Bathroom plumbing, tapware, and fixtures and fittings are frequently silver in colour. This is due in part to the manufacture of many components in stainless steel, which is silver in colour. To some extent this has now changed with modern parts now available in a variety of different colours and styles – however, silver is still a common colour to find taps, showerheads, nozzles, plugs, drains, and handles inside modern bathrooms.
If you’re considering using silver in your bathroom renovation, take a moment to consider the ways it can work in your bathroom, or alternatively check out more colour ideas in this article about using colour to create a holistic bathroom.
Deconstructing Bathroom Design
A deconstructed bathroom design will reveal purely-functional aspects of the room instead of hiding them away. This allows the beauty of the functionality to take on an aesthetic role. For example, rather than only revealing the necessary (for example, taps) the pipes may also be partially revealed. By doing so, the pipes take on a design role in the room as well.
This approach is popular with free-standing bathtubs. In the case of silver pipes and taps, deconstructing their display in this way accesses an industrial style reminiscent of factories where such pipes would be ‘on display’, there being no requirement to hide them away. Using this approach doesn’t mean your bathroom will look like a factory!
It’s all about the selective incorporation of elements that will help your design achieve the style you’re aiming for.
Silver Contrasts
A great aspect of working with the colour silver is the way it contrasts with other materials and colours. Silver is eminently compatible and when contrasted often adds value to other objects by accentuating them. Whether it’s a basic gloss-white, timber-style, or polished-concrete look, silver brings something special out in everything.
Silver and Gloss White
Where do you see silver combined with gloss-white? A common response is a hospital or medical environment. While you probably don’t want your bathroom looking like the ER, the combination of silver and gloss-white can communicate cleanliness and hygiene, which are both assets in the context of a modern bathroom. There’s more information about working with gloss-white here.
Silver & Timber
Fine timber and silver evoke ideas of craft, workmanship, and the handmade. To shape timber into something useable, silver tools are used such as saws, drills, hammers and nails. Combining silver and timber enables access of such notions in the style of your bathroom. It doesn’t mean your bathroom needs to look like a lumber-yard! Just that you can access the qualities in this combination that you like. We are doing great work at the moment with timber-style laminates – learn more about them here.
Silver and Polished Concrete
The combination of silver and concrete taps into the industrial aesthetic. This is a powerful style which creates bathrooms that stand out. Unlike the combination with gloss-white (hygiene / cleanliness) and the combination with timber (natural / handmade), silver and polished concrete combine for effect in a different way.
They access the qualities of their industrial ancestors and re-invigorate and rebuild them into a modern style. It’s an evolution. In fashion, this is similar to the blue jeans – they were designed for work, not fashion, but were subsequently picked up and converted into a fashion item because their style just worked.
Depending on the home and requirements, the industrial approach can be balanced with other elements for an interesting, deep design-style that isn’t overbearing. Learn more about the polished concrete look here. The following image demonstrates a stainless steel shower-drain which creates this effect.
Purpose of Silver
Rather than include silver in your renovation because you have to, make sure your inclusions capitalise on existing thematic possibilities. Silver is a common colour through human history and has been used in many ways which construct the visual library from which we operate.
The cues that exist in this library can be utilised to communicate qualities we like into rooms we live in. Using silver as a design element gives us access to a rich tapestry of ideas that go beyond the purely visual.
