Most contractors saw old marble and quoted for removal. We saw the whole bathroom. Appointed to design and carry out the installation at Harrods Village – one of Barnes’ most prestigious residential addresses – Kallums Bathrooms took a different approach entirely. Work with what the building gives you. Make it better, not different. The result speaks for itself.
Harrods Village is not your standard London residential address. Originally built as the Harrods depository and converted into one of SW London’s most sought-after apartment buildings, it carries a level of original specification that most modern developments cannot touch. Period architecture. High ceilings. And in this particular bathroom – original marble that had been there from the beginning.
The original Rojo Alicante marble – a deep terracotta stone with dramatic white veining – ran as a horizontal band across the full width of the bathroom, forming both the splash back and a generous ledge above the basin and across the wall. Rich, warm, and impossible to replicate. Multiple contractors before us had recommended removing it entirely and starting fresh.
We disagreed. Strongly.
Ripping out original marble in a period property like Harrods Village is not renovation – it is erasure. The character of a building like these lives in decisions like that marble. Our approach at Kallums Bathrooms has always been to work with what a space gives you, not against it.
The marble stayed. Every other decision built around it.
With the Rojo Alicante marble preserved and restored to the hero position it deserved, we introduced a deep forest green gloss brick-effect tile across the lower walls, the bath panel, and the built-in under-basin niche. The effect is immediate and confident – a colour palette that reads as masculine, timeless, and completely at home.
Above the marble band, large-format cream tiles continue the surround behind the bath and shower area – warm cream against the marble, a combination that has existed in great architecture for centuries and will continue to do so.
The three materials – forest green gloss tiles, Rojo Alicante marble, and large-format cream tiles – do everything. Nothing else is needed.
Supporting those material decisions, every other element was kept deliberately restrained:
The most common mistake in luxury bathroom renovation is designing for the moment rather than for the decade. Trends cycle fast. Materials do not.
Rojo Alicante marble does not date. Deep forest green does not date. Chrome does not date. What dates is the decision to follow a trend because it is trending.
Kallums Bathrooms was founded on the principle that a bathroom installation should be the last one a homeowner ever needs. That means specifying materials that improve with age, executing the installation to a standard that holds for 20 years, and making design decisions that serve the space rather than the season.
This Harrods Village project, completed over six years ago, is still one of our most requested reference points. Prospective clients see it and immediately understand what we mean by timeless.
We work across Barnes, Putney, Richmond, Wandsworth, Fulham, Wimbledon and the wider SW and TW postcode areas, specialising in design and high-specification bathroom installation for period properties, new builds, and premium residential developments.
Every project starts with the same question: what does this space already have that is worth keeping?
Barnes · Putney · Richmond · Wandsworth · Fulham · SW13 · SW15 · SW6 · TW9 · TW10
Planning a bathroom renovation in a period London property? Contact Kallums Bathrooms to discuss your project.
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