Bathroom of the Week: A Former Burberry Designer’s Playful Family Bath, Before and After

Adding a firehose of color to her family’s Edwardian house came naturally to Natasha Lyon. Not be confused with the American actress of nearly the same name, Lyon has a fashion degree and an impressive resume as an accessories director and designer—for Burberry, Victoria Beckham, and Acne Studios, among others.

In 2019, having just left London with their two young kids for the seaside town of Margate in Kent, Lyon and her husband, John, founded their own creative studio, Appreciation Project, devoted to offering inventive dried floral bouquets and vases. Lyon used their newly invigorated home as a backdrop for their wares, and soon her interior design career was launched.

We particularly like Lyon’s family bath and shower room refresh, which began with the purchase of a vintage pink pedestal sink on Facebook Marketplace.

Photography courtesy of Appreciation Project (@appreciationprojectuk).

Bathroom

Above: The house came with a grand but sterile spa bath, stainless steel prison toilet included (scroll to the end for a glimpse as it was). Lyon’s Facebook Marketplace sink score—for €61—became the room’s new focal point. “It’s a 1930s salvage from an old house; there are loads like it on eBay and Marketplace,” she wrote to an admirer on Instagram.

Lyon paired the sink with an outsized checked floor and  a diminutive backsplash: a lineup of five playfully patterned tiles that “lend a joyous statement,” as Lyon puts it. “With two small children, we spend a lot of time in the bathroom. I wanted it to be playful and to feel as welcoming as the other rooms in the house.” And as in the other rooms, there are glimpses of Lyon’s vintage colored glass collection on display (but out of reach).

Above: The hand-painted backsplash tiles are by artist Hal Haines, who sells them on Glassette for £30 each as Tile Trivets (unfortunately, they’re currently sold out). Haines’s work, he writes, is “inspired by the V&A ceramics gallery, Sicilian antique shops, and my Grandma Ann’s Sunday lunch tableware.” See his latest @halhaines.studio.

The vintage mirror and side table are from one of Lyon’s go-to local sources, Junk Deluxe of Margate, and she found the Shaker stool at a flea market. The Hudson Reed Chrome and Glass Shelf is from Victorian Plumbing.
Above: The glam stainless steel and ceramic bathtub came with the room and is the one element Lyon left in place. She created the floor pattern with encaustic cement tiles from Otto Tiles: “I designed them into an oversized checkerboard, conscious that a small pattern would be too busy.”

The Chrome Heated Towel Rail is from Victorian Plumbing. Lyon bought the room’s vintage wall hangings on eBay. The checked organic cotton towel is by Baina. Lyon stitched the striped café curtain herself.

Above: The vintage armchair was originally sources on Etsy as a nursing chair; while another room was being painted, it got “plonked by the bath” and ended up staying put. “It makes the room feel cozy and relaxing; the velvet will eventually be replaced with a stripe or Josef Frank print from in Svenkst Tenn.”

Note the built-in storage by the door and the cupboard tucked under the adjacent wall mirror.

Above: There’s an adjoining full bath with a shower, with a floor in a contrasting stepped pattern of encaustic cement tiles in aubergine, sky blue, cream, and mustard from Otto Tiles.

Lyon says she “initially was going to play it safe in the shower room and only use white. But it was actually very gray and felt jarring with the rest of the house. So I threw out that concept and spent ages placing samples on the floor and seeing how different light bounced off them. I’m so glad I stuck to my roots.”

Above: Lyon balanced the color and pattern with a traditional Wall-Mounted Cloakroom Basin from Victorian Plumbing. On the shower door, she matched the glazed blush pink wall tiles with Ashes of Rose, a red-brown in a “brilliant finish called Intelligent Matte” from Little Greene.

The 1970s ceramic Twyford mirror was initially an eBay purchase. It arrived smashed beyond repair and Lyon eventually found its match on Etsy. The milk glass sconce is from Vintage Mischief.

Above: The wall tiles, glazed to look hand painted, are Fellini Argilla Gloss from Claybrook: “They create a lovely warming effect.”

Before

Above: The previous owners had introduced the two-room spa bath setup—but, as Lyon says, “it was very awkward.” What looks like a metal spine was a wall radiator “perhaps from the 1990s.” Lyon added shelves and a door to the niche under the mirror and made it into an “Alice in Wonderland cabinet.” Above: The gleaming tub came with a companion—”the prison toilet was an interesting choice,” says Lyon, “iconic perhaps,  but too cold. We sold it on eBay.” The sink cupboard and hanging rack were both out-of-scale off-notes. Above: The shower room was previously covered in the same outsized white tile as the bath.

For more inspiration peruse the Remodelista Bathroom archive, including:

• The Reclaimed Bath: 8 Favorite Retrouvius Designs Featuring Vintage Components
• Steal This Look: A Graphic Bathroom with Vintage Charm
• 10 Standout Bathrooms with Retr0 Colored Fixtures

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