DOUBLE BILLING
When designer Kristina Pickford refitted her apartment in the historic Dilworth building, the bathroom changed completely, along with the rest of the 94-square-metre space. “It’s loosely in the same position, but we made it long, changed the entry points, and raised the ceiling,” she says. “We pulled out all the walls and rebuilt it.” It’s definitely modern, but it suits the heritage feel of the Dilworth building – what were you trying to achieve? KRISTINA PICKFORD I wanted something that wasn’t too 2010s – I didn’t want you to look at it and date it. So there’s a steel cavity slider to match those throughout the apartment, and 150mm x 150mm tiles – they probably would [originally] have had 100mm x 100mm, and not too many. I wanted it to be timeless. How hard is it to do such a wholesale renovation of a space like this in an apartment? [Laughs] I think the worst thing is that it’s on Custom Street – you’ve got no parking and a lift, and contractors don’t want to work in the city. But we got there. As both en suite and guest WC, how does the space function? We incorporated the guest toilet into the bathroom, so it acts as both. There are now two doors between us and the bathroom – personally I’m not big on en suites, I like a bit of separation. And the hallway becomes our wardrobe – in a way it’s a dressing room when we’re there on our own, but it’s also separate from the living area when we have guests. How did you deal with storage? There’s shallow storage behind the mirrors and more under the vanity, behind the aluminium powder-coated doors. There’s also a vintage Polish medical cabinet from the Vitrine. Tell us about the countertop. It’s Caesarstone – I wanted something that could form the whole thing. It’s neutral and looks stony, but I didn’t want a big lump of marble. It would have felt too slick.