KITCHENS & BATHS

A graphic black-and-white toile lends vintage style to a contemporary bathroom.

In an old house or one built in a revival style, default to the look of early 20th-century bathrooms with white fixtures. These bathrooms were designed for a new-old house in Vermont, one loosely patterned after Hildene in nearby Manchester, which was built in 1905 for Robert Todd Lincoln. Interior designer Amy Thebault designed five bathrooms for the house, each of them classic and traditional but with a twist. Every bathroom has white subway tiles, and all bath fittings are from the same suite by Waterworks. Marble mosaic floors and marble countertops are practical if luxurious classics. Owing to such details as well as exposed plumbing, the rooms look as if they could date to the early 20th century.

Still, each bath has its own identity, created with wall coverings and textiles. Thebault, who was trained as a scenic painter, admits to a preference for wall coverings over paint. “Adding color to the upper walls gives each bathroom a finished, three-dimensional look,” she says.

1. A SMALL ROOM IS FUN

A powder room in the house shows that this is a perfect place to indulge. Even expensive wallpaper is affordable if you don’t need much of it. You won’t get tired of strong color or pattern in a room used just minutes at a time.

2. BLACK & WHITE VIRTUE

White tile and plumbing fixtures and a black-and-white scheme will always be classic. Shiny chrome and glass add another dimension. With its pictorial pattern, toile is an excellent choice for an otherwise restrained room.

3. WELL FURNISHED

Using an antique table as a vanity (left), adding a lamp, hanging artwork: furnishing a bathroom ties it to the rest of the house. Here, antique botanical prints that introduce color to the room are treated to deep ebonized and gilded frames.

4. TOUCH OF INFORMALITY

Tile around the tub changes over to a beaded-board wainscot in the rest of the room. Painted white, it is both sophisticated and cottageinformal, and another classic finish for service rooms in old houses.