A newly-renovated apartment bathroom achieves elegance with marble

Designer Yvette Jay used Carrara marble tiles to bring elegance to this small Grey Lynn apartment bathroom

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The details

Designer Yvette Jay
Location Grey Lynn, Auckland
Brief Renovate an existing apartment bathroom for maximum impact

Q&A with designer Yvette Jay

What was the starting point for this bathroom?

The beautiful Carrara marble tiles. I had worked with the client before on the flooring in the apartment (a combination of timber and carpet) and we found these tiles for the walls and floor. They were the winner by a country mile. We looked at some ceramic tiles, too, but they didn’t have the same elegance.

Can you share some of the background to the project?

The owners, Nigel Rye and Adrian Tan, have lived in their top-floor apartment in Grey Lynn for some time. Nigel works with commercial furniture and loves design. We have fun working together and he’s a wonderful client. It was a two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment, but the ensuite was converted into a magnificent walk-in wardrobe. As this became the only bathroom, accessed off the living area, it had to be spectacular. We weren’t moving plumbing fittings – everything was where it needed to be. We just replaced developer’s spec fittings with a higher standard.

It’s a small space. How did the size of the room dictate your choices?

The bathroom itself measures 1.8m x 1.8m, excluding the shower, which is 80cm x 1m. This excludes a laundry cupboard tucked behind the door. Everything had to be considered for maximum impact. Because the pattern of the marble is so strong, we had to choose fittings that were simple but strong so the pattern of the marble didn’t dominate.

How is storage catered for here?

There is storage in a drawer under the vanity and also in the mirrored cabinet – we built out the wall to provide the depth for the cabinet and the recessed cistern.

shower

Design details

Tiles Carrara Venatino marble from Tile Imports NZ Basin and vanity Grandangolo from Reece Basin tapware Dornbracht IMO wall-mounted basin mixer from Metrix Towel rail Milli from Reece Shower tapware Dornbracht and Almar from Metrix Toilet Axa X-Tre back-to-wall in-wall toilet pan Lighting Laser Blade by iGuzzini from ECC Mirrored cabinet Custom designed and built by Woodstar.

Photography by: Samuel Hartnett.

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