designer | interview Ideas Man
Barrie Cutchie first started out in the bathroom industry in 1976 when he came to London and started buying old telephone type taps and mixers from scrap and salvage yards. These taps were stripped of their chrome and re-sold as solid brass from his permanent stand in Bermondsey Antique Market.
From there, he started buying and selling refurbished original bathroom pieces and selling them from his antiques shop in Camden Town.
DESIGNER K&B: What made you choose a career in design? BARRIE CUTCHIE: I didn’t really, it was just something that happened along with everything else which is a circumstance of your surroundings and what is happening at that time. My love of working in the antiques and memorabilia industry with my shop in Camden when we started BC Sanitan, seemed to give me an eye for choosing items that my customers would buy. In many ways, having a company which sells to the bathroom industry is exactly the same as having a market stall. You trust your judgement to make that product; you just make a lot more of them.
Although we sell a lot of contemporary styles now with the Thinn and Acrymite ranges of baths, we were initially known for the traditional side of things, and in many ways it was easier because we sold the originals which had gone before and you could use these original basins and loos as a base for your designs, albeit you have to adapt them to modern manufacturing methods. However, you still had to judge which of the originals were truly excellent, and a lot of the competition at the time who tried to get into the traditional sanitaryware market got that badly wrong.
DESIGNER K&B: What trends do you see as having the biggest impact on bathroom design right now – and which of these do you think are here to stay?
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After many years of creating new classics that have helped shaped British bathroom design, Barrie Cutchie’s creative flow shows no sign of abating…
In the late 1970s, Cutchie started BC Sanitan and also became one of the three directors who founded the Imperial Bathroom Company in 1988, where he also designed their early ranges.
In 1998, he started BC Designs where he continues to design innovative freestanding baths. We caught up with him to find out about his distinguished industry background and how new materials are enabling him to bring a fresh approach to bathroom product design.
CUTCHIE: I get to see a lot of showrooms on my travels and the main thing I see now is wall mounted cabinets with a pull-out draw (soft close, of course) and worktop or a long basin – they are absolutely everywhere. Some showrooms have 10-15 different versions of the same idea, in different finishes, from lots of companies.
I know this is a very practical solution for storage but there are a lot of suppliers going for the same market and it is quite difficult for the public to discern the differences in quality because you cannot immediately tell who makes which unit. Therefore, this may drive the prices down in the long term.
This style could be around for quite a while, as it is adaptable in that you can add more cabinets when you need more storage.
DESIGNER K&B: Who – or what – inspires you? CUTCHIE: Rock lead guitar - the likes of Hendrix, Zepellin and AC/DC never fail to make me stop and listen.
In terms of designers, I would say Antoni Gaudi. Where he got his ideas from I will never know. His Barcelona offerings are a mix of Hobbit, Art Nouveau, Deco, and Aztec. He is the true designer of ‘different’, streets ahead of everyone else for building design. I just get the feeling that all of the architects after him pinched a bit of his inspiration and ideas.
The Kurvstone bath
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Aurelius Slipper bath
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