Thursday 28 March 2013

Marie Antoinette's Bathrooms

Marie Antoinette was one of the few at the French court who insisted on frequent baths which is exactly what these rooms were used for.
These rooms are located on the ground floor in the Queen's small apartments. Marie Antoinette had them created in 1782 and the new rooms consisted of: a bedroom, a library and the bathroom. 6 years later the Queen had the rooms refurbished and the wood-panelling decorated by the Rousseau brothers. During the 1830's these rooms were dissembled but the rooms are now restored to the state in which the Queen lived. The furniture in the bathroom now counts:
  • A bed from Fontainebleau (formerly belonging to Louis XVI)
  • A gilded console table from the bathroom of Madame Adélaïde  
  • A copper bathing tub, tabs for water and a pail to wash your feet in 
  • Chairs
  • Candlesticks
All this helps to bring us back to the rooms designed by Marie Antoinette herself.



Close-up of the wall decorations

The newly redecorated bathroom


And these are the Queen's bathroom from the first floor:


The bathroom on the first floor also included an "antechamber" (if you like) that lead into the bathroom. The paintings on the wall were painted by Jean Baptiste Oudry and was originally made for the interior cabinet of Marie Leszczinska and were painted in 1749.




1 comment:

  1. I'm thinking about giving my home a major improvement, especially the bathroom. I'm quite inspired with the style you presented in the post, do you think it's going to be hard to do something similar? I saw that these bathrooms aberdeen look stylish as well.

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