1970s avocado bathrooms were on designer Bethan Laura Wood's mind while designing her psychedelic bathroom collection for Kaldewei. Previewed during London Design Festival 2023, the collection features Kaldewei classics such as the freestanding Meisterstück Oyo Duo bathtub, the Superplan Zero shower surface and the Miena washbasin bowl.
'I wanted to nod to the avocado bathroom of my personal dreams, using this colour tone as one of the accents for the three colourways I have produced,' she says. 'Within the design, I used a range of colour tones, so that when placed into different environments, it would have movement both in the patterns design and the colour dominants.' The intention is that the hue can adapt to different tastes, interior styles and bathroom design ideas, mixed with bolder colours to bring out the full avocado effect, or combined with softer neutrals for a calmer visual effect.
The three enamelled colour compositions are the result of the designer's sensibility for colour, with three swirling psychedelic patterns: ‘Avocado Swirl’, defined by soft green tones, ‘Avocado Sea’, with blue and purple hues, and the expressive ‘Avocado Disco’, in contrasting hues that elevate the graphic composition.
The collection is as much about colour as it is about pattern, Woods’ designs forming a conversation with the objects' shapes. 'I decided to design a pattern that flowed and swirled around the curves of the bath,' she says. 'I liked the idea of taking reference from the delicate fabric of the silk dressing gown that you may drape on the body after a relaxing bath. I wanted to lean into the idea of a luxury bath that you spend time in to relax and dream.'
With Wood's intervention, Kaldewei's designs become instant masterpieces, able to maintain their practical identities while offering a bolder approach to the bathroom.
As is often the case with Wood's projects, the manufacturing informed her process: 'It was a beautiful ballet dance of huge metal forms gracefully transforming a dangling a spinning around the factory,' she says of witnessing Kaldewei's making of the objects. 'It was very impressive to see how the pieces are produced, and how all the details of the construction take into consideration utilising as much as the material as possible with into process to make minimal waste.'
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