java adds a further dimension of texture. 4. CONCRETE To keep rooms cool in the sub-tropical climate of Miami, architect Max Strang used polished concrete floors throughout his own
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24/09/2011 14:01