DESIGN INTELLIGENCE / THE RETURN OF ORNAMENT

What One London Bathroom Gets Right About Art Deco

September 25, 2026

By HAUS Editorial

4 min read

A show apartment for a planned 247-residence London project shows that the useful Art Deco revival is not about decorative cosplay. It is about giving ornament a structure.

Symmetrical Art Deco bathroom at Upton House with silver barrel vaults, red columns and a star-shaped pendant.

Historical analogy, not The Capston: Upton House's Art Deco bathroom organizes metallic vaults, red columns, mirror niches and a central star pendant around a strict axis. Photograph by Bs0u10e01, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Art Deco has the rare distinction of being a style everyone recognizes and almost everyone can accidentally turn into a themed cocktail bar.

That is why its 2026 return deserves a closer look. On September 8, Vogue argued that people are newly hungry for design that feels considered, lasting and unapologetically rich after years of expendable aesthetics. Five days earlier, Livingetc toured the first completed apartment at The Capston, a 247-residence development in London shaped by Bryan O'Sullivan's contemporary reading of Deco.

The whole building is not finished. Ballymore says completion is due in 2028. What exists now is a show apartment in the on-site sales gallery and a very clear argument: ornament can return without abandoning restraint.

Art Deco works now when geometry gives richness structure and material does the glamorous part.

A centenary with a pulse

The 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris gave Art Deco its defining stage. A century later, the Musee des Arts Decoratifs marked the anniversary with a major retrospective that closed in April 2026.

Anniversaries create attention, but they do not automatically create relevance. Vogue's more useful observation is that the movement answers a current appetite for objects and rooms that feel crafted, permanent and generous. Deco offers abundance, but it also insists that abundance be edited.

This is not evidence that every client suddenly wants a lacquered bar cart. It is evidence that geometry, rich material and visible workmanship have become culturally legible again.

Main entrance to the 1925 Paris Exposition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts.

The 1925 Paris exposition gave Art Deco its defining international stage. Agence Rol / Bibliotheque nationale de France, Public Domain.

The Capston is a counterproposal

The Capston is the final phase of Ballymore's Embassy Gardens development. Its 247 residences are due for completion in 2028. Ballymore founder Sean Mulryan describes the project as drawing from Art Deco pioneers, with art and craft embedded throughout.

Livingetc presented the project as a counterpoint to contemporary luxury buildings that prioritize convenience while stripping away art and workmanship. The completed show apartment uses oak veneer, Calacatta Viola, murals, original ceramics and sculptural forms to make the rooms feel authored.

The key word is not "luxury." It is "specificity." A room becomes memorable when its materials and geometry appear to belong to one idea rather than a procurement spreadsheet.

Dining room in Lalique's pavilion at the 1925 Paris exposition, photographed in early color.

Lalique's 1925 pavilion dining room is a historical benchmark, not The Capston. Its architecture, lighting, tableware and furniture answer to one authored idea, the same specificity the new London project is trying to recover. Photograph by Leon Auguste, Musee departemental Albert-Kahn, CC0.

The bathroom makes the case

The Capston show-apartment bathroom combines marble, marble mosaic and porcelain wall tile. A marble-covered bath sits at the center. Marble frames the openings to the shower and WC, echoing larger arches elsewhere in the building. The patterned mosaic floor reinforces the axis below.

None of those elements is merely decorative. The stone frame gives openings definition. The tub becomes a focal point. The floor creates rhythm. The room feels rich because every material has a compositional job.

This is Art Deco at its most useful. Geometry does not arrive as a motif placed on top. It determines how the room is read.

Virginia Courtauld's bathroom at Eltham Palace with a curved gold-mosaic niche behind a marble sculpture.

Virginia Courtauld's bathroom at Eltham Palace is a historical London parallel, not The Capston. Its curved gold-mosaic niche, marble edge and central sculpture show material doing the compositional work. Photograph by Robert Lamb, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Art Deco is a rulebook, not a prop closet

The V&A describes Art Deco not as one unified style but as a blend of influences, held together by a fascination with modernity, geometry and luxurious craft. That looseness is helpful. It means a contemporary room can borrow the principles without reproducing a period set.

Begin with an axis. Repeat a shape. Give the eye a frame. Use one lustrous material against something matte. Allow a border or inlay to mark a transition. These are compositional moves, not shopping categories.

The quickest route to historical cosplay is to collect recognizable symbols without reproducing the discipline behind them. A sunburst mirror cannot organize a confused room by itself. It has suffered enough responsibility already.

Symmetrical winged-wheel mosaic in cream, amber and black on the floor of Milano Centrale.

At Milano Centrale, a winged-wheel mosaic uses axis, symmetry, repeated contour and border to organize the floor. Deco's glamour begins with a rule set, not a prop list. Photograph by Giovanni Dall'Orto, used under the source's attribution-only license, cropped.

Tile already speaks the language

Tile and mosaic are naturally suited to Deco because they are modular. Repetition is built into the medium. A designer can control interval, border, contrast, direction and reflection without adding loose ornament.

Stone brings veining and material weight. Glass can manipulate light. Ceramic can move between matte and polished surfaces. Mosaic can mark an axis or create a field at a scale that feels architectural rather than illustrative.

The opportunity is not to cover every surface in pattern. It is to choose the exact place where geometry should become visible, then let the rest of the room support it.

Eclipse black geometric stone floor with white lines and small brass accents beside a vanity.

Eclipse keeps the Deco lesson that matters: axis, repetition, contrast, and a precise metallic note. HAUS.

The new Deco room does not need a fan motif. It needs geometry with manners and material with nerve.

Axis: An implied line that organizes objects or architectural elements.
Datum: A continuous reference line that aligns otherwise separate elements.
Inlay: Material set into another surface to create a line, motif or contrast.
Relief: A raised or recessed surface that creates shadow and depth.

Key Takeaway

Contemporary Deco is less about period motifs than controlled richness. Establish the geometry first. Use material to reinforce it. If every element is asking for attention, the room has missed Deco's most elegant lesson: glamour needs editing.

HAUS Translation

Choose one dominant geometry and repeat it across floor, border or opening.
Use mosaic where it can establish an axis, frame a threshold or concentrate detail.
Pair reflective stone or glass with plaster, timber or matte ceramic so the room has contrast rather than constant shine.

S1: Vogue: Eagle Eye on Art Deco | - Vogue: Eagle Eye on Art Deco, Alex Eagle, September 8, 2026. Supports the current cultural argument, the 1925 centenary context and the appetite for considered, lasting design. This is informed editorial opinion, not market measurement.

S2: Livingetc: The Capston by Bryan O'Sullivan | - Livingetc: The Capston by Bryan O'Sullivan, Maya Glantz, September 3, 2026. Supports the show-apartment details, material specification and photography credits.

S3: Ballymore: The Capston launch | - Ballymore: The Capston launch, September 25, 2025. Primary source for the 247 residences, Art Deco brief and 2028 completion date.

S4: V&A: An Introduction to Art Deco | - V&A: An Introduction to Art Deco, museum authority for Art Deco's varied influences, geometry and relationship between modernity and luxury.

S5: The Met: Art Deco Paris | - The Met: Art Deco Paris, museum authority for the movement's refined craft and use of precious materials.

IMG1: Rights-cleared historical analogy for the blocked Capston bathroom. Upton House's Art Deco bathroom uses a strict axis, silver barrel vaults, red columns, mirror niches and a central star pendant. | Hero | explicitly licensed/reusable | Creator: Bs0u10e01, photographer | Original dimensions: 7345 x 4261 | Final dimensions: 1600x900 | Crop: 16:9 landscape | Asset class: topic-specific external | Parent identity: commons:UptonHOuseArtDecoBathroom_2019_02.jpg | Source | Editorial role: Provides a production-ready bathroom hero that demonstrates the same axis, framing and controlled richness discussed in the article while clearly separating the historical room from the named contemporary project.

IMG2: Main entrance to the 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts on the Esplanade des Invalides in Paris. | Section 1 | public domain | Creator: Agence Rol, photographer or agency; Bibliotheque nationale de France, source collection | Original dimensions: 8490 x 6072 | Final dimensions: 1500x1200 | Crop: 5:4 landscape | Asset class: topic-specific external | Parent identity: commons:Exposition_des_arts_decoratifs_esplanade_des_Invalides_btv1b531491023.jpg | Source | Editorial role: Anchors the centenary in the exact event rather than a later building loosely labeled Art Deco.

IMG3: Dining room in Lalique's pavilion at the 1925 Paris exposition, recorded in an early color autochrome. | Section 2 | explicitly licensed/reusable | Creator: Leon Auguste, photographer; Musee departemental Albert-Kahn, source collection | Original dimensions: 2560 x 1900 | Final dimensions: 1500x1200 | Crop: 5:4 landscape | Asset class: topic-specific external | Parent identity: commons:LExposition_des_arts_decoratifs_Interieur_du_pavillon_Lalique_A46186S.jpg | Source | Editorial role: Acts as a clearly labeled historical parallel for the section's argument about authored specificity.

IMG4: Virginia Courtauld's bathroom at Eltham Palace with a curved gold-mosaic niche, central marble sculpture and tub edge. | Section 3 | explicitly licensed/reusable | Creator: Robert Lamb, photographer | Original dimensions: 3872 x 2592 | Final dimensions: 1500x1200 | Crop: 5:4 landscape | Asset class: topic-specific external | Parent identity: commons:View_of_Virginia_Courtaulds_bathroom_in_Eltham_Palace_5796375.jpg | Source | Editorial role: Supports the bathroom section with a rights-cleared London analogue while explicitly separating it from the contemporary Capston case.

IMG5: Art Deco mosaic floor at Milano Centrale built around a symmetrical winged-wheel emblem, a strong central axis, repeated contour lines and a dark perimeter border. | Section 4 | explicitly licensed/reusable | Creator: Giovanni Dall'Orto, photographer | Original dimensions: 2816 x 2112 | Final dimensions: 1500x1200 | Crop: 5:4 landscape | Asset class: topic-specific external | Parent identity: commons:Mosaico_pavimento_Stazione_centrale_di_Milano_Giovanni_DallOrto_2007.jpg | Source | Editorial role: Makes the section's rulebook visible through axis, repeated shape, framing, contrast and mosaic construction.

Use geometry with discipline

Look for tile that can build the room's architecture, not merely decorate its surfaces. Button: Explore Mosaic and Stone Link status: Add verified collection destinations before publishing.

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