We used clever design to get around a low ceiling Heather Dyson turned awkward angles into a bathroom bursting with character
Heather and Peter Dyson turned their small bathroom with awkward angles and a slanted ceiling into one with plenty of character and smart features
Heather and Peter Dyson’s house started with two bedrooms and a tiny bathroom, but they’ve now extended their 1930s home to twice its size. It took a year of work and the rooms now include an en suite shower and a new family bathroom. Heather admits that the bathroom still isn’t huge, but they overcame the main challenge, which was its awkward shape. ‘The bathroom is an L-shape with a skeiling, which means that the ceiling slants down to meet the wall at a low angle – it really dominated the room when we first bought the house.’
The couple asked the designers at Bathroom Eleven for their help in creating a new layout. ‘There was very limited space for a shower and the only place to put it was to the left of the door,’ says Heather. ‘That was where the ceiling was high enough for someone to be able to stand upright. It’s also where the room goes further back than the door, making it L-shaped.’
A designer from Bathroom Eleven gave their advice on this tricky project. ‘Normally, I would have designed a glass enclosure with a sliding door for the shower,’ the designer explains. ‘But a door wouldn’t have worked here as the shower area is only 1.53 square metres, and there was a window in the way. So, we installed two glass panels instead.’
It was also tricky to fit the bath into the space, as realistically it could only go in one place, which was to the right of the door. ‘Even then, it’s only around 150cm long,’ says Heather. ‘You can’t lie down in it and can only sit at one end because if you sat at the other, you’d bang your head on the ceiling!’
The Dysons might have been limited when it came to the layout, but they didn’t
allow this to get in the way of their style choices. The couple didn’t want a plain white bathroom, so they chose something with character instead, which is in keeping with the quirky layout of the space. The basin sits on a bespoke cabinet with pewter handles, which is topped with natural oak, and the taps are a traditional Victorian style. However, the Roca Duplo toilet is a modern wall-hung version as Heather wanted it to be as simple and unnoticeable as possible. ‘It’s a floating design and discreetly tucked away in a corner,’ says Heather. ‘We didn’t want any pipes to be on show.’
The cistern and the soil pipe are concealed behind a faux wall, which is covered with grey metro tiles that continue around the room. The couple chose these tiles for a neutral background and added a patchwork wall in the shower. ‘We found some lovely antiquelooking tiles in soft blues and greys from Porcelanosa – they were exactly what we wanted, and they add character to the space,’ says Heather. Now, the Dyson’s unusually shaped bathroom has charm and style.