keeping up appearances

From Habitat magazine - issue 31, bathrooms

A pair of heritage bathrooms really clean up.

Refurbishing a heritage bathroom is a labour of love, and not one for the faint of heart. But for those with a passion for restoring older spaces back to their original beauty, and an inspired colour palette to back it up, the results can be sensational.

Lucky for a beachside cottage in Oamaru and a villa in Waiuku, they each found new owners keen to bring them back to life.

The former has a rich history as one of the oldest timber houses in the North Otago area, one that dates all the way back to 1872. Given its age, the homeowners were faced with a big decision: to renovate or start from scratch with a new build. They began drawing up concepts for a new home that would have character features but they kept being drawn back to their original home and what could be done to refurbish the existing property. They turned to designers Annabel Berry and Meghan Nockels of Design Federation to help bring out the best bits of the original home.

“The intention of the design was to combine the historical cottage look with a coastal beach feel,” says Annabel.

“We had two site visits to Kakanui Beach and Campbells Bay to review the main colour cues that inspired our palette. Using the Resene Colour Palette Generator tool, we were able to see from our photographs what paint colours we could use that were directly generated from our surroundings.”

In the bathroom, they went with classic Resene Duck Egg Blue on the walls complemented with crisp Resene Half Black White panelling while Resene Eighth Parchment was used for the doors, architraves and ceiling. The old claw foot bath was original to the home and was restored by a car painter in Oamaru; it has since become a crown jewel of the home.

Over in Waiuku, Jane Thorne and her husband Pim Slagman became enamoured with a century old villa and the couple have been working hard on it ever since they bought it in 2015. They knew that they wanted to embrace the age of the home while sticking to a very tight budget. For them, it meant that most of the restorative labour fell to their shoulders.

“The hours and hours of sanding were one of the biggest challenges, but it was worth it to get the perfect paint finish,” says Jane.

When they began work on the bathroom, Jane discovered the original tub when she found its taps poking out of the wall. It had been completely boxed in by previous owners.

“Curiosity got the better of me and I decided to see what was underneath and began to dismantle the structure. I barely slept that night as I was so excited to discover an enormous claw foot bath underneath!”

“It was in terrible condition, with rust around the drain and rough, peeling paint all over. We had it restored to its former glory by a bath resurfacer and we couldn't be happier with the work.”

Jane says she was inspired by the soft pastels popular in the 1950s, which became the basis of her bathroom palette. She selected Resene Half Pale Rose for the walls with Resene Quarter Villa White for the tongue-and-groove panelling, ceiling, trims and architraves. For the tub, they chose buttery Resene Pale Prim and Resene White for the feet.

To Pim, the newly restored bathroom is grand, spacious and classic with a nod to its heritage. For Jane, the space feels tranquil and has become her favourite room in the house.

Do you have a photo that inspires you? Load it into the free online Resene Colour Palette Generator and it will suggest a palette of Resene colours to help you get started. Try it out at www.resene.com/palettegenerator.

Top tips for freestanding tubs

Deep and luxurious, freestanding tubs feel timeless in any bathroom. But, before you purchase one, make sure you’ve taken these considerations into account:

• Be sure your bathroom is big enough to accommodate one. Freestanding baths tend to take up more room than built-in models and need space between them and the wall. The plumbing and tapware will also take up extra room and will be more visible than it would be with a built-in.

• If you opt for a footed tub, you’ll need to clean beneath it. Even freestanding tubs that sit flush on the floor will leave a gap between the wall and the bath that may be tough to reach when cleaning. But, if you have space to place it in the centre of the room, it can actually make cleaning easier.

• Your bathroom floor needs to be strong enough to support not just the weight of the tub you choose, but the weight when it’s filled with water and has someone sitting inside. This is particularly important if you are putting a tub on the second floor of your home as the floor may need to be reinforced first.

• Make sure you have a place to store soap that’ll still be within reach when you’re in the bath.
  

Designer (blue bathroom): Annabel Berry and Meghan Nockels, Design Federation
Images: Rachel Wybrow, Jessica Gernat