Putting the Pow in Powder Room with Ca' Pietra

Oh, how we adore powder rooms – let us count the ways! Firstly, their small size and limited function means clutter is kept under control, allowing you the freedom to go wilder with patterns and materials without it feeling overwhelming. Secondly, since they’re so compact, you can transform them quickly with fewer materials for a more affordable and almost instant gratification. And what's even better than a regular powder room? One that's in your maximalist design showroom. It would be criminal not to flaunt our personality in this space! So, the downstairs loo at our new Bath showroom received the full Divine Savages treatment, complete with features from some of our other favourite British makers - Wiltshire's tile extraordinaires Ca’ Pietra and Hampshire's fun bathroom manufacturers Bold Bathroom Company.

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A lot of our wallpapers already feature multiple colours, but for this room, we opted for a monotone print – Extinctopia in Volcanic Sunset with a blush rose and soft pink background. This whimsical dinosaur-inspired print from our Natural History Museum collection features prehistoric beasts inspired by a Victorian theme park in Crystal Palace London. We could have installed a panelling around the bottom of the room in a rosy hue and it would have looked great. But, this is a space where we get to have a bit more fun, so we dove into pattern and material mixing. Extinctopia’s print isn't tiny, yet it’s not overwhelming either, thanks to its tone-on-tone design. So, we opted for a large stripe as the contrasting pattern... but made of tiles. We selected Ca’ Pietra’s Porcelain Gloss tiles in Olive and White. While these tiles could be used in their traditional subway style alternating layout, we decided to run them vertically, alternating colours to cover the bottom half of the wall. We topped it off with a horizontal white gloss tile and brass bullnose trim.

For the floor, it just had to be terrazzo. The Rialto in Laguna by Ca' Pietra boasts a delicate, soft mint with flecks of pink. While it may not match the olive green of the tiles or the pink of the wallpaper directly, it ties them together in a laid-back, non-obvious way. Bringing the pinks together is this stunning coral cloakroom suite from The Bold Bathroom Company. The candy pink perfectly complements the light tones in the wallpaper, and of course, there's even a matching toilet!

But we aren't done injecting prints and materials just yet. In the interests of our eccentric and flamboyant vision we took a bold step and introduced another pattern, despite the small space. While we wouldn't usually recommend dividing up a small area with different wallpapered walls, the window offered a perfect spot for a touch of pattern courtesy of a cafe curtain. We chose our new linen fabric, "Where the Wildflowers Grow" in Sage, which features large leaves in a traditional nature print. The cream background and olive green leaves complement the striped tiles beautifully, naturally.

So that's how we put a bit of pow into a powder room. We hope our daring approach to a functional space inspires others to be eccentric, flamboyant, and bold in their small spaces. If it was an experiment, we believe it was a success, and now we're eager to 'test' another!