Case study: Bold as brass
How Utopia Interiors worked with this retired couple’s daughter – also an interior designer – to transform their master bathroom.
The main challenge for this bathroom was the narrow layout of the space. The solution was twofold – the first was to remove the bath, which wasn’t needed as there were two others already in the house, and the second was to move the shower into the window area.
The benefits of this were having the glass shower partition across the end of the room, which split the room in half and foreshortened the space, making it feel less long and narrow. It also created a lovely big shower with a great view.
One of the key products was the bespoke shower door. We worked closely with interior designer Victoria – who is also our client’s daughter – to source all the bathroom fixtures for this project, including brassware, shower door, sink and WC, and recommended using Matki for this element of the job.
Victoria knew she was looking for traditional products in a brass finish. For this, we recommended Swadling Brassware for the quality and colour of the brass. Fortunately, Swadling Brassware is the sister company to Matki, meaning it was possible to have Matki’s bespoke shower door in the same finishes as Swadling’s brassware.
For the basin, they chose Swadling Brassware’s Invincible wall mounted mixer with lever handles, in brushed brass and white ceramic detailing. They didn’t want the brass to be too shiny and, wanted it to look natural next to the imperfections of the Zellige tile.
The Propert: A Lincolnshire farmhouse, originally built in the 1860s.
The Clients: A retired couple whose daughter, Victoria, is an interior designer. Victoria worked closely with Liz at Utopia Interiors.
The Brief: The owners wanted to create a better use of the space and create a focal point at the end of the room, drawing your eye towards the lovely countryside view. Initially, we spent a great deal of time speaking to Victoria about the brief to really understand their requirements for the space in detail. Who would be using the bathroom? What storage did they need? Were there any styles or finishes they really didn’t want to see? We analysed the best use of space, creating an overall concept design before finalising the fixtures and finishes and ironing out the technical details.
They wanted to achieve a real wow factor with the shower and so the Swadling Invincible Double Exposed Shower Mixer with rigid riser, deluge and hand shower provided that. The exposed shower also lent a more traditional feel to the space.
Victoria wanted a bespoke, wall-mounted vanity unit to give the illusion of space, which we sourced from Loop and Friends and married this with a Ceramic Plus undermount sink from Villeroy and Boch. It’s nice and simple, and the ceramic plus provides easy cleaning.
The opal glass wall lights were from Old School with antique brass fittings, while the recessed downlights were from Astro and are IP65-rated.
Wall and floor tiles were from Mosaic Factory, while we also used 50mm square wall tiles from Zellige. They have a very subtle pink hue to them, which works well with green. The floor tiles were from their cement tile range.
For the towel rail, we used the Zehnder Buckingham radiator in antique bronze.
The toilet supplied was a VitrA Zentrum Rimless wall-hung pan complete with soft closing seat with chrome hinges and VitrA frame and flush plate. The counter top on the bespoke vanity unit was made from Calacatta marble. This was also used on the WC and top stud walls and windowsills.
Installer comments
We recommended Matki Installations for the shower and brassware as it was such an unusual space. Bespoke screens are complicated to measure and install. Matki’s installation director, Kim Barnes, worked with us on this project the whole way through from measuring up and creating the templates to installing the shower itself.
About Utopia Interiors
Established in 1999, Utopia Interiors in Newark-on-Trent, in the heart of The East Midlands, has been supplying and installing luxury bathrooms, kitchens and bedrooms across Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire for 20 years. From the showroom, they offer a full survey, design and installation service.