beach bathing

From Habitat magazine - issue 04

When a room has a real sense of place, you can imagine its setting without so much as glimpsing what's beyond its walls.

So it is with this beach house bathroom, which exudes a sense of the sea’s refreshing calm; a retreat from the landlocked business of city life. The room’s classic finishes – with the tongue-and-groove look on ceiling and wall panelling and cabinetry fronts – also lend it a sense of escape from the currently fashionable cold, harsh lines or unforgiving surfaces, referring to a gentler and more generous, intimate time.

Architect Rachel Venables says the style of the room, and the house as a whole, was influenced by the Cape Cod style of North American beach house, but also by the lofty, gable-roof form of the Kiwi woolshed. Square, white basins mounted above the benchtop, with simple, high-arching chrome mixer taps, strongly state the farmhouse feel. The exposed rafters of the ceiling and generous floor area of the room help to create its open and breezy air.

Architect: Rachel Venables of Rachel Venables Design. Flowers: Vida Flore. Accessories: Allium. Get this look using Resene Spacecote Low Sheen tinted to Resene Dutch White and Resene Periglacial Blue.

The dark-grey tiled floor adds to the sense of a robust, down-to-earth space, and looks ready for feet sandy from the nearby beach. The real essence of the bach feel, however, comes from the repeated tongue-and-groove finish. “I think tongue-and-groove is very evocative of a beach cottage,” Rachel says.

It is, indeed – especially in combination with the gentle blue of the walls, so reminiscent of summer skies washed with sea spray that you can almost taste the salt in the air.

To balance the colour palette, the dark grey porcelain floor tiles, which also line the shower enclosure and bath surround, anchor the lighter shades. They contrast with delicate shades – Resene Weathered Blue on the walls, Resene Dutch White; creamy off-white panelled doors, skirtings, ceilings; and Corian on the long vanity top. “The idea was to create a bathroom that had a relaxed feel to it, but was still quite polished; something that had a sort of generosity about it,” she says.

Use Resene water-borne enamels when painting wet areas for a tough durable finish, to minimise paint odours and provide an easy water wash up. Choose from Resene Enamacryl (gloss), Resene Lustacryl (semi-gloss) or Resene SpaceCote Low Sheen (low sheen).

The relaxed yet refined style, in this room and throughout, suits the brief from the homeowners, who currently use the house as a holiday home, but plan ultimately to retire there. Making the most of views of the sea to the north and the hills to the southwest was also an important criterion, even in the bathroom.

“The clients wanted a generous bath that related to a window, so it’s possible to sit in the tub and enjoy a glass of wine and the view, but with privacy maintained,” Rachel says.

The reddish, cedar finish of the window joinery draws attention to the outlook and, along with the wooden blinds that protect the owners’ privacy, warms up the cool-toned room. And the sense of retreat is complete, even from possible distractions inside the house. The bathroom and the two bedrooms on the first floor are the adults’ domain. Children’s spaces are on the ground level. As an escape for the couple, the room has also been designed with spacious proportions that allow comfortable use by two people at once.

Although it has been created as a quiet space within the wider home, the bathroom enjoys a sense of connection to the rest of the house, thanks to shared themes, concepts and colours. Rachel says establishing such connections is something to consider when planning any new home. Public and shared spaces throughout this house are finished with a connecting palette of Resene neutrals, which is embellished in private spaces such as bathrooms.

“More individual colours in bedrooms and bathrooms bring out little moments of surprise,” Rachel says. “From the beginning, we established an overall idea, a story of what we were trying to achieve. We kept referring back to that and looking at how we could carry it through in each room.”

You’re planning a new bathroom and you need to decide what to do about hot water supply. Sounds easy enough – but it’s not as simple as saying “Yes, please!”. Here are some of the main factors to consider:

Type of system

The main categories here are traditional water heaters with a storage tank, or on-demand water heaters, also called continuous flow systems. The advantage of an on-demand system is that when you’re not using hot water, it’s not using energy. A traditional tank system works around the clock, at intervals, to keep water in its tank warm, as heat is lost into the surrounding space. An on-demand system heats water almost instantly as it passes through the unit. Most on-demand systems run on gas, which leads us to your next consideration…

Energy source

New technologies abound, but for most homes the choice here still hovers between electricity and gas. Unless you set up your electric hot water heater to run at night, when electricity rates are lower, gas hot water heaters are generally more cost-effective.

However, new technologies can turn that standard on its head. Consider, for example, the Rheem HP 3.25, which runs on electricity and uses energy from the air to heat water, almost like a refrigerator in reverse. It can be up to 3.25 times more efficient than a standard electric hot water heater.

Another option is to use solar energy for heating water. These systems are available with their own tank or can be connected to your existing one. To make effective use of the sun’s rays, you will need a north-facing spot for the panels, and you might also want a backup heating element, so your hot water doesn’t run out when the sun refuses to shine.

Capacity

To avoid a cold surprise in the shower, make sure you consider the capacity of your hot water system. The important factor here is not just the size of the tank – if you have one – but the output. This is usually measured in litres per minute at a “25°C rise”, which means the temperature of the incoming cold water will be heated by 25 degrees. Calculate how much hot water you’ll need at the busiest time, usually morning shower time.

Space

If you have limited space inside, a gas on-demand system can be installed outdoors. You’ll also need room outdoors for gas cylinders. It’s possible to install a small on-demand water heater under the sink in the kitchen, but most of these do not have sufficient capacity for all of a family’s needs in the bathroom. In some situations, it may be possible to move an electric hot water cylinder to below floor level to save space. You may prefer to have the traditional hot water cupboard inside your home, but modern insulation will mean that its usefulness for heating the cupboard will be very limited.

words: Kelli Raybern
pictures: Lucent* Media

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