176 Australian House & Garden
Zen zone
The main bathroom of Meghan Butterfield
and Rohan Atherton’s home in Victoria’s
Dandenong Ranges reflects the couple’s
desire for a simpler life. “We’re tree-
changers and our whole plan was to live
a more relaxed life in the hills,” says
Meghan. “I wanted the bathroom to fit in
with this aim and to be a place of retreat.”
THE APPROACH Built on a generous
scale to work for a family of four, this
bathroom features a handcast, concrete
bath as its centrepiece. “We initially
intended to buy only basins but when we
visited the showroom, I turned around to
find my husband lying in the bath. He’d
fallen in love.” Physically getting the bath
into their new build proved challenging:
it was craned in before the floor-to-
ceiling windows were installed. Penny
round tiles were chosen for their delicacy,but applied judiciously. “I wanted to use
them in a relatively dry area of the room,
to minimise cleaning the grout around
them, so we used them on the feature
wall that divides the bath and basin,”
says Meghan. The shower recess is
tucked to the le of the bath. “It’s
concealed with a frosted shower door
so that it’s almost invisible.” The basin
is set on a recycled and stained slab
of messmate timber and paired with
a sleek all-in-one mixer.
THE RESULT This bathroom is a joy to
spend time in. “It caters well for a young
family,” says Meghan. “My four-year-old
daughter loves swimming around in the
bath but it also provides a beautiful
time-out zone for tired parents.” #
To see the winning bathroom and more
great design ideas, go to to http://www.reece.
com.au/bathrooms/i-love-my-bathroom.H&G ADVICE
Styling by Judy Ostergaard. Photograph by Michael Gordon Hill.KEY INCLUSIONS
❖Oval bath, $9900,
and Pod basin, $2200,
Boyd Alternatives.
❖For similar mosaic tiles,
try 97709 Mono penny
round mosaics in White,
from $6/324x310mm
sheet, Beaumont Tiles.
❖For similar floor tiles,
try Docks porcelain tiles
in Graphite, $77/m^2 ,
De Fazio Tiles & Stone.
❖Zucchetti ZXS shower
and bath mixers, $265/
each, Mary Noall.
❖Messmate slab, $365,
Shiver Me Timbers.
❖Grundtal hooks, $3.99/
pair, Ikea. For Where to
Buy, see page 196.