BATHROOM INSPIRATION
Ebbs and flows of designing a 5-star bathroom by LOUIS DUNCAN-HE There’s a very specific way we feel when inside a luxury 5-star bathroom. We’re instantly transported into a meditative state of mind, a place where the stressors and challenges of the day are not welcome. The ask from our homeowners on this project was to design an airy and elegant ensuite that would rival the feeling of a Four Seasons Hotel. Key challenges in the design planning included working with an off centered and undersized oval window above the vanity, a partition wall that divided the room in half, and a somewhat limited budget due to three additional floors in the renovation plans. Ultimately, by way of the principles of harmony and balance, visual hierarchy, and thoughtful decisions on where to splurge and save, we were able to create an intimate and chic 5-star haven for our homeowners. Bathrooms heavily rely on finishes due to the constraints around space and decorative furnishings. As a result, careful thought and consideration needs to be placed around each material being introduced to the space. With such a limited arsenal of design tools, establishing visual hierarchy is critical. Visual hierarchy is simply a way of 40 Edmonton Builder & Developer Annual 2022
ensuring the eyes know where to start and finish. Consider a featured article in a magazine (perhaps this one); there is a headline, sub-headline and body text. These components are clearly defined in form, colour or scale, which ultimately help us better appreciate and digest the story. If it were filled with multiple headlines, we wouldn’t know where to look, causing confusion and greatly diminishing its cohesion and impact. This is the same principle applied in designing a well designed room like this ensuite Very early on in the design process, we fell in love over luminous slabs of large format Calacatta gold porcelain tiles. Our original intention was to run them floor-to-ceiling on the main shower, vanity and bathtub walls. However, as our designs came to fruition, it became increasingly clear that we would achieve a far more impactful and cohesive story by limiting it’s usage. As a result, we reduced it’s quantity down to 1/3 on both the vanity and tub walls, and focused our efforts on fully cladding the feature wall in the glass panelled shower. Although it may seem counterintuitive, sometimes limiting the use of a special material in certain areas
