Hidden bathroom with smooth concrete walls and plaster walls

A multi-purpose room may not always suit an obvious connection to an attached bathroom. One solution? Hide it away in the woodwork.

This bathroom or powder room is adjacent to a space whose function may change over time. Designer Joe Chindarsi decided to err on the side of discretion, asking his cabinet maker to create a pivot door for the bathroom that would blend with the adjacent cabinets. Only a custom folded brass handle, designed by Chindarsi, provides a clue as to the bathroom's existence and even that doesn't look like a handle.

Inside, the bathroom is finished entirely in polished cement, providing the occupant with a comforting, cocooned effect, says Chindarsi.

"The clean-lined timber sink hangs off the wall as a sculptural element. This offers a warm, textural contrast to the concrete floor and walls, and also to a black honed granite blade wall that separates the shower from the toilet."

Brass mosaics line the back of the shower and this metal is seen again on the basin mixer and spout, as well as on the long entry handle.

In the washbasin area, a Tasmanian blackwood niche echoes the form of the basin. The internally lit cubbyhole is used as a display case.

Story by: Charles Moxham

Photography by: Dion Robeson