Refurbishment project in Dulwich, South East London.
– Contemporary fireplace and plinth made from matched Bardiglio marble featuring LED lighting down the sides.
– Five bathrooms using terrazzo TE017. Two sets of these are shower rooms and are mirror images of each other.
– Master bathroom with floor and cladding in Grey Carrara marble. The bath was tucked away in the original layout and has been raised slightly on a marble platform to become a feature in the room.
Can you give me some background to your refurbishment project?
It’s an old Victorian house that hasn’t been touched for over 40 years. Homes of that era had fewer bathrooms, for example there was one large bathroom on the top floor that we could make two ensuite shower rooms from.
Why terrazzo – and why Diespeker?
My husband was keen on terrazzo, so I simply Googled it. Diespeker is in South East London so worked well in terms of locality. We visited the showroom, it’s fantastic, you can see everything in one place.
You chose TE017, what attracted you to that particular terrazzo?
It’s trial and error with terrazzo, it can be difficult to imagine it in situ. I knew I wanted greys. At Diespeker, John (Managing Director John Krause) is so passionate, unlike some places he’s prepared to give advice. He’s good at guiding – try this, look at this!
You wanted marble for the master bathroom, did you have something in mind?
We did. We picked out a White Carrara marble we liked. John said he didn’t have enough in stock, but that there was an alternative, Grey Carrara. He told us it would be amazing! We wanted to have really large slabs, but the bathroom is on the first floor so we had to consider the practicality with the weight. In fact despite the compromise, we did end up with oversized tiles, around a meter square.
There’s an unusual sink in the master bathroom, it looks great! Where did the inspiration come from?
Initially we were going to have a traditional sink. But on Diespeker’s website I spotted a project at Bicester Village, which used a trough style. We had to work out how to replicate it, so we all stood in the bathroom, me, the contractor and the Diespeker team, saying ‘try this, try that’! Between us we worked out how best to do it, so the contractor built the structure from wood, and Diespeker clad this with the marble.
The fireplace looks stunning. Can you explain a little about the idea behind it?
We wanted to lose the existing fireplace in the main living room and have something more contemporary as a feature piece. So the width of the fireplace is the original and we added a large plinth for it to sit on. I came up with the idea with my husband, basically for a bio ethanol fireplace.
What was it about Bardiglio marble that you liked?
We went back to Diespeker and just looked around the yard. I think we got lucky with that piece! In fact, before it arrived at the house, I hadn’t even seen the whole slab. It was matched really well. The main chimney section is actually four pieces but the joins have been done so brilliantly that you can’t see them.
What was it like working with Diespeker?
It’s been a really great experience. We chose Diespeker to install the products not just supply them, they work with these materials every day and it shows. The fireplace took just two days, the bathrooms more but they were complicated with lots of detail like mitred edges which were really well done. The finishes on everything are just great.
Images by Soora Photography
