Contemporary Freestanding Baths
Trends - Shape
The most obvious trend in the styles of contemporary baths are for baths without feet and with simple, minimalist lines. The most popular of such baths tend to be in a variety of simple more or less rounded or more or less square shapes. There are also of course many contemporary baths that are either the same as the traditional ones but with contemporary feet or with wooden or metal cradles which support the bath tub itself.
One of the most recent fashions in the construction of contemporary baths is for fibreglass/acrylic baths with slim edges (approx 30mm), for example most of the Charlotte Edwards contemporary baths and the Clearwater contemporay stone cast baths are like this. These baths may be made from acrylic sheeting, the more robust fibreglass reinforced acrylic or even stronger stone cast resin. Slim edges like this not only look elegant and minimalist they allow for a larger interior than equivalent sized contemporary acrylic sheet baths which may have an edge of 80mm wide or more. Slim edged baths must be used with freestanding or wall mounted taps as the edges are too slim to fit taps onto. Usually these baths have an integrated overflow so that there is no overflow pipe on the outside of the bath, ideal for a freestanding minimalist look, however this also means that generally it is not possible to fit an overflow filler to this kind of bath (but we can fit them to the west end baths by modifying them during manufacture - enquire for details). We can confirm what can and can't be done with any specific bath so contact us for any more information you may need about your bath choice.
Trends - Colour
The most up-to-date bathroom designs are now including colour. But this is not the Avocado green or Pergamon Pink of the 1970s, now you can choose from many hundreds of rich, complex, quality colours from the world's best paint manufacturers. A mainstay of Classical Baths's business is the painting of baths in colours from Farrow and Ball, Little Greene, Fired Earth and Paint and Paper Library, but if you want a paint from another manufacturer, just ask us and we can advise.Fitting Tips
Finally some tips about fitting the kind of contemporary baths that go right down to the floor with no feet. Most of these kinds of bath have a cavity underneath where the waste kit is fitted. In most bathrooms the waste pipe will be taken into the floor within the footprint of the bath. The bath should be propped up off the floor and the trap connected to the outlet waste pipe with a flexible hose. This means that all the plumbing can be connected up with the bath off the floor and then the bath can be lowered down when everything is connected up. In general with this contemporary style of bath the waste pipe will go into the floor cavity directly under the bath. If this is not possible because, for example, you have a concrete floor then you must ensure that you get a trap and waste kit that is shallow enough to fit in the cavity between the bath and the floor, for some baths this may not be possible (for example a stone cast resin bath that has no cavity between the bath bottom and the floor), in these cases contact us for advice. To finish you can then, for nearly all baths, cut a hole in the bottom side of the bath and lead the waste pipe out above ground level. Talk to us about it if you need to plumb you bath in above ground like this and we can make sure that you get all the right parts and advice.