Styling A Bathroom With Vintage
As with most of my Interior Design I love to source vintage and thrifted pieces, the bathroom was no exception. I love hunting for bargains that is the thrill of the chase for me, and knowing I paid so very little for something that looks a million dollars.
The lighting, the shower screen both came from ebay. The vintage eyeball spot lights were pre loved and £5.00 for four, which represented a saving of £45 on the lighting alone. The shower screen was a bargain too and I only had to buy a replacement seal for the bottom edge, also on ebay for a couple of pounds, with things like glass it doesn’t really damage easily so it pays to look on places like ebay, gumtree, shpock and facebook market place to grab yourself some real bargains.
The Lan Barr dolphin range, original to the 70s gives a real luxury, Hollywood regency feel to the bathroom, I find that by sourcing vintage pieces it really gives an air of authenticity, not to mention cost effectiveness, I would never be able to purchase 24k gold fittings, however I found several of the style I had my eye on at a car boot last summer for 50p each, they cleaned up amazingly with a bit of Elbow Grease spray and an old toothbrush, I also found some shelf supports and the bathroom hooks and toilet roll holder by thrifting, all I needed to do was to buy some smoked Perspex replacement shelves and a sprung toilet roll holder – again off ebay starting from as little as £2.
The glass finger plates, were a last-minute purchase from ebay, for £4.99 and the door knob was found in a box of rubbish, a quick polish with some brasso and it looks perfect and so expensive.
The amazing original smoked glass mirror above the toilet, was also an ebay find for £20, a complete bargain, I love the eternal line decoration which reminds me of paintwork from custom cars of the era. As with all vintage piece this isn’t prefect, the mirror itself has a bit of foxing on the glass, but this doesn’t bother me. I love that these pieces have stood the test of time and they are usually better made and better quality than pieces made today.
I styled the bathroom with plants (my favourite, which I repurposed from other rooms), this helps the scheme pull together and look more lived in and less sterile. The Kenita palms were perfect for the vibe I was going for, which was pure 70’s Biba meets Studio 54 and gives and air of Hollywood glamour.
I did struggle to get any brass hanging plant pots that I liked, I looked on the usual places and couldn’t find any for less than £45 and even they weren’t quite right. I found a low-cost solution by making my own from gold coloured metal plant pots from Wilkos at £2 each and some chain and hooks I purchased for a few pounds off ebay. (I’ll cover making these in another blog post).
The brass egrets on the window were thrifted, you can often kind similar, low cost at car boots or yard sales, yet they look oh so stylish. The disco balls were sourced from car boot sales last summer as was the naked woman on the floor, which is actually a concrete garden sculpture that I bought for £3 last summer, she wasn’t fairing well outside in the frost so I bought her in and gave her a new lease of life with a coat of rustoleum spray paint. I made the blind myself from a piece of vintage fabric called 'Yoko' , I love the Japanese influence to it and the colours match perfectly.
I estimate that the accessories for the bathroom totalled around £50 for everything, which goes to show that style can be achieved on a tight budget if you hunt for it.
Big Love
Estelle x