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RILUXA CLIENT PROJECTS

Inspired Details from Thailand Bring This Bathroom to Life

Who could resist the appeal of a lifetime spent travelling the world and putting their creative inspiration to use renovating and decorating homes and businesses along the way? Riluxa clients Cathy and Thierry have a lifelong passion for renovation and design and managed to create their dream lifestyle. Having recently enjoyed the beautiful culture of Thailand, they are currently back in Europe continuing to refurbish unique properties they fall in love with.

We caught up with Cathy to learn about their latest project – which includes a Thailand-inspired spa bathroom. We delved into where the couple draws their inspiration from, the design elements they return to again and again, and how it has been for them working with Riluxa on several of their bathrooms.

First of all, tell us a little bit about yourself - are you a homeowner or a design professional and where do you live? 

We’re Cathy and Thierry, homeowners of 55 and 56 years’ old with a passion for renovation. We live in the south of France, a few kilometres from Aix-en-Provence, in a very touristic town.   

We buy properties (often in a very delipidated state) that we refurbish completely. We do up the interiors to our taste, and later sell the property on. Although we do move in during the renovation process, it’s important to keep in mind that the property isn’t really our home – we try not to get too attached! 

We adore what we do – previously, we lived in Thailand where we opened several restaurants, doing the fitout and decoration ourselves before selling them on. We also took over a spa which we renovated and got running successfully before selling it on. As well as restaurants and spas, we were also involved in the construction of apartment buildings and luxury villas – a little of everything! 

Tell us about your bathroom project - was it a renovation or did you start from scratch? How long did it take and did everything go as planned, or were there any unpleasant surprises along the way?   

This was a complete apartment renovation project (including three bathrooms) that has taken about a year. It’s an old apartment of 230m2 that used to belong to a hospital which we fell completely in love with thanks to its magnificent internal staircase.  

Our projects usually involve the complete renovation of a property. Typically, we rip everything out and reimagine the space from the ground up. Thierry usually handles that part of the renovation, while I manage the decoration. In this case, the main bathroom took quite a lot more time than the other rooms because Thierry had to literally build everything within the room, including new plumbing, etc. The decoration itself was a much quicker process.  

Our main bathroom is an open plan style within the main bedroom, which also has an open dressing room. In this bathroom, we installed a round bathtub, two freestanding washbasins in marble (one for each of us), as well as a shower. There are also two further bathrooms within the property that I’ll detail later.  

Did everything work out as planned? Pretty much … we had no bad surprises because Thierry is constantly on site. He keeps on top of everything and he works with a great team who are also friends. So, the project took a long time but ran very smoothly. 

Tell us the story of your relationship with Riluxa - how you found us and how has your experience been?

When I came across Riluxa online, I browsed the products I was interested in and then I got in touch with Benjamin. Dealing with Benjamin has been really great – he’s thoroughly professional and knows his work inside out. Now, whenever I need something, I order it through Benjamin and I’m delighted to work with him. My experience of your products has been that Riluxa offers luxurious products that suit my style perfectly, which always arrive well-packaged and on time and they’re very high-quality. I couldn’t be happier.

What Riluxa pieces have you used in your project? 

There are three bathrooms in total within this project.

In the ensuite bathroom, the bathtub itself comes from Riluxa – it’s the Lugo round bathtub.

Riluxa products used in this bathroom: a Lugo Round Freestanding Bathtub.

In our separate bathroom, we have the Tamara Nero Marquina washbasin from Riluxa and in a third bathroom, that we’re currently working on, we’ll have the Wezen Matte Black and Glossy White bathtub. I like to choose different products and styles but I always have to bear in mind that the house isn’t for us and we’re going to be moving on. If it were for my own home, I wouldn’t be able to stop myself going for your Nero Marquina black marble bathtub!

What attracted you to these specific pieces? 

When it came to choosing the bathtub, we didn’t have the room to comfortably fit a classic rectangular bathtub so we opted for a round tub. And we absolutely love it: it has a little bit of a jacuzzi vibe, it’s big enough for the two of us to share and it fits perfectly into our space.

For the washbasin, I found the design of the Tamara freestanding washbasin so beautiful. I just love the combination of its transparent black basin sitting atop a solid base in black Nero Marquina marble.

Riluxa products used in this bathroom: a Tamara Nero Marquina Black Freestanding Washbasin.

What design style were you going for - and what influenced the choice? 

Each time we take on a new renovation project, we try to draw on inspirations from different sources. For materials, we focus especially on wood, polished concrete and marble. That allows us to create a mix that we love – either combining cold materials with warm materials, or mixing antiques with modern pieces. In general, I like to keep abreast of the latest innovations in the industry and I try to incorporate the most up-to-the-minute materials in my projects, combining them with my current design inspirations.

For the colour palette, I went for black throughout this project because, for me, black is the very definition of elegance. Brass is another high-quality material that we treasure for the warmth it brings to a space; here we used brass tile trims on all the corners to break up the expanse of black marble tiles.

The idea of the vertical garden came from Thailand – we previously created one with a whole wall of flowers for the frontage of our spa. For us, greenery in a bathroom connects us to nature and creates a calm and relaxing atmosphere where you can get away from it all.

Travel is also a huge source of inspiration – when we travel, we discover so many new ideas. I find that in Thailand, for example, design is two to three years ahead and we find a lot of influences there. We always come across new products, which have usually been in Thailand or China for a few years, before becoming known in Europe.

Tell us what you think of your project now that it's finished:

We’ve achieved exactly what we set out to do and I wouldn’t change a thing – this bathroom is exactly how we envisaged it. We have a perfect mix of marble, wooden floors and plenty of greenery…. For us, these are warm materials that combine beautifully with everything. The bathroom gives us a sense of peace – we have a view of the river and when we open the windows and hear the river flowing past, it’s utterly relaxing.

Anything else you’d like to convey to our readers? Do you have any advice for future Riluxa customers wanting to create their dream bathroom?

I would recommend to anyone to try to make your bathroom welcoming, cosy and pleasant because the time spent there, for me, is a real moment of relaxation and wellbeing. I’d also add that it’s important to get a good team in place because there’s a lot of work involved!

If you would like your bathroom project to be featured on Riluxa's Client Projects Showcase, tag #riluxa @riluxa on Instagram or upload your images directly by clicking here. We love nothing more than seeing how our customers have used Riluxa products to create their dream bathrooms!