Belgrave Road

This was a family bathroom for a young family. The brief was: nice, durable, not babyish. We delivered all three.

The wall tile is a deep teal ceramic, hand-glazed so each tile has a slightly different finish. It's laid in a stack-bond — vertical lines straight up, no offset — which makes the cuts unforgiving but the wall feels modern. The grout is a soft cream, slightly contrasting, so the pattern reads.

The shower is in the corner with a glass screen. Rainfall head is set into the ceiling rather than wall-mounted, which means the plumbing runs above the ceiling line and the wall is uninterrupted. The feed for it had to go in before the ceiling did, and it had to be in exactly the right place. We laid that out with the client before any tiles went up.

The vanity is a floating oak unit with a moulded basin. We hung it off the wall on a steel sub-frame so the floor below is uncluttered — easier to mop, and it makes the room feel a bit bigger. Above it, a frameless oval mirror, and either side, two designer sconces with cream globes and warm orange backplates. That's the only colour accent in the room. It works because it's the only one.

The floor is a terrazzo-effect porcelain. Easy to clean, hard to mark, looks the part. Under it, full underfloor heating. The radiator next to the shower is a chrome ladder rail, big enough for a couple of full-size towels.

The job took three weeks start to finish. The client moved back in the same evening we cleared the dust sheets.