Black and white bathroom includes modern and traditional accents with touches of glamour

Bathrooms and powder rooms present an opportunity to break with a home's principal interior design. Alternatively, they can allow a designer to extend a concept and have some fun with it at the same time.

This bathroom and powder room are in a house that features traditional and modern spaces with a black-and-white palette, says interior designer and homeowner Dana Lane.

"All these themes can be seen to varying degrees in the family bathroom, which has a predominantly old-world emphasis, with some playful modern touches. A traditional dado rail and beadboard wall set the scene, and the high skirting boards featured elsewhere in the home are continued here.

"Two principal elements lead the design," says Lane. "We reclaimed an old dresser and gave it a new lease of life, painting it black and adding a white engineered stone benchtop. This solid piece is finished with a curved mixer tap and freestanding basin. The clawfoot bath is another old-world piece. This builds on the black-and-white scheme seen in the vanity and chequered floor tiles."

More contemporary accents include the clean-lined glass shower stall. Subway tiles used to line the interior are in a modern, large format, similar to the splashback in the kitchen. Reflection and sparkle provide modern glamour the room contains three contemporary mirrors, a Deco-style mirror over the vanity, and two other mirrors with frames decorated in reflective glass studs. The claw feet on the bath were dipped in chrome to make them shine.

The modest powder room has the same high skirting boards and Smoked Oak limewashed floors found in most rooms of the house. This space also features a large mirror, but both the washstand and tapware are contemporary. A large painting of butterflies brings colour and lightness to the space.

Story by: Charles Moxham