Bathroom of the Week: A Romantic London Bath Made from Vintage Parts
“It’s most people’s favorite room in the house,” said Michelle McKenna of the master bathroom in her Georgian London home—including its residents: “Last weekend, it was truly a family room: my two youngest boys were in the bathtub, with my older son entertaining them, and I was in the shower, if you can believe it,” she said.
We can see why; we featured the bathroom in the Remodelista Book and it’s been one of our favorites since. It was designed by McKenna and architect Rahesh Ram of Nau Architecture, who said that designing the bathroom “was a wonderfully iterative process. It all came about from the found antiques, and we started to collage the room together from there.”
For McKenna, owner of Space & Grace (a blended color consultancy and bodywork practice), the bathroom started to take shape when she found a botanical, chinoiserie-inspired tile panel for the shower complete with songbirds and butterflies. Let’s take a look.
Photography by Matthew Williams for Remodelista.
Above: Matching pedestal sinks sit beneath an Italian mirror from Retrouvius, flanked by sconces from Domino Antik in Stockholm.
Above: McKenna found the green vintage trash bin from dealer Ben Southgate in London.
Above: The mismatched nickel faucets are from Horus.
Above: A blue-and-white enamel soap dish perched on the corner of one of the sinks.
Above: McKenna found the extra-long clawfoot tub from Dorset Reclamation.
Above: The tub is painted in Raw Earth from the Kevin McCloud collection by Fired Earth. The radiator was sourced from antiques dealer Edward Haws.
Above: The armoire is an antique French “marriage cupboard” with a detail of two birds just above the doors. The walls are painted in Farrow & Ball’s Skimming Stone.
Above: A 19th century nursing chair reupholstered in linen from Designer’s Guild occupies a corner of the bathroom.
Above: McKenna bought the African laundry basket from a US-based website, but notes that similar baskets are now available from Garden Trading in the UK.
Above: Antiques dealer Haws found a vintage French door on one of his sourcing trips, and McKenna had a narrow bath cabinet made to fit the door. “Finding the French hinge was a bit of a task,” she said.
Above: The shower is clad in a floral tile panel from Fired Earth, made and painted by hand in England. The shower floor is slate.
Above: The pattern, called Chelsworth, is a collaboration between ceramist Alice Gibbons and decorative artist Adam Calkin, inspired by chinoiserie wallpaper patterns of the 19th century.
Above: McKenna purchased the shower tile early on in the project, so it informed the color palette for the rest of the room.
Above: On both sides of the shower is a drip tray of water-resistant teak.
See the rest of McKenna’s house in the Remodelista Book and in our post The Power of Pastels: A London House Reimagined. For more on using floral patterns at home, see:
- Expert Advice: Patterns, Prints, and Color Pops—Erica Tanov Explains How to Have It All
- American Gothic: A Hudson Valley Home Reborn
- Common Ground: A Chinese-Style Family Compound in California
