Wabi-Sabi Tadelakt Bathroom

The owner — a freelance graphic designer who divides her time between Madrid and her Casares cottage — had an unusual brief: she didn't want a "luxury bathroom". She wanted something that felt handmade and personal, with materials that would age beautifully rather than try to look perfect forever. She had spent a recent holiday in a small hotel in Marrakech where the bathrooms were finished in tadelakt and had become slightly obsessed with the texture and warmth of the material. She brought photos to the showroom, three Pinterest boards, and one specific request: "please don't use any marble — every renovated bathroom on the Costa del Sol looks the same and I want mine to be different". The bathroom is genuinely small (7 m²) and lacks any natural light source apart from a small ceiling skylight added during the cottage's previous renovation.

Technical Specifications

The showroom session for this bathroom was deeply tactile. The tadelakt sample boards were brought out first — the client touched each, tested with damp fingers (tadelakt becomes more luminous when slightly wet), and chose a warm clay-pink-sand tone, a custom mix of natural pigments specified as NCS S 2010-Y50R. The microcement floor was specified slightly darker to give the room visual grounding — NCS S 3010-Y30R, a warm sand. The vanity was sampled in three woods before settling on solid European oak with a clear matte hardwax-oil finish, the same Osmo PolyX-Oil 3032 used in our Mijas kitchen project. The showpiece was the basin: a hand-hammered solid copper countertop basin from a Toledo metalwork atelier, 42 cm diameter, with a natural living patina (not lacquered — it will deepen with time). Brassware throughout in brushed brass, sourced from the same atelier as the kitchen brassware in our Mijas oak project.

Technical Specifications

The strip-out was straightforward: white wall tiles chipped off in two days, beige floor tiles lifted, the white pedestal basin and old shower tray removed. With the room back to bare brick walls and concrete slab, the most important phase began: full wet-room tanking before any finishing materials. Tadelakt is itself waterproof when correctly applied and saponified — but we never rely on a single waterproofing layer in a bathroom. Walls received Schlüter KERDI 200 polyethylene tanking membrane glued onto the substrate, with corner taping and seam sealing. The floor received the same KERDI system continuous up the walls to 250 mm to form a watertight tray under the future shower area. A linear stainless steel drain channel was set into the slab with a 1.5% fall to ensure positive drainage. The gypsum substrate for the tadelakt was then applied directly over the membrane with mechanical fixing — a perfectly flat surface for the lime plaster.

Technical Specifications

Tadelakt is a patient, hand-applied finish — our specialist plasterer worked the room over five days across two weeks. The first coat was a thin scratch coat on the cement board substrate. The pigmented tadelakt was then applied in two coats with a steel trowel, polished smooth with a stone in circular motions while still soft, and finally saponified with traditional black olive soap which reacts with the lime to create a natural waterproof membrane. The result is a deeply tactile, slightly mottled surface with subtle tonal variation — the signature wabi-sabi look. The microcement floor was applied next using the same Topciment system as the Estepona living room project, but with extra anti-slip additive in the shower zone. The oak vanity was built in our workshop and assembled on site in half a day: solid oak slab top, two oak drawers with hand-cut finger pulls (no metal handles), brass legs lifting the unit 200 mm off the floor for visual lightness.

Technical Specifications

The brassware was the final installation phase — wall-mounted single-lever basin tap above the copper basin, brushed brass thermostatic shower mixer with rainfall and handheld outputs, and a brass picture light mounted above the round antique-look mirror. All brass fittings are unlacquered solid brass — they will develop a natural living patina over time, deepening with use. Lighting was deliberately minimal: one small LED downlight above the shower (IP65 rated, 2700 K), one above the basin area, and the brass picture light above the mirror. The skylight provides a beautiful column of natural light during the day. No bright general lighting — this is a bathroom designed for atmosphere and meditation, not task work. Final snagging found one tiny pinhole in the tadelakt above the door (filled and re-saponified the same morning) and a slow leak from the shower wall connection (re-soldered and tested).

Technical Specifications

Every Magnum Reformas project begins with a free site visit from a dedicated project manager — no obligation, within 48 hours of enquiry. We provide a fully itemised fixed-price quote: every line of work is listed, nothing is hidden. Once approved, our team manages every trade on site so you never coordinate subcontractors yourself. A dedicated WhatsApp group keeps you updated with photos and videos throughout. At handover, we walk you through every installation and leave you a full documentation pack.

Technical Specifications