When decorating any room, we not only display our personality and our tastes but also create spaces where we can relax and enjoy ourselves.
To achieve spaces suitable to our needs, it may be very useful to seek the advice of a professional who knows all the options available on the market in terms of new products, trends, quality, etc. With creativity and intelligent ideas, one can make any space fulfil all the functions expected of it.
Countless products can be found on the market in which functionality and design go hand in hand. Bathco’s collections try to offer something beyond the conventional, not only in terms of design but also of the human value that is imbued in each piece that passes through the workshop. That’s where the personalisation is really achieved; by hand-painting washbasins, sculpting ceramic pieces to create murals, etc. In other words, by combining artisanal techniques with mechanical processes, etc.
Ultimately it seeks products that offer new concepts that will help create unique spaces. Interior designer Teresa Casas is very aware of this, and so she thought of the work being done at Bathco Atelier for a project of hers in a town in Girona.
All the projects Teresa Casas works on have a common denominator: a passion for the details and the creation of spaces that awaken the senses. Every detail counts when planning a project for a home.
She demonstrated this when she renovated the terrace of a private home on the Costa Brava. With this project, the interior designer wanted to create a space where all the elements were in equilibrium: the interior space, the volumes, the materials, the light, the textures, the colours, etc.
Teresa, tell us what this project consisted of.
The project attempted to adapt the terrace of a private home located in the centre of a town on the Costa Brava. It was not new construction but rather an old house, one with character. The terrace was practically unused, as it was not considered a space to be enjoyed. We thought it was be important to recover it, above all to take advantage of the space during the daytime in the cooler months of the year. In summer, given the proximity to the beach, it wasn’t as important, and they preferred the cooler interior of the house because its construction shielded it from the high temperatures. So the owners understood that this space could be used and enjoyed during many months of the year.
To what extent did the surroundings influence you when developing this project?
The surroundings influenced me a great deal. As this was a town on the coast, the references to the sea and the coast couldn’t be left out.
In each of your projects, you appeal to the senses. What did you think an Atelier mural could do for this project?
The Atelier mural was what I was looking for precisely to add that note of reference to place, of personalisation, exclusivity, and of artistic expression, that would at the same time also transmit the value of craftsmanship: our clients are people who value art in all of its manifestations. For that reason, the idea quite appealed to them and really turned out to be what they wanted.
Describe the process of creating the Atelier mural, from when you commissioned it to when you saw it installed.
It was a shared process between Bathco and our studio at all times. We indicated what we needed to transmit, the textures and colours we would be using, and the Bathco designers understood our suggestions immediately. So, based on some sketches that almost didn’t need retouching and the final project, they started production with the delivery dates we established. Finally, the disassembled mural arrived and was installed easily following the company’s instructions. The Bathco Atelier mural was a project that we will undoubtedly want to repeat at other sites.
THE ARTISTS
To understand the project, it is essential to know how it was conceived. Cecilio Espejo and María Centeno are the Bathco Atelier artists who worked with Teresa Casas’s team on this project. They tell us about their experience.
For María “this project had certain very clear parameters. They wanted a Mediterranean-inspired composition that joined painting and volume. So we focussed on the characteristic blues of the Mediterranean, on the forms of its marine fauna: fish, coral and snails”.
Cecilio delved more deeply into the technique. For the artist “the mural uses two very different techniques and treatments: ceramic painting to recreate the school of fish and the coral, and the three-dimensional work done based on the volumetric elements that simulate snails. It should be noted that these elements were sculpted in porcelain individually, without the help of moulds. A totally artisanal work. Once fired, a varnish was applied to protect them from the elements”.
