Last week Frankfurt welcomed around 200,000 visitors, including ourselves, to ISH, The World’s Leading Trade Fair for The Bathroom Experience. The trade show invited design experts to experience and view some of the most impressive collections from around the world alongside the latest products, technologies and solutions launching onto the market.
This year’s themes for the bathroom were ‘health’, ‘comfort’, ‘individual’, ‘digital’ and ‘responsible’ and these themes certainly ticked all the boxes for us.
However, the theme that really resonated with us was ‘The Individual Bathroom’. Designing a personalised bathroom, individual to the client is essential to what we do. This doesn’t mean extravagant furnishings or particularly original ideas, but a bathroom that is tailored around the needs and wants of the client.
The Grohe Rainshower SmartControl 360 shower system offers the most personalised shower experience yet. Remembering your personalised shower patterns and water temperatures, whether it’s a blood pumping cold blast after a hot gym session or a comfortably warm, massaging spray after a long day at work; with one push of a button your personalised shower is ready and waiting for you.
On the bathing front, the BetteLoft built-in bath is perfectly designed with precise contours to fit into the tapered surfaces of a loft space. This means it can offer a more comfortable soak for those with smaller loft bathrooms, making use of the limited space.
Brass was, once again, a key look with copper and gold also making appearances, particularly in brassware. These warm metallics naturally then paired with darker bathroom settings, creating a moody look. A bold step away from the traditional light, white bathrooms we are used to seeing.
Villeroy & Boch’s new collection ‘Finion’ highlighted exactly this, with its black furniture with gold niches and brassware and a holistic lighting concept to create a harmonious light stage. This indirect lighting of the shelves as well as backlighting of the cabinets and mirrors creates a different, softer light not often seen in bathrooms, right down to the elegant mirror light with surrounding LED lighting. All controlled by remote control.
For a more personalised experience, a mobile phone charging station for smartphones can be integrated into the side cabinet and shelves or an optional Bluetooth sound system can be built into the mirror.
The variety of individualisation options in Finion are designed to meet the growing demands of a modern lifestyle in every single detail.
It wasn’t just colour either, textured surfaces made a striking appearance across brassware and sanitaryware. These Gessi taps offer a variety of tactile finishes from dimples to quilting, offering the ultimate in bathroom personalisation.
This BetteLoft Ornament bath in enamelled steel not only looks stunning but also demonstrates the tremendous adaptability of glazed titanium steel.
Bette definitely excelled with the textures on their sanitaryware with their Lux Oval Couture range. Upholstered in a comfortable, durable fabric in three colour options, comfort and personalisation define this collection.
It’s clear to see that the bathroom has become a room that is now treasured within the home, a place that is to be designed and personalised around the client. Consistent with our approach to designing bathrooms, we are looking forward to having some of these new collections in our new St Albans showroom opening later this year.
