I have been cautious about embracing terrazzo. Or is it really re-embracing? Once I moved past my aging public toilet flash backs, I could appreciate its beauty and functionality. The speckles are very forgiving of those with less than adequate domestic abilities and motivation. Unlike dark tiles and light tiles (both of which show every speck of dirt), terrazzo’s speckles hide everything!
A recent renovation in Biscayne, Florida has convinced me that terrazzo is less aging public toilet and more 1930s grandeur! https://www.englishtapware.com.au/journal/kate-walker-design-biscayne-mount-martha
This house has made me realise that it is really the Caribbean Colonial style that I love, not the ubiquitous Hamptons style. I adore everything about the interiors of this house, except for the very strong choices in marble. Perhaps they will grow on me. The terrazzo throughout really calls to me.
The interior designer who created this house, Kate Walker of Kate Walker Design, has some very good advice:
“If you do make a mistake, the hard finishes are the most expensive elements to replace. You only get one chance to install flooring, wall tiles, kitchen bench tops and splashbacks – and tapware which is one of the most frequently used fittings in a home. So focus your budget on investing in quality hard finishes, fixtures and fittings – because you can always build up the furniture, decorator items and artwork at a later stage when funds allow.”
Kitchen
Kate Walker on kitchens and the current obsession with Butler’s Pantries:
“In the kitchen a deep island bench is a must-have. People often think they need a long island bench but it’s the depth that’s important so you can create two zones, one on either side. And whereas a lot of people believe that a butler’s pantry is a must have, I actually subscribe to a very different thought process. If a kitchen is well designed, we don’t need to find room for a butler’s pantry. The concept is quite antiquated and conjures up the idea of hired help. It separates you from your family completely. To have the woman or the man of the kitchen hidden in a cupboard whilst preparing and cooking is isolating. I much prefer to design kitchen joinery with a concealed appliance cupboard, a concealed breakfast cupboard and a built-in bar.”
Bathrooms
There are so many different styles of bathrooms throughout this grand home. There are many style choices that may need braver souls than most renovating a more modest home, but it is the trailblazers like Kate Walker who provide us all with snippets of ideas that we can take away. Stay with me here, I have saved the dreamy Powder Room until last….
Most of us have a Main Bathroom, if we’re lucky an Ensuite, and if we’re really lucky a Powder Room (or at least an extra toilet in the Laundry). Some however have the luxury of an Ensuite, a Girls’ Bathroom, a Boy’s Bathroom, a Pool Bathroom, a Laundry AND a Powder Room. If you have the luxury of that many loo options, then you are likely wealthy enough to be very daring with your finishes. You can always change it out if you don’t like the result! For those of us on more modest budgets, we can still take away some of these ideas.
Master Ensuite
The Master Ensuite has a number of features that are both timeless and attainable for most of us.
Classic freestanding pedestal basins will never date and save the cost of bespoke built in cabinetry (and the sheer soullessness of most available off the shelf cabinetry). The basin top does not need to be natural stone; composite stone can deliver the same look at a far cheaper cost and is a more durable finish.
Mirrors provide a great opportunity to introduce uniqueness in bathrooms. Please, I implore you, look past bathroom suppliers for your mirrors. Mirror specialists, furniture stores and antique stores are all rich picking grounds for some sensational mirrors.
This Master Ensuite uses very little wall tiling, and then only in wet areas. And uses a tiled skirting to prevent the mop creep from the floor to the paintwork. This is a softer look than a fully tiled Bathroom and is delivered for a fraction of the cost. Of course, it is only practical for those walls not likely to receive daily splashing. This is manageable in an ensuite only used by one or two sensible adults. Choose your untiled walls more carefully in bathrooms used by children and teenagers, although the Bathoom and Kitchen paint available from all paint companies is very forgiving. I say this from experience.
Wooden flooring can also be appropriate in low use Bathrooms and again is a softer look.
Don’t start me on wall hung lights in Bathrooms. I don’t like them. They are impracticable and unnecessary, and make me feel like I am in a generic five star hotel.
Girls’ Bathroom
I love the terrazzo floor tiles, tumbled Moroccan style wall tiles and white mirror in the Girls’ Bathroom. The pink in the floor tiles and on the bath and cabinet top could be significantly softened to deliver a more timeless result. Delete the wall hung light.
Boys’ Bathroom
Again, a softer colour in the highlight terrazzo floor tiles and the tumbled Moroccan style wall tiles would deliver a softer result in the Boys’ Bathroom. That blue toilet and basin will only be fun for five minutes, so I would not recommend. You have heard me on the wall hung lights.
Pool Room Bathroom
The Pool Room Bathroom pulls a much softer look together. The painted wall paneling is a timeless and affordable look and is practical and stylish with the painted skirting and terrazzo floor tiles. The mirror is delightful (again minus the wall hung light). And if I had a Pool Room, and by extension a Pool Room Bathroom, then I might just have a basin with blue highlighting and a blue door!
Laundry
This Laundry just works. White painted skirting and wall paneling, cupboard profiles to match the Kitchen, the blue door, and the chequerboard tiling in a tumbled look porcelain tile. This is a timeless look, an eminently usable space, and achievable for all of us.
Powder Room
As promised, I have saved the best till last. This is the Powder Room of my dreams. (Apart from the wall mounted lights which look like Paracetamol capsules.) The Gucci Heron wallpaper with Flamingo Pink background is just gorgeous. The freestanding basin is timeless. The mirror delivers style. The white painted skirting prevents mop creep and damage to the wallpaper. The chequerboard marble floor tiles pull it all together, and the same look could be achieved with porcelain tiles. Or terrazzo.
Rustle and Sway 