Westmere Bathroom
The ensuite is a new addition to the house; to give it a sense of history a window from the original kitchen was salvaged during the renovation.
Floor to ceiling tiles impart a crisp – and decidedly colourful – look in the ensuite.
Period touches in this remodelled bathroom evoke the home’s 1920s origins, while modern fixtures – including a grey-water collection system – are up to the minute.
It’s a scenario many families will face – what to do when you’ve outgrown your home? For the owners of this 1920s bungalow, moving was never a consideration, so they approached architect Jonathan Hawksworth of Black Box Architects to devise a programme to incorporate a new addition and make better use of the existing footprint. One of the main considerations was to provide the family with an additional bathroom.
“With three young boys, a single-bathroom home really wasn’t working any more,” says Hawksworth. “The first step therefore was to give my clients an ensuite off their bedroom and then tackle the functionality of the existing bathroom.”
With the original structure essentially gutted and the new room geography in place, Hawksworth worked with the clients to formulate the layout of the updated family bathroom.
“An existing window was removed and a skylight installed to improve the amount of natural light in the south-facing room. All of the fixtures were moved to new locations and at the request of the homeowner, a smaller bath installed to allow for some much needed storage space. It seems like an easy fix but the end result is a much more workable space.”
While they wanted contemporary spaces that suited modern living, the homeowners were also mindful of maintaining an element of bungalow character. The original doors were reinstated and an old desk, a family piece, was repurposed to create a vanity for the main bathroom. An original kitchen window was reinstalled in the ensuite.
“For us, as much as this project was about creating a comfortable, modern home, it was also about maintaining a connection to the past – our own and that of the house,” says the homeowner.
