Natural stone bathroom

‘The bathroom is one of the rooms that we decided to completely refurbish,' says Rebecca Harris. 'The previous one felt very cramped and dated, with a plastic bath tub, wallpapered walls and carpeted floor; it had definitely seen better days. In the new bathroom we’ve tried to use a mixture of traditional and modern styles that sit well together. We hired a great team from Stanley Construction Services to do the specialist work, but we sourced all the hardware ourselves and painted the window and bath tub too.’

It is the elegant enamel roll-top bath with mixer taps that takes centre stage in the middle of the room, which is clad in a carefully considered blend of four different types of tiles, from small mosaic ones to large, warmly textured floor tiles. They’ve put in a pair of rectangular washbasins from CP Hart with taps from Fired Earth. Above which are two decorative antique picture frames that have been cleverly converted into mirrors. And a modern cupboard hangs beside an 18th-century oak chest, which is used as a linen basket.

What makes this bathroom so individual is the deft balance of the old and the new. Rebecca and Mark share a passion for finding antiques, and they have sourced some charming and unusual items for the house on their trips together in the UK and abroad. During a holiday in the Côte d’Azur they went to the local antiques fairs and picked up a piece of vintage linen that they made into a blind for the window. On the hunt closer to home, a soup tureen found in Staffordshire has been converted into a rather grand planter for bulbs that add a splash of colour to the otherwise neutral space

FEATURE NAOMI JONES PHOTOGRAPHS BRENT DARBY
Featured in the March 2009 issue of Period Living