Rickmansworth: Family Bathroom

The client called Tile in Progress for the tiling and waterproofing on this family bathroom in Rickmansworth, part of a four-bedroom property. The tile specification is built around a single material used consistently across every surface in the room: a gloss marble-effect porcelain slab at 1200 x 2800mm and just 6mm thick. At that format and that thickness, this is a demanding tile to work with. The substrate preparation and waterproofing had to be carried out to a precise standard before any slab went up, because a tile this large will not tolerate any variation in the surface behind it.
The slabs cover the walls, the floor, the basin top, the shower bench and the shower niche, so the same material carries the entire room from floor to ceiling and surface to surface. All wall corners throughout the bathroom were mitred, so every edge in the room is a clean 45-degree join in the slab face with no trim covering it. On a tile this large and this thin, mitring requires very precise cutting and careful installation to hold the angle cleanly across the full height of the slab.

The floor has a panel framed by brass trims set flush into the tile surface, which gives the floor a considered architectural detail without adding any visual weight to the scheme. The walk-in shower includes a corner-to-corner niche running the full width of the enclosure, tiled in the same slab material with an LED strip set behind it. The toilet area has its own feature wall with LED strip lighting behind the tile surface. Both lighting details were planned into the setting out before the slabs were installed so the LED positions, the tile joints and the slab edges all align correctly in the finished room.
The bench inside the shower and the basin top are both surfaced in the same marble-effect slab as the walls and floor. Using one material across every horizontal and vertical surface in a bathroom of this size creates a room that reads as a single resolved interior rather than a collection of separate elements.
The brass accessories and fittings throughout sit in good contrast with the warm cream and grey tones of the marble-effect slab. The project was completed in three weeks.