bathroom edition: light, bright & glamorous

Let me tell you about the state of my bathroom until a week ago. My flat was built in 1954, and the bathroom more or less unchanged since bore many scars of many decades of use. Cramped design, chipped enamel, pathetic water pressure, permanently dirty grout, tangled visible pipework, in a word - hideous. Of course over the years we've tried various things to update the place, tiles, flooring, a lick of paint here and there, jaunty accessories -all very well but frankly not cutting the mustard. So after several years of scrimping and saving, a great deal of mind numbing research and interviewing various builders I'm currently in the dusty midst of a big old renovation job, ripping out and replacing everything. I won't pretend its all going perfectly to plan as anyone who's entered into any type of job like this knows that's simply not the way things roll. But, fingers crossed by the end of the week I should have sparkling new bathroom so I thought I'd share a selected number of the images I've saved during my planning process which I've used as inspiration to design my own space. In terms of aesthetic, I'm going for minimal and bright with touches of glamour to soften the chance of it of becoming too sterile, so here's my collection of light, bright and glamorous bathrooms.

I love the fact that this room has a minimal almost industrial style and yet is still very glamorous. That highly polished looking floor is to die for. I clipped this image for inspiration way before I ever considered blogging about bathrooms, and for the life of me cannot find a credit for it and can't quite make out the logo at the bottom of the page.

via Desire to Inspire

I'm not sure why, but other than the taps giving it away I was quite surprised to find this almost clinically bright space accessorised with Venetian mirrors had been designed by Phillipe Stark as I always associate him with more quirky, humorous designs. I'm sat on a Stark designed Louis Ghost chair right now as I type!

What can I say? I love the light gleaming mosaic tile, The cool opaque glass cabinets, the built in open storage, and chunky bevelled mirror which is an idea I've adapted for my own bathroom. Unfortunately another image I'd sloppily saved this for myself and now can't find a proper credit for, if anyone can help out or knows of a blog called Gilt & Gloss (which google doesn't seem to want to help me with), I'd appreciate it.

Via Decorpad

Less minimal in terms of the mixture of materials and textures used in this room but I think the blend works well. Again there's another show-piece mirror and plenty of storage around the vanity unit, also a ceiling mounted shower head which must be pretty darn nice to get drenched by.

Via Desire to Inspire

This room is close to perfect for me in terms of styling. A clean white on white bone structure brought to life with gorgeous touches of gold. Love the idea of having a chandelier in the bathroom, such a nice antidote to the usual utilitarian bathroom lighting. Perfect glass shelves to store towels, lotions and potions offset with a collection of old gilt frames. Also note there's a cute little tam tam stool in the shower, perfect to perch on if the business of luxuriating in the shower is just too much effort.