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By Monique Sartor, Sartorial Interiors I was recently asked to help a designer friend zhoozh up her bathroom which is located on the top floor of a small block of units. On the surface, this might appear to be an easy project - its just a bathroom, right? However, there were several challenges, namely: * the bathroom was very small, * the client wanted to maintain the art deco feel in keeping with the style of the building, and * having a designer as a client simply adds more pressure! The bathroom hadn't been touched since the 50s and the shower cubicle was smaller than today's minimum standard. There was a full length bath (which the client wanted to keep), loo and basin but absolutely zero storage. So, with a width of 195cm, a length of 265cm and height of just 2.7m, the bathroom required a minimalist and clever approach. The first thing we did was move the bath to run along the width of the room and under the external windows, installed the shower head over the bath and replaced the curtain with a clear glass screen. Colours were kept light and bright with paint and tiles white and a soft grey feature tile to add interest and shiny silver metals for tapware etc. The vanity was designed to suggest the Art Deco them and to maximise storage for the limited space available and the mirror was also cut in a typical Art Deco shape. To minimise making the room feel smaller, we kept things as flush with wall and ceiling surfaces as possible, such as the Caroma "Titan" shower head but it also meant we were limited with lighting. In addition to halogen down lights, we initially, we looked at statement pendants such as this Mercator crystal pendant from Ozlighting.com.au as it was feminine and the materials worked perfectly with the colour scheme, but unfortunately, it took up too much space leaving the room feel cramped. The solution lay in adding lighting around the mirror. As this was directly over the vanity, it didn't feel as though it took too much space and as the client is a girly girl and enjoys putting on her makeup, she loved the theatrical and simple yet practical feel this gave the bathroom. Two Domus - Five lights Hollywood lights from ozlighting.com.au running vertically on either side of the mirror worked perfectly but three to four individual dome lights would also work effectively. The final touch which was purely decorative, were three crystal glass butterflies (from www.lightly.com.au) on the wall opposite the mirror. These reflected beautifully in both the natural daylight and the lights from over the vanity and the glassware was reminiscent of the Art Deco era. The overall result was feminine, sophisticated, fresh and surprisingly spacious. Mission accomplished! Check out our entire range of Bathroom Lights from Blink Lighting, Mercator Lighting and Domus Lighting
About the AuthorMonique Sartor is the Prinicpal Consultant for Sartorial Interiors, an interior decorating, product sourcing and colour consultancy based in Sydney, NSW. Monique takes great pride in her ability to help people create their dream homes. She has studied various areas of the visual arts from drawing and painting to photography and film studies. Along the way she has learnt the importance of colour, line, balance, light and perspective to achieve a visually appealing and inspiring result. If you're interested in contacting Monique to discuss your home improvement project, please call 0450 284 922 or email monique[at]sartorialinteriors.com.au 
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