From Togo sofas to Sonneman lamps, vintage is taking over interiors. But your antique treasure shouldn’t be limited to your living room or bedroom. [Enter the vintage bathroom.] Whether it’s an old, free-standing cast-iron bathtub, an antique dresser repurposed as a vanity, or refurbished tiles that get a second life as floor or wall coverings, secondhand finds are wonderful to work with in this easily overlooked space.
Vintage elements can lend a room a certain warmth, opulence, and richness—something that is often needed in contemporary, hygienic, and practical bathrooms. So not only is it a more sustainable approach, it can often make for a more interesting bathroom. Convinced? If you’re ready to add a little old-world charm into your bathing area but need a little help getting started, consider these seven tips for crafting the perfect vintage bathroom.
Repurpose floor and wall coverings
Helping to create a cozy cocoon, an antique screen wraps around a freestanding tub in interior designer Bunny Williams’s bathroom.
Whether it’s antique tiles, old wooden floorboards, or a leftover piece of marble, a simple and surefire way to give your bathroom a charming retro aesthetic is to use reclaimed floor and wall coverings. The beauty of this strategy is that a small amount is usually all you need to create an exciting moment in the room.
“Bathrooms are typically small rooms and therefore perfect for using antique materials and remnants, which, after all, are often only available in relatively small quantities,” explains Adam Hills, who, together with his wife, Maria Speake, runs the London-based design studio and vintage store Retrouvius. “We’ve worked with everything from old misprinted sheets of paper from binderies to marble slabs from fireplaces to a variety of woods, including painted wooden boards, or iroko, in past projects. For one project we even used original subway signs, which turned out to have a glassy enamel surface that made a great shower wall!”
British design studio Retrouvius used reclaimed old wood panels to create this console.
Here, Retrouvius made use of old oak planks from a ship and installed them as benches in an onyx shower.
At the same time, Hills recommends paying close attention to the properties of a material when reusing it. “Hardwoods are more moisture resistant than softwoods, and marble is naturally less porous than other limestone,” he explains. “The advantage of recycled materials, however, is the special texture and unique story behind each recycled piece.”
Choose the right color palette
This bathroom by Buchanan Studio has the atmosphere of an inviting living room.
