Here in the UK, we have some of the smallest bathrooms in Europe. This means it’s not uncommon to come up against challenging spaces and unique floor layouts that seemingly prohibit your true design potential. Designing a bathroom should centre around practicality, function and style - three factors that come to life with the support of true professionals. When British Architect, Laura Jane Clark, became our Brand Ambassador, we knew we needed to utilise her extensive experience and style to our customer’s benefit. And so the ‘Inspire Your Bathroom’ series was born.

In these posts, Laura takes typically challenging bathroom spaces and transforms them into havens of beauty and style. The second episode in our series focuses on designing a large, spacious and elegant loft bathroom.

Laura Jane Clark X The Shower Lab - LOFT BEDROOM / Bathroom

The Shower Lab Brand Ambassador, Laura Jane Clark

“Next in my wee series of bathroom design and layout inspiration as Brand Ambassador of The Shower Lab is a loft bedroom suite in a typical semi or terraced house conversion. I have shared my plan layout drawing - in my book The Handbook of Home Design, I talk about how to read and draw your own plans and what all the symbols mean. Available now from all reputable book stores.

More often than not, the drainage is at the back of the house. So if you are putting an ensuite bathroom in the loft conversion, the easiest place is at the back of the loft conversion. BUT that means it gets the best of the head height, light and views out at the top of the house. Because it is a bathroom, it usually has a frosted window so you miss all of that anyway.

SO....

I have worked on this layout for the last few months and would like to share it with you.

By utilising the width of the loft extension, the shower room can go into the sloped area, with a walk-in wardrobe next to it. Rather than a traditional skylight, a floor-to-ceiling internal window means you can see out to that beautiful view when in the shower, and feel a little ....oh la la too! By having the bed set forward a little, a curtain can pull across that whole wall to make the bedroom feel wonderfully enclosed and cosy. The Made2Measure The Shower Lab View 01 Fixed Screen in brushed gold means it will be manufactured to fit your space exactly. Perfection!

Turning the access stair up means you can have a skylight above that will flood the whole staircase with light - right down through the centre of the house. In addition, stopping the stair short of the back wall of the extension allows you to sneak a little seating/window seat space with inbuilt storage to give a real boutique hotel suite kind of feel.

The drainage can then run through the floor or tuck in behind the stair.’

Q&A with Laura Jane Clark

Can you discuss the drainage situation in loft bathrooms in a bit more detail? How to identify where it sits and the challenges it presents etc.

More often than not, drainage is usually located at the back of more house types, usually looking out over a garden or open space.  By connecting through the floor rather than putting the bathroom on the rear elevation, it allows you to open up any loft extension to maximise the views out with little or no overlooking.

Why would the M2M TSL service work so well for this room?

Due to the angled ceiling, the M2M service is ideal to create a complete bespoke shower screen for a unique space.

We love the pocket door idea - can you tell us the benefits of these when creating two separate s spaces from an open-plan room?

Having flexibility to open up or close spaces off is ideal especially between bathrooms and bedrooms.  Pocket doors are fabulous because they don’t take up any floor area, and when hidden away they allow lots of light in and views between the areas giving a hotel suite feel.

Keep an eye out on our Journal and social media pages for the next episode of Inspire Your Bathroom with Laura Jane Clark.