Oriental air

When contemplating a remodeling project, the shape and size of the available space will clearly have a strong influence over the design. However, other features, including adjacent rooms or outlooks, also play their part.

The owner of this bathroom had lived for some time in Japan, and began renovations to the small Victorian cottage by landscaping a small courtyard and giving it a Japanese feel. Designer Royston Wilson was called in to assist with the project.

A small, narrow, ground-level bathroom, which doubled as a guest bathroom, overlooked the courtyard through floor-to-ceiling windows.

"The owner wanted the bathroom to be more functional and to maximize the view into the courtyard. Placement of fittings had been awkward in the original bathroom; and, if the door was left open, the view from the hall was directed towards the toilet," says Wilson.

Wilson redesigned the space, allowing the bather to look directly onto the courtyard. The shower, in an alcove on the opposite wall, also looks straight out into the courtyard, and the toilet is now tucked away into a space between the shower and hall.

A special solution has created a two-way door into the bathroom. Two door frames, one for the bathroom and one for the toilet, and a single door with a rollerball latch, allow the door to have two purposes, acting as either the main door to the bathroom or the toilet door, and ensuring the toilet is never visible from the hall. And when the main door is open, the view is into the courtyard.

Within the bathroom, a tiled wall on one side of the shower enclosure provides a place to cantilever a slim vanity, and a mirrored cabinet is recessed into the wall space above.

Story by: Mary Webb