The London Lounge

I am looking for suggestions on creating an elegant guest bathroom. What do you do at your own house?

My guest bathroom is fairly modest in size but I am trying to make the best use of it.

White orchids (artificial, I couldn't justify £30+ per week on fresh flowers just for the bathroom....)

Penhaligon's Quercus Hand Wash
Penhaligon's Quercus Hand Lotion
Penhaligon's Blenheim Bouquet Shampoo
Penhaligon's Blenheim Bouquet Shower Gel

Two sets of Agnes B toiletries (from Cathay Pacific)

Reading:
BP Portrait Awards 2010
The Oriental, Bangkok
The God of Small Things
Secret London
Ian Fleming's James Bond

No response?

I am looking for suggestions on creating an elegant guest bathroom. What do you do at your own house?

I’m not an interior decorator, but I’d love to have the apartment that the character Niles Crane had on the TV Show “Frasier”.

The bathroom had dark wood paneled walls with dark green marble counter tops. I couldn’t see the floor, but I’d go with white floor tile with small black tile diamonds connected by squared lines. Along the edges by the walls, I’d have solid black tile squares.

Best Regards,

Cufflink79

Don't buy cut orchids, try living orchids in pots! They will like the warm, humid environment in the bathroom, and rotate them frequently to a better lit area (they don't like direct sunlight, a naturally lit room is good enough). If you take care of them, you will get 10-20 years out of a $10 white Phalaenopsis.

Your bathroom looks great. Very modern and clean look. I woud also suggest that you put no artificial flowers inside the bathroom. If it is to be an elegant guest bathroom, natural ones would do the job perfectly, as you envisioned it in the first place. If they are expensive, do buy them only when you have guests. That's what we do in our own house. I don't quite agree to leaving books for leisure reading inside the bathroom. I would deem it a little weird to find Secret London, 007 or some romance inside the bathroom. Magazines like AD, Newsweek, Time would be more discreet. Best of luck!

Very good, thanks for the advice!

You do spoil your guests!
I like the decor, clean and light - if a bit cold (though it IS a bathroom). Perhaps I would warm it up a bit with a natural element: a touch of wood. A nicely carved wooden soap dish


and a couple of SMN Windsor guest soaps (great cologne scent that fills the room, too)

or a box of the excellent Claus Porto round guest soaps with various fragrances:

The soaps are small and can be replaced when the guest leaves - I prefer a cake of soap to a drop of lotion and my hands feel smoother (though not greasy) and more discreetly perfumed.
Rather than one large guest towel, my sister-in-law keeps a woven basket (another warm touch of wood) in the bathroom, filled with small colourful guest towels rolled into cylinders, that guests may use once and then throw in another basket with a lid under the sink or in a corner of the guest bathroom. Of course, this is practical in a house with many frequent guests.

They could also be white...

Cufflink79 wrote:I’m not an interior decorator, but I’d love to have the apartment that the character Niles Crane had on the TV Show “Frasier”.

The bathroom had dark wood paneled walls with dark green marble counter tops. I couldn’t see the floor, but I’d go with white floor tile with small black tile diamonds connected by squared lines. Along the edges by the walls, I’d have solid black tile squares.

Best Regards,

Cufflink79

I am currently working my way through the Frasier box set and, in 'Dial M for Martin' in Season 6, Niles's bathroom floor is just as Cufflink79 describes. I'm not sure it is entirely to my taste, but neither are the DB suits with the much-too-wide lapels that David Hyde Pierce had to endure for all those years.

Azdak wrote:

Cufflink79 wrote:I’m not an interior decorator, but I’d love to have the apartment that the character Niles Crane had on the TV Show “Frasier”.

The bathroom had dark wood paneled walls with dark green marble counter tops. I couldn’t see the floor, but I’d go with white floor tile with small black tile diamonds connected by squared lines. Along the edges by the walls, I’d have solid black tile squares.

Best Regards,

Cufflink79

I am currently working my way through the Frasier box set and, in 'Dial M for Martin' in Season 6, Niles's bathroom floor is just as Cufflink79 describes. I'm not sure it is entirely to my taste, but neither are the DB suits with the much-too-wide lapels that David Hyde Pierce had to endure for all those years.

In the show's early years Niles wore a great deal of button down collars with his oversized DB lapels as well. I did however enjoy spotting the Ltd. Edition Braces he wore often. Also towards the end of the series he wore cuff links more often as well.

In season 7 or 8 they show Niles's closet.

Best Regards,

Cufflink79