When an Interior Designer Designs her own home Part 5

Trials and tribulations Part 5

 

It has been a wonderful summer in our new home, so much so, we have not even felt the need to go away on holiday. In our previous house it was necessary to get out of the country twice a year!

There has been one lurking issue – the continuous smell of damp/drains in one of our en suite bathrooms. Try as we might, noses in cupboards and bottles of bleach, although we did notice a patch of damp at the back of one of our cupboards. We just could not locate where it was coming from so the builder was duly called to refit all the toilets and seal around the pipes. Husband purchased an expanding foam gun, every gap now looks as though yellow candy floss is oozing, we are now hermetically sealed!

Still the smell persisted, it even got worse.

About a week ago I noticed one of the LED brick lights in our shower cubical was developing a brown 'bloom' inside. We called the electrician. He was not available so my husband removed the lights and to our horror discovered that they had NEVER been correctly sealed into the wall and incorrect non waterproof cables connections had been made. This also explained why the electricity supply had tripped out earlier in the year. Quite a substantial amount of water had entered the light fitting and the wall and this was causing the damp smell. The fittings have now been correctly wired and resealed and our bathroom now smells beautiful.

Be warned that lights installed in a shower cubicle MUST be correctly connected and sealed!

 

Anne Stuart

Eco-friendly Refurbishment of a Ladies powder room - Part2 Upstairs

Upstairs are the facilities, and the décor had lost its glory. The big marble vanity looked tired and the wall paper had given up against the repetition of contact with water. The colours had passed, it was time was a good lifting!

 

So you understand better the space available, here is a plan of the space, with the proposed design. There are three cubickes in the main room, and a fourth cubicle a bit further back. The corridor-like space leading to the fourth cubicle was used for ladies to get changed into their evening clothes when needed, and therefore needed to offer some privacy. The old design provided privacy with a system of curtains that we have now replaced with a sliding door.

 

Let's start with the main room. We have continued the bright and light feminine colour scheme from the downstairs, and have introduced a stunning wall paper which has inclusions of swarovski crystals. The marble vanity unit was changed for a bespoke wooden vanity, with bowl shaped washing basin and automatic raps. Glamorous mirrors with silver frames were added to add a very luxurious feel.

 

 

We played with the lighting in the cubicles, with LED stripes, which create a very atmospherical touch. The same carpet tiles as downstairs add interest.

A sleek and elegant console table provides a focal point, and is a good place for a last check in the mirror or for a make up re-touch.

Plenty of mirrors allow the light to bounce and make the room bright and spacious.

 

This is are two views of the space leading to the fourth cubicle before the refurbishment. As you can see it looks dull and the curtains look messy, not too mention the cluttered wall next to the basin.

 Here is the after view of the same place. A triangular shaped vanity was design in order to provide an easy traffic flow and avoid any risk of bruising in this small space while reaching the fourth cubicle.



 

The triangular table is a good place to seat down and apply make up or re-do one hairstyle (the hair dryer is accessible and hidden on the side below the table of the table). Here again the lighting plays an important role and makes the space look bright and bigger than before.



 

An additional tap for drinking water was installed. The same mirrors (at different height according to the use) bring  glamour and elegance to this small space, and reflect the sparkle of the swarovski crystal incrusted in the wall paper.

 

There is a continuity of style between downstairs and upstairs, with the same colour scheme, brightness and elegance. As a result the space feels much bigger and much more comfortable.

 

Such a project without a good team wouldn't be possible, so I want to thank my incredible builder who has been an absolute resource: Thank you John http://www.harringtonbuilders.co.uk/

A big thank you as well to my fantastic decorator David Fitzgerald http://www.creative-decorating.co.uk/

And of course my sparkly electrician Graham Simmons http://luxelec.co.uk/

 

A special thank you to Peter Schneiter who took all the after photographs http://www.peterschneiter.com/ 

 

Emmanuelle Lemoine



Eco-friendly Refurbishment of a Ladies powder room - Part1

It was an honour to work for the prestigious RAF club in London and we were delighted to be in charge of the refurbishment of the Ladies powder room.
The ladies powder room hadn't been done for at least 20 years, and its paste glory had long tarnished, so the club asked us to transform it into a lovely space, that would be in touch with the sophistication of their clientele. Cherry on the cake, the club was also keen to do the refurbishment in an environmentally responsible way.

Below are two photos of the Ladies room before.

 

 

The ladies room is on two floors. Downstairs is a cloakroom where the members can safely leave their coats. Upstairs are the facilities. Under the staircase were the usual cupboards that were not really used. As the space is quite restricted, we decided to open it up by removing the cupboards. This newly created place could also host a make-up space well lit by a Hollywood mirror.

 

 

And here the new space:

In order to keep minimal storage. we built two drawers under the lower part of the staircase. We also installed a mirror on the back wall which creates an incredible depth to the room. We played a lot with the lighting, which brings a lot of interest to the room.
Here is another view of the room downstairs.

 

We chose a feminine and light colour scheme, the LED recessed down lighters provide a very good background lighting. If you want to use LED light, always remember to check the colour of the lights as they can be very white if not well chosen!
The coat hangers are re-installed as before; a voile roller blind provides softness to the window and a simple roman blind with a lovely glass trim dress the window elegantly. Carpet tiles are fitted, for easy maintenance; they can be replace easily in case of damage. The folding mirror is replaced by a foldable double sided mirror, so it is still a mirror when folded.

Details of re-upholstered chair

Detail of curtains

 

How do you like the transformation of the cloakroom? Don't hesitate to leave your comments!

 

A special thank you to Peter Schneiter who took all the after photographs http://www.peterschneiter.com/ 

 

Emmanuelle Lemoine

Icelandic white... and icelandic bathroom

I am lucky enough to have Margret amongst my friends. Margret is an interior and cushion designer based in Iceland, her work is stunning, and I was ever so delighted when she accepted to write a post for The Insider!
Here Margret explains why she loves white so much and shows how she is using it as a background to design her beautiful bathroom. And you will see that in this example, white is far from being boring and cold!



It is not an overstatement to say that the summer here in Iceland has barely arrived! As I am sitting here in the north of Iceland and looking out of my window at the mountaintops covered with snow and ash on top of that, I begin to wonder about the colour white.

White is not technically a colour it is neutral but I will call it a colour here for ease of use.

I have always loved white rooms and thought of them as a symbol for holiness, purity, tranquility and balance and of course white is a sign of peace.

Here in Iceland we use white a lot indoors. It is very common to have both walls and ceiling white. It seems that we Icelanders are afraid of using many colours.

White can be very refreshing and cool in hot environments. Well, here we are not in need for more cool and fresh!

I think that our love for white comes from the fact that in the wintertime it can be dark for up to 20 hours a day so it is all about getting more light.
In my house I have white walls, ceiling and floors in the living room so everything else floats in a white space. White has the power to lighten up any structure so the white becomes like white canvas for every other object in the room to shine!
Everything goes with white and there is nothing more relaxing than a white room.

White reflects all light and makes spaces appear larger and that´s why I chose white tiles for a bathroom that I am going to show you. The brief was to have the room spacious, warm and with a spa feeling.

I decided to take one wall down and join two rooms into one big bathroom.

To make the room seem even bigger I decided to have the shower and bath combined and open. There is good ventilation in the room and it has two big windows.

The shower is laid with bricks and white glass mosaic-tiles. Walls are painted with lime-paint. There are brown tiles on the floormade from quartz and they also cover one big wall to make a warm feeling in the room and as contrast to the white glass tiles.

Ethanol mini-fireplace to bring into the room the feeling of a spa.



Table and mirror are from solid teak wood.

The sink and the WC have soft lines to match the shower/bath.

White glass mosaic tiles on the wall.

The cabinet is from solid teak-wood and inside are Italian crochet baskets.ab



Margret Thorarensen

Bathroom make over

Interior Designer’s nightmare – minute bathroom!

Here we go again, tiny bathroom, brief asks for storage, grab handles on the bath and a non slip surface to be suitable for an elderly couple who use it as a second home. Oh and I forgot, to cost as little as possible!
So here are is the before photo

In drastic need of updating and yes, that is the dreaded carpet on the floor! As you can see the bathroom is very much on the small side. The shower is on the wrong side of the bath and there was a stain on the carpet where water had come from the shower and dripped down the side of the bath. There was only one thing for it – gut the room completely including tiles off walls and start from scratch.

Here we have the ‘after’ photos.

I decided to move the shower pipe work to the other end of the bath. A false wall had to be installed together with a slightly shorter bath. This would then enable the fitting of a shower screen. The storage is fitted with a back to the wall toilet. The whole design was put together for ease of cleaning with no nooks and crannies to harbour dust and grime.
I had thought of putting a shade of fawn on the walls in order to bring a contrast to the tiles and roller blind. Once the tiles and blind were up, I decided it would look much crisper and cleaner with the greyish shaded tiles and white walls.

I think you will agree that this is a world of difference!

Anne Stuart