Design for an Art Deco bathroom

A heritage-listed home gets a brand-new bathroom - in an older style - to match its elegant Art Deco design.

Stewart enjoys the beautiful Art Deco interior of his heritage-listed home. Built in 1937, the house was a display home for AV Jennings and hence very stylish. The only thing letting the place down was an ugly, worn-out bathroom.

"It was in the typical 1930s style, with little yellow square tiles, a yellow bath and toilet base, and a step-up shower unit that was way too small," says Stewart. "If I had put on another five kilos, I wouldn't have fitted in!"

Stewart called on Arthur Galileos from Supreme Bathrooms and Kitchens to bring his designer Art Deco bathroom ideas to life. To design his own Art Deco bathroom, Stewart developed the floor plan and gathered together the reproduction materials and fittings over a period of time, before having Arthur put it all together.

"We basically smashed it all out and redid the whole room in designer Art Deco style," says Stewart. "The new bathroom is actually more complementary to the style of the house than the original one."

Once Arthur had ripped out the old fixtures and the ceiling, he redesigned the bathroom to make better use of the small space. He replaced the separate bath and shower with a tidy corner spa underneath a showerhead. The toilet cistern was tucked into a dummy wall, providing a streamlined look. This wall also houses a storage cupboard, finished with a rich mahogany-coloured vinyl wrap.

The mahogany colour has also been used on the basin cabinetry and matches the beautiful feature Art Deco bathroom tiles on the bathroom walls. Stewart had these custom made by a local reproduction-tile specialist. "They do period tiles; they hand-paint tiles in a range of designs and refire them," he explains.

Stewart enjoyed collecting individual items over the preparation period, and was able to compare deals and prices to keep costs down. A great find was the stunning granite floor tiles, which were imported from Italy. Strangely enough, these matched the original design of the Art Deco bathroom floor, which had been removed along with everything else.

"There was terrazzo on the floor to start with, but when we changed the floor plan, it all had to be jack-hammered out," explains Stewart. "We wanted to replace the floor with something similar, and that's exactly what we found."

Generous lighting adds a warm atmosphere to the space, but Stewart finds it a bit too bright when all the downlights are on, preferring to use the softer lights around the vanity.

"There's plenty of light in there, that's for sure," he laughs. "We mainly use the Deco light above the vanity mirror, but the downlights are great for cleaning the space. They do look phenomenal when they're all on."

Arthur Galileos, from Supreme Bathrooms and Kitchens

Is there anything original left in this bathroom?

It was totally gutted, so everything is brand new. The rest of the house is in a really old style, so we created an Art Deco bathroom to match. It was a display home for AV Jennings, and is now under the National Trust.

How did you find all the Art Deco-style items?

The client sourced a lot of it and I just put it together for him. I gave him some idea of what I thought should be done, but he really had a vision of what he wanted it to look like and it was just a matter of bringing it all together.

How well did you work together on the design?

I've done work for Stewart before, so that made it easier. He knew exactly what he wanted, so it was just a matter of deciding where the borders would go and how to finish them off. We did throw some ideas around, for instance the colours in the design.

Why did you put in the dummy wall?

We wanted to make the most of the small space. My suggestion was to build that wall all the way up. We put a little cupboard up top to make it look as if it's meant to be there, and put the cistern behind it so the toilet doesn't sit out too far and the piping is hidden.

Did this bathroom take particularly long to renovate?

These types of jobs generally do. What took longest was the actual preparation, because we had to take out a bit of brickwork. There was a cupboard made out of a brick wall, which was a bit unusual. It wasn't structural; it was just sitting there, so we had to take that out to make the bathroom look bigger.

Stewart, the home owner

Why did you redo this bathroom?

The house's Art Deco style was beautiful, but the bathroom was run down and didn't match. It's a heritage-listed house, built in 1937, and was the showroom and the drafting offices of AV Jennings. When I bought the house, the bathroom was worn out and everything was starting to leak.

Did you know exactly how you wanted it to look?

I had a floor plan in mind and knew how I wanted the bathroom to work. I knew it would involve taking out a wall, but I still wanted it to look original. I don't like houses where the front is original but the inside is modern; the two styles just scream at each other.

How did you make the bathroom bigger?

The original bathroom had this ridiculous little shower cubicle and it also had a separate bath. Every time you turned around in the shower, your elbows hit the walls. So by putting a showerhead in over the top of the spa, we've created plenty of room. It's easy to maintain and it's much more spacious.

So you used modern fittings in an older style?

Yes, we've got upgraded fittings and fixtures. The vanity unit is all black marble and the cabinets have a shrink-wrap, high-gloss vinyl finish. The style of the Art Deco bathroom tiles and everything matches; nothing looks out of place. The bathroom is in a style that's complementary to the house.

Did Arthur pretty much stick to your ideas?

He didn't change much. We started with a blank sheet of paper because we gutted the whole place; even the ceiling came out. One of the walls was rebuilt with the door in a different place - the only things left in the bathroom after it was gutted were the windows.

For your own modern or designer Art Deco style bathroom renovations, talk to a professional bathroom designer and renovator: