Seeing red

Seeing red

Red is a beautiful and emotive colour and a great way of adding punch and vitality to a bathroom area. The warmest colour on the spectrum, it symbolises energy, action, danger, passion and love. In India, brides get married in red as a symbol of their purity and fertility. In China, red symbolises good fortune, joy, excitement and sexual potency. In popular Western culture, the colour red is deeply interlinked with the concepts of lust, passion, love and beauty. It is with this in mind that this bathroom was designed – around the concepts of young love, passion and purity.

The colour of love

Jasmin Kraneveldt, director of leading sanitaryware supplier, Bathroom Bizarre, says that although red is appealing, it is also a very bold colour and if not applied correctly, it can be overwhelming: “It is important to remember that the colour red is very intense, and as a result, less is often more.”

A strong colour, red delivers an energetic, playful and youthful spirit, which has been offset in this modern bathroom with the inclusion of white, to help neutralise its intensity. Explains Kraneveldt: “Red and white is an exciting colour palette for the bathroom – it combines the punchy energy of red, which is counterbalanced using the strong, soothing and serene qualities present in white. Although red can be overpowering in large quantities, white helps to temper this effect.”

She also notes that since redoing a bathroom can be a sizeable investment, it is essential to think of the future when choosing the more permanent fittings and fixtures: “It is wise to choose neutral sanitaryware and flooring in order to maximise your options down the line. We have done this by choosing neutral, crisp white sanitaryware and cabinetry, which has been complemented with pale distressed wooden flooring. Should the owners of this bathroom tire of the red and white colour scheme in the future, all they will need to do is to give the walls a new coat of paint in another colour, and redo the feature wall in a new choice of wallpaper or tiles, and they will be able to completely transform the look of the room without having to spend a fortune on new sanitaryware and bathroom furniture.”

Roses are red poems

To temper the bold red walls, a feature corner was created that takes pride of place behind the free-standing Napoli bath. Explains Kraneveldt: “Lying at 90 degree angles, each of the two feature walls measure 1,5m wide by 2,16m high. They comprise two removable backing boards that have been finished with a photographic mural wallpaper of red roses. The vinyl wallpaper is splash-proof and can be wiped clean, making it ideal for bathroom applications.”

Vinyl wallpaper has the design printed directly on a layer of vinyl with a fine paper backing. It boasts a texture similar to heavy embossed paper, but requires less paste for hanging. It is a very durable surface, which can be lightly scrubbed and although not entirely waterproof, it does boast splash-proof qualities. Washable wallpaper is also advised for bathroom applications – it is ordinary wallpaper that has been coated with a thin glaze of polyvinyl acetate-PVA, which provides an easy-to-wipe surface.

Full and curvy

The modern, yet funky look of this bathroom was achieved by incorporating sanitaryware with full, rounded curves, explains Kraneveldt: “The sanitaryware, all available from Bathroom Bizarre, projects an amalgamation of organic curves and geometric lines, which gives the room a gentle and feminine ambience, complemented with deliciously angular contemporary undertones.  The free-standing, oval-shaped Napoli bath corresponds in form to the gentle organic curves found in the rounded Pali toilet and bidet set, the above-the counter Vella basin, the Mystical faucets and the Melissa mirror. These curves have been offset with angular lines brought in by the white, rectangular wooden Cube vanity, complete with granite countertop, the Finesse semi-frameless shower cubicle, and the Contour Twin 6 heated towel rail.”

A feature in itself, the Napoli bath is making big waves in the design community at large. It was boldly conceived as a low-slung, single-piece shell, and offers the simplicity of rimless bathing combined with extreme comfort and a low step-in height. The Napoli has been described as showcasing "installation art", rather than simple tub installation – providing a truly unique bathing experience.

Heart felt

Many homeowners believe that owning a sumptuous bathroom such as this one, can only be accomplished if you have access to a lot of space, but Kraneveldt says this is not necessarily true: “Good layout and sanitaryware design can take you a long way with regards to maximising the space available. For example, even though this bathroom has the look and feel of a very spacious room – in actual fact, its dimensions are a relatively small 3,64m wide by 2,5m deep. The built-in toilet cisterns, together with the Finestra semi-frameless glass shower cubicle, and the well-proportioned Cube vanity, all add to the space-saving composition of this room – ideal for smaller proportioned bathrooms, or for that en-suite bathroom  you have been planning to build your teenage daughter.”