A case of a bathroom bringing down the house

Overlooking the ocean, Katy's home has a grand yet traditional style. While the rich tones of the new bathroom and toilet are intense, the stone colours are in keeping with the leadlight windows and warm walnut-stained flooring.

Don is a tiler by trade and his work on some very extravagant projects has honed his style. For Katy's home, he recommended unique Taiwanese dark green marble for the upstairs bathroom-toilet and rich red Alicante marble for the guest toilet on the ground floor. The stone is all-encompassing, covering floor and walls.

Setting off the complex marble patterns are shutters, sinks, toilets and spacious bath tub in classic white. The frameless glass shower screen ensures an open feel that may otherwise be lost amid the dark stone. Katy selected the fittings for the bathroom under the expert guidance of her designer. 

Don's dedication to the stone is impressive. Painstaking preparation ensured that each tile is on exactly the same angle as the next one. This creates a seamless reflection on the marble, so that it appears to have no breaks at all. The tiles are almost 25mm thick and Don has also used large panels in some sections of the bathroom, such as behind the bath and under the window frame.

"You need to honour the stone," says Don. "You can't just throw it in. It's been carved out of the mountainside and that's the way it's naturally been formed."

Preparation for these tiles surpassed that of a normal ceramics job. Every effort had to be made to protect the Taiwanese green marble from coming in contact with any cement or cement-based adhesives.

"Cement reacts with the copper in the stone and can cause big chunks to explode and break off. It can look like it's had an acid wash and start to break down," explains Don, who has learned this the hard way. "We had that experience before; that's how we know what to do with green marble."

Don MacDonald

Orchid Bathrooms

What was the brief?

The bathroom had to be in keeping with the waterfront mansion in Sydney, so I thought it should be stone rather than ceramic tiles. To complement it, we used a frameless shower screen and European mixers. So we matched up everything in the bathroom to the same level and tried to open the space.

How does this design improve on the old bathroom?

The old bathroom was fairly dated and not well put together. In a modern bathroom we try to make the whole thing flow. So we used clear glass and full-glass shower screens. By having the floor-wall joints match up in the tiling we opened the space up as opposed to separating the floor and the wall.

Why was stone the best material to use?

When I deal with clients with houses of that sort of value, I really encourage them to use stone. There has been a great deal of use of the white marble with a grey vein, but when we get into these coloured stones like the greens and the reds, sometimes even the yellows, the beauty is extraordinary.

How did you treat the green marble?

The sides and the backs of the Taiwanese green marble tiles had to be coated in epoxy first, to seal the tile off. If there's any cement in the solution - and most adhesives and grouts are cement based - it reacts with the copper in the stone and causes big chunks to explode and break off.

What do you like most about this project?

The downstairs toilet is my favourite room. It's been laid in an Italian Alicante, which is a red stone with beautiful white veins through it. Each bit of stone has been laid perfectly flat and you look at a reflection in the wall; there's no deviation between tiles. 

Katy

What was the brief?

We wanted something that wasn't fussy, with some strong clean lines. And we wanted to use marble floor to ceiling. We chose a dark green marble and also had a small toilet in a reddy marble. They both worked very well. We were very happy with the end result because it's not fussy.

What inspired you to use such rich colours?

Originally I had looked at white marble with a yellow vein, but after talking with Don, we thought we'd go for something a bit stronger. And we were happy that we did.

How does the marble and colour of the bathrooms work with the rest of your home?

We have a lot of stained timber in our house. The floors are a walnut colour and the staircase is similar. We also have leadlight windows on either side of the front door and the double doors to the lounge and dining rooms, which complement the marble colours. It's quite a traditional house. 

What challenges arose during the renovation?

The bath we chose is cast iron and it's a very deep one. We actually had to dismantle the staircase to get it up and it took about six men to lift it. It will never come out again. But it's fantastic - it's a deep bath so that you can sit down; it's got places to rest your elbows and stretch out.

What's your favourite aspect of the bathroom?

The heated towel rails are a gift. They are hard-wired into the cabinet, so we've got it on a timer but you don't see any of that on the wall. It's set so it comes on morning and evening but you're not having to turn it off and on.