A Bathroom Quartet (Playing Handel's Water Music? arf arf) by Ric Frankland

It’s not often you find a cellist in your bath but if I’d have consumed anymore of the delicious cocktails at CP Hart ‘s Manchester launch last night, I may well have fancied having a go with a fiddle in the shower myself 😉 What an evening – scrumptious nibbles, champagne tasting, sumptuous bathrooms, wine flowing more freely than an overhead rain shower – coming hot on the heels of George Osbourne’s slashing cuts, some may say a bold choice, but if you want to sell expensive sanitary ware, I guess you need to impress the buyers who still have the cash to buy. The showroom has moved from what was a cavernous space on Deansgate Locks to much more intimate premises on Deansgate and a few guests were wondering why spend so much on a move just around the corner. Of course, we’re not party to rent negotiations and deals, but from a very simple perspective I think it may be a good move. The Locks premises always felt very corporate, far better suited to the architects, developers and specifiers new-build market which was so predominant in recent years but collapsed after the property crash. It wasn’t at all homely, comfortable or welcoming to the home-owner, most of whom want to see a bathroom in situ if they haven’t got an interior designer whose judgment they rely on.

Put simply, when people don’t move house, they want to upgrade what they’ve got – extensions, loft conversions, new kitchens and yup, you guessed it, fabulous new bathrooms. The new premises have much lower ceilings just like most homes, lower dividing walls cleverly lower the heights, the room sets seem warmer and on the whole the effect is far more glamorous and better suited to the residential domestic market.

Of course, I may be barking up completely the wrong shower cubicle…. it may not be a conscious business decision to better sell to the domestic end user and CP Hart may just be an international money laundering operation with wads of cash to spare, but I doubt it. Complete tangent there, sorry, think it’s lack of food, 12.46pm, note to self must eat breakfast now.

Anyhow, here are some images I took last night to give you some bathroom inspiration x

One of the glam room sets, fab mirror!

Champagne tasting - should also be obligatory in B&Q

Liking the suspended mirrors and island style basin unit

Chandeliers, furniture style basin units and tv filming

Great coat-hanger radiator and very cool tiles

Loved this use of brick with contemporary shelving offset against mosaics

Lots of very cool women dressed in black (I was soooo underdressed!)

Champagne tasting - should also be obligatory in B&Q

Lush Tom Dixon Beat lights and very smart looking bath

Inspiration.... I hope you've had some!

Amazing technical detail on this glass basin, so fluid.

Looking out to Deansgate, a bathroom for an exhibitionist 😉

Not my style but certainly unusual!

Colour therapy in the shower

How dullsville do ordinary plug holes look now you've seen this?