Every bathroom we design comes with its own set of priorities. Sometimes it's all about the look, sometimes it's about squeezing storage into an awkward corner, and every so often two people in the same household want quite different things from the same room. This Furzton bathroom takes that a step further. Designed and supplied by TABO, it was fitted by the homeowner himself, Richard of RJC Property Maintenance, a job where Richard wore two hats, the customer's and the fitter's, while his wife brought a different eye to the design altogether.
What's in the finished bathroom?
The room is tiled in Porcelanosa's Cubica range, a mix of Cubica Blanco and Cubica Basic Blanco in a soft, textured 33.3x100cm format that catches the light beautifully, doing a very convincing impression of glitter without actually being glitter. You can see it doing exactly that in the shower photos, where the surface shifts from matt to a subtle shimmer depending on the angle. It's paired with a plainer Matt White tile in the smaller vanity area, keeping the palette calm and letting the black fittings take centre stage.
And there's plenty of black to take in. The Bathrooms to Love range runs right through this project, from the Cedarwood rimless back-to-wall WC and matt black Berio basin mixer, to the backlit Haruki mirror above the vanity and the Iconix wetroom panel with its black support bar in the shower area. The shower itself sits on a slimline 1500x900mm tray with a matching black waste cover, and LED strip lighting under the vanity unit gives the room a warm glow at floor level. It's a properly cohesive look, and not always an easy one to pull off when you're mixing a textured tile with this much black detail. We'd love to take full credit for how well it all sits together, but honestly, it comes down to picking pieces that were always going to get along.
How Do You Design a Bathroom for Two Different Tastes?
What made this project interesting from our side wasn't just the finish, it was getting there. When Genna, our designer, spoke with Richard's wife, her focus was very much on the design side, choosing products based on what she liked, what worked together, what felt right for the space, much like most of our customers do. Richard, coming at it as the fitter as well as the homeowner, would occasionally push back on a choice purely because of how much of a headache it would be to actually install, which meant every decision had to survive both a design eye and a fitter's eye before it made the cut.
It's a genuinely useful dynamic to design around. Our job is often to bridge exactly that gap, between what looks good on paper and what works once you're on your knees with a spirit level, and having both perspectives in the room at once meant the final selection had to satisfy both. The Cubica tile and the Bathrooms to Love pieces clearly did, since nothing here looks like it was chosen as a compromise.
How long did it take?
From strip-out to finished bathroom, the whole job took around two weeks, with no major changes needed to the existing plumbing. A straightforward, well planned renovation, which is perhaps no surprise from a fitter who already knew exactly what he was doing!
Can I Use My Own Fitter, or Does TABO Provide One?
Richard runs RJC Property Maintenance and is one of a number of trade professionals we work closely with across Milton Keynes, though for his own bathroom the roles were reversed, with TABO designing and supplying, and Richard doing the fitting himself. That's actually how our design service works for most customers, you're welcome to bring your own fitter, as Richard effectively did for himself, or if you'd rather not source one, we can recommend someone we trust to take care of the installation. It's the kind of working relationship that keeps trade professionals coming back, and you can see what customers generally make of us on our Trustpilot reviews.
If this bathroom has given you a few ideas of your own, come and see the Cubica range and the full Bathrooms to Love collection at our Waterside Park, Wolverton showroom, or get in touch to start planning your own project, whether you're in Furzton, elsewhere in Milton Keynes, or further afield, we work with customers across the wider area and beyond. Our contact page has all the ways to reach us.
