Project Tofu – Finished travertine and walnut bathroom, with separate shower

Trying to get inside a client’s mind with regard to their bathroom loves & hates and do’s & don’ts can be very difficult, not least because there’s so much choice out there in stores, on-line and on TV, often clients aren’t sure exactly what they want and how to describe it. I find it useful to ask them to collate magazine or internet images they’ve seen and liked of rooms, styles and items in an attempt to clarify, sometimes in their own mind, exactly what they want.

Above are the images gathered on line for Project Tofu, the ‘befores’ of which I posted earlier this week. A limestone / travertine look was desired, given detail with warm toned mosaics and wall paint. The client wanted curved sanitary ware and a basin to sit on top of a wall hung cabinet so the man of the house could get his feet under the unit! Storage was essential, and as much as possible.

Each project has it’s own special requirements and our client suffers from arthritic pain, which I understand due to being a bad back sufferer myself. The much yearned for separate shower cubicle would mean no clambering up and over into a bath on bad days and for better days I suggested a whirlpool feature to be added to the specified bath to soothe away aches and pains, coupled with straight lever valves which moved horizontally for ease of use. A centrafill on the side of the bath meant no protruding tap and I kept the bath / shower head to the right within easy reach.

After the initial hiccups with the bare bones of the bathroom, the fitting was relatively straightforward (if you don’t count the damaged basin cabinet having to be returned and not getting a new one for three weeks…..). That is, apart from the boy after whom the project is named. Tofu had to be involved in EVERYTHING. He was in the plaster, on the skip, in the basin, on my knee when I sat down, in the paint, even insisting on being accompanied as he dined so whilst the clients were on holiday, I found myself under a kitchen table listening to Tofu crunch. Then walk away. Then crunch. Then walk away. And so on and so forth. The big food issue tease and here he is:

Anyway! Back to the finished bathroom, here’s a before and after (there are some more of these here)

And some more afters..

Below is the squeezed in shower cubicle and specified tall storage cabinet, with millimetres to spare! I’m not keen on mosaics running in a band all around bathrooms so left the shower area as full travertine.

Below you can see the bath / shower attachment positioned within easy reach, the curved bowl sitting on a separately specified walnut cabinet ( you have NO idea how hard it was to find a walnut wall hung shelf with a cabinet at the exact width we needed!), the low water usage WC and travertine tiled floor and skirting with chrome trim.

Along with the tall cabinet next to the shower, there’s a cabinet under the basin and we also built an extra storage shelf for towels and boxes on the external wall above the basin & WC.

Walnut soap dish and toothbrush glass holders mounted on the tiles below to keep the walnut cabinet top tidy.

Even a space for the bin under the basin cabinet – perfect!

Stockists:

Travertine floor and wall tiles – Selco

Basin – TC Bathrooms

Mosaics – Topps Tiles

Taps and showers – Sagittarius Taps

Shower cubicle – Bathstore

Bath – Landlords Essentials

WC – Roca Laura

Walnut cabinets – Bauhaus Bathrooms