Eco-friendly Refurbishment of a Ladies powder room - The green credentials

The green credentials

Very often when we hear about green design, only one image comes to the mind, some dodgy looking room made out with old rubbish. I remember a show I went to where the eco-friendly room featured old cans of coke, crushed and used as tiles, and all sorts of similar things. This made me angry as it didn't convey the right sort of message. Eco-friendly, or green, doesn't meant the hippie or trash look. And I am going to prove it to you with this project we just finished in London.
Here is a photo showing the downstairs space of the Ladies room, the following one shows the upstairs.

 

 You will agree that it doesn't have a very "green look". But this refurbishment has many green credentials, that we can divide into three groups, the made in UK, energy and water saving and the recycled.

Made in the UK:
Using local products (here made in the UK as it is a London project) makes sense in many ways. First of all it reduces the carbon footprint of the product by reducing its transport. Getting a piece of furniture from the other side of the world might be cheaper (or is it?) but means a lot of carbon was produced to bring the furniture to the UK.
Another important fact is that local products are also good for the local economy.

In this particular project we used many products made locally including the wall paper, the electrical accessories, the furniture (made from responsibly farmed wood), the mirrors...

Energy and water saving:
We used a lot of lighting in this project, which resulted in a bright and interesting room. Many of the fittings we used are energy saving fittings, including LED lights. We used LED recessed down lighters, LED stripes, and replaced the bulbs of the Hollywood mirror with LED bulbs.
There is a PIR (Passive InfraRed sensor) system downstairs and in the fourth cubicle area. This PIR system is set up so that after a certain period of time, when there is no movement in the room, the background light switches off, and will switch back on as soon as movement is detected.
The taps are automatic, meaning that only the right amount of water is used, and there won't be any tap, leaking for hours, forgotten by a forgetful user.

Recycling:
When the room was dismantled to allow the refurbishment, as many items as possible were put on side (this includes the taps, mirrors etc.) in order to be either reused somewhere else in the club or to be sold for a brand new life.
After their life time, there is not a lot you can do with an old carpet, and they normally end up filling up landfill... and here we are talking of an enormous quantity of carpets. For this project we have sourced a cradle to cradle certified carpet. This means that the carpet was designed in such a way that after its life time, it will be taken back by the manufacturer who will dismantle the carpet and re-use its components in order to re-make a brand new carpet. This means, no filling up of the landfill and no depletion of natural resources.

The chairs that were already in use in the Ladies room were renovated and re-upholstered, so they would be perfect for the new décor. By doing this we re-used what we already had instead of getting rid of it and getting a new one.

So, you will agree that this projects contains quite a good list of green credentials!

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 - 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