A Practical Solution

Villeroy & Boch's Loop & Friends range of basins is crammed with practical and attractive solutions; the undercounter basin shown above is one of my personal favorites.

Undercounter washbasins have been the the Project favourites for ages now. All of us have seen the oval or elliptical undercounter basin in the malls, multiplexes and hotels everywhere. Undercounters are a big convenience for the public toilets, as the counters can be cleaned easily by wiping the water and soap off of the counter and into the basin.

A convenience in usage does not necessarily mean convenience in installation. Undercounter basins require a lot of care and attention during installation - first of all the cutting of the counter for basin and then another hole in the counter for the tap. The Loop basin here requires just single cutting of the stone, as the basin comes with a tap platform to accomodate taps. This ensures that the size of the counter is reduced slightly, allowing more space in the bathroom; also, the taps fit snugly on the basins and do not need any kind of adjustment as is the case when taps are installed on the counter.

All in all, a very practical solution for public toilets.

Pure Stone

Villeroy & Boch's Pure Stone range is awe inspiring for several reasons. Not only it is distinctively unique, it is also a good amalgam of good design and functionality. Ever since its launch it has been a darling of the bathroom lovers across the world. Modelled on the river pebbles smoothed over a period of time by the running waters, this series is a perfect example of art imitating life.


It is available in two colours - Glossy White & Grey Stone finish. The range comprises of Wall Hung toilets and bidets, above counter as well as wall mounted washbasins in different sizes and furniture element to complement the country nature of the range. The range comes with Villeroy & Boch's amazing 'Ceramic Plus' coating which does not allow dirt or germs to stick to the ceramic surface.

New Glory

NEW GLORY brings the baroque splendour of times past to the modern, minimalist bathroom.

NEW GLORY celebrates the return of baroque stylistic elements. The lavish style of these wall tiles adds a bold individual touch to modern, minimalist home interiors in particular. Basic tiles with a relief finish suggestive of stylish wallpapers, hand-painted ornamental borders with real gold leaf and décors in antique wood look contrast in masterly fashion with sober, purist interiors. The nonvitreous range with its silk-matt basic tiles and the lavish full décor tiles demonstrates consummate style right down to the minutest points of detail - from the alternating matt/glossy effect of the surface finishes to the rounded border with a subtle gold stripe. As such, NEW GLORY also lends itself to classic baroque bathrooms celebrating the ostentatious lifestyle of times past.

Also seen in this picture is the Memento Black washbasin.

Aveo Bathtub

Aveo is a personal favourite range from Villeroy & Boch. Villeroy & Boch is a 260 years old German company with a rich history full of trend-setting designs and innovations. Villeroy & Boch commissioned London based Architectural firm Conran & Partners (Sir Terence Conran) to design a bathroom range for them. What the design team at Conran & Partner came up with was Aveo, a bathroom range inspired by the shape of an egg. Aveo went on to win several design awards and became a success story for Villeroy & Boch.

The product featuring here is the Aveo freestanding bathtub. This bathtub is made of a patented material 'Quaryl', which is a offspring of Quartz (strength, durability) & Acrylic (sheen & colour, flexibility). The shiny Red tiles forming the backdrop to this stunning bathtub are the newly launched Moonlight Glow (extra shiny/reflective surface) tiles.

Bathrooms

Bathroom is one of the most important rooms in one's house. It's the first room you visit in the morning and the last room you visit before hitting the bed. For quite a few of us it is not just a place where we get done with our daily ablutions. It is a place where we sit in peace and quiet, far from the madding crowd, relax, let our inhibitions go (the breed of bathroom singers will vouch for it), reflect on the day passed by and dream. People have been known to have well stacked libraries in their bathroom; and lets not forget the famous "Eureka Eureka" anecdote about Archimedes.

Unfortunately, for most Indian homes, a bathroom is a wet place where you go to do your unmentionables and as soon as you get out of it, you close the door to it and keep that icky place out of sight, out of mind. On top of it, the bigger our cities are getting, the smaller the size of the bathrooms.

Speaking about Mumbai, bathrooms are becoming smaller with every passing year. I am not even going to talk about the millions who share a community bathroom or just use the railway tracks and roadsides. But there is a section of developers and individuals who have begun the 'beautiful bathrooms' revolution in India. People are splurging as much on their bathrooms as on any other room. Some of the houses in Mumbai have spent enough money on the bathrooms to buy a 3 bhk apartment in one of the suburbs.

Some may think, is it possible to spend so much on bathrooms? I myself was surprised when I did some research before going for my first interview. I visited a large bathroom products showroom in Vile Parle and was socked out of my senses when the salesman over there told me that the cute round bottomed water closet (toilet or wc) that I was admiring would cost me just 28500 Rs. Since then I have seen much but for a management trainee who was merely surviving on a paltry stipend, a toilet worth 28500 was plain insane.

Truth is there are large business empires with turnovers in billions of dollars spending fortunes on developing new products for bathrooms every year. Countries like Germany, Italy, USA, Japan & Spain are house to hundreds of large corporations making toilets, taps, showers, bathtubs, whirlpools, tiles and several other products for bathrooms. Product designers and high profile design studios spend hundreds of precious manhours working on product designs for these companies.

There is a new breed of developers in Mumbai which is paying more attention to the bathrooms. This change has been brought about in the last few years and can be seen in the form of slightly larger bathrooms, imported fixtures and fittings and the introduction of powder rooms. A typical 3 bhk and upwards apartment will have a powder room, and three other bathrooms. The master bathroom may have a bathtub or even a whirlpool in it. For me personally as well as professionally it is a welcome change.

In my posts I will be talking mainly about the various wonderful products available in the market. So, stay tuned.

P.S. Picture courtesy Villeroy & Boch; product featured - Subway Toilet & Washbasins

Beautiful Bathrooms

My affair with the Bathrooms started in 2004 when I joined a world renowned Bathroom products company from Germany. Since then I have been working in this industry and loving it.

While I was growing up bathroom was a place where I used to run to escape from the world. Right from the very first thing in the morning when my dad used to wake me and my brother at 6 and I used to run to the bathroom to catch few more minutes of sleep; or when I used to go to the bathroom with a comic book (in later years a novel) snuck in my pants and read it from page to page (while my mom wondered if I had trouble with my motions); or when me & my brother used to use the bathroom as the place where we used to suck on candy cigarette sticks; more recently bathroom is the place where I can legitimately be without my phone, where I go through the newspaper in the morning and catch up on my other readings. What I am trying to say here is that Bathroom is a very special part of my daily life.

But before joining my first bathroom product company my knowledge of this industry was limited to the the Jaquar taps & Hindware toilets. Joining company ABC changed how I looked at bathrooms. This fascination with beautiful bathrooms continues and the way this industry keeps reinventing itself and companies keep coming out with more and more beautiful and innovative products, I have full confidence that I will stay tuned.