Bathroom Designs – Milan’s design fair
The world’s biggest interior design fair, Milan’s Salone del Mobile, showcases the very latest in furniture, kitchen and bathroom design.
This year’s show has just ended, having given an excellent insight into what is and will be happening in bathrooms around the world.
While bathroom items such as taps, basins and baths were more of a variation on the current theme, technology really grabbed the innovation spotlight.
Some highlights included:
Invisible heating – using the shower enclosure. A film sandwiched between two planes of glass heats the outside of the glass only (a towel rail is attached to this side). The entire room, along with the towels, is heated without any intrusion on space or aesthetics by conventional heating appliances.
Lighting – lighting has become much more of a statement piece while still being extremely practical and efficient. Fittings have become sumptuous, sleek, decorative and sometimes over the top! But lighting is incorporated into every aspect of the bathroom from the water coming out of taps and showers to inlaid decorative LEDs in shower screens – just choose your own customised design.
Decoration – wall embellishment and decoration was huge. Large installations featuring intricate patterning, in natural and man-made materials, plus highly coloured designs – also available in tiles.
Integration – and the greater utilisation of space. A top pick was the integration of a toilet, bidet and beautiful storage space for toiletries in a low-slung ‘credenza’. Looking like a very sleek piece of furniture – crafted in either all white or natural timber – its real use is only revealed when one of the lids is lifted. Not one hint of any plumbing.
Storage – the race is on to create more storage space in the bathroom and designers are concentrating on those previously wasted bits of space in corners and hard to reach areas etc One idea, for skinny areas and corners, were a series of what looked like floor to ceiling mirrors. A simple flip of the mirror revealed multiple storage areas in vibrant hues – pink, turquoise, yellow, red, pink.