romantic inspiration

They had already swapped the once small bathroom with the much larger mud room-style laundry before they started looking for ideas on how to redecorate their new bathroom space.

What appealed to them about the magazine photograph was the elegance of the room and the fact that the style would suit their old stucco house. “We needed to keep it in sympathy with the old farmhouse. We wanted it to be clean and airy but not ultra modern,” says Dorothy.

They already had a clawfoot bath, which is the only fitting they reused. They had it resurfaced and the exterior painted in Resene Enamacryl waterborne enamel tinted to Resene Triple Masala.

The feature that really caught their eye was the Brocante II 45932 wallpaper from Resene with its large stylised leaf pattern and subtle colouring. “It adds interest without being too in-your-face,” says Dorothy. “The bathroom’s not huge so we didn’t want to put anything too bold in there. It’s elegant. We fell in love with it.”

The room had previously had tongue-and-groove panelling to dado height on some of the walls but in the process of replacing the old linings with a waterproof plaster board, that was removed and replaced with new tongue-and-groove, now painted in Resene Enamacryl tinted to Resene White.

Much thought went into the flooring, and whether or not to keep the existing rimu floorboards. In the end, Dorothy and Dennis decided they wouldn’t suit the overall look so chose Lavange Anthracite tiles from Tile Warehouse. A new pedestal basin and toilet carry through traditional styling with their fluted detailing and bevelled corners. A storage cupboard was cleverly fitted into the space left by an old doorway. To top it all off, a chandelier from Lighting Plus adds luxury and style (there’s a smaller version in the guest toilet), while internal timber shutters not only enhance the look but also cover the cream aluminium windows that had been previously inserted into the house.

“We couldn’t find curtains that would suit and a roller blind just wouldn’t go so we felt the shutters added to the French style of the bathroom. And we couldn’t rip out all of the aluminium windows so the best idea was to cover them up.”

For more fabulous wallpapers, see the wallpaper library on the Resene website or your Resene ColorShop.

Top tip... Resene SpaceCote Flat Kitchen & Bathroom combines anti-bacterial silver protection and MoulDefender mould inhibitor, perfect for minimising unwanted nasties in kitchens, bathrooms and laundries.

Accessories: Chandelier: Lighting Plus. Tiles: Lavange Anthracite from Tile Warehouse. Wallpaper: Brocante 11 (45932). Handbasin and WC: Mico Bathrooms.

pictures: Mark Harris
words: Sharon Newey

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