The Bathroom Becky Walked Into Every Morning
Becky’s Thornleigh ensuite had a corner spa bath she had used maybe four times, dark floor tiles that swallowed every bit of light coming through the window, and a single vanity that two people had to share at 7am. The layout fought the room rather than working with it.
What she wanted was the feeling of a good hotel bathroom. Warm, calm, nothing to scrub. What she did not want was six weeks of dust drifting through the rest of the house, a trades roster she had to manage herself, and a final invoice that looked nothing like the quote.
That last part is worth sitting with, because it is the reason most Sydney bathrooms stay dated for a decade longer than they should. The renovation is not the scary part. The uncertainty is.
What Becky Asked For
- A freestanding bath as the feature of the room
- A double vanity so two people are not taking turns
- A walk-in shower with a built in niche and proper lighting
- A neutral palette that would still look right in ten years, not one that dates with the trend cycle
- The rest of the house left livable while the work happened
Choosing the Materials
Becky worked through the palette with Empire’s in-house designer at the Dural showroom, where she could see and handle the actual tiles rather than approving a swatch on a screen.
She landed on Pompeii Travertine Cenere across the floor and walls, a warm, textural stone look that carries light rather than absorbing it. Above the bath, a Strato Slate Grey feature tile gives the room a focal point without introducing a second colour story. Brushed nickel tapware ties the vanity, shower and bath together, so the eye reads the room as one space instead of three zones.
The brief was timeless rather than trend-driven, and the palette delivers that. Nothing in this room announces the year it was installed.
The Layout and Joinery
An 1800mm wall-hung double vanity with twin round inset basins gives Becky and her partner their own space each morning. That is the difference between a calm start and a queue.
Hanging the vanity off the wall lets the floor run unbroken underneath. The room reads larger, and there is no kickboard line along the base collecting grime, which means less to clean every week for as long as you own the house.
Inside the shower, a 900 x 300mm tiled niche with a built in strip light holds everything that would otherwise sit on the floor or hang off the tapware. Recessed shaving cabinets set into the wall either side of the vanity keep the daily clutter behind a door instead of on the benchtop. Storage in a bathroom is not a luxury item. It is the thing that determines whether the room still looks like the photos in six months.
The Shower and the Bath
Three fixed frameless glass panels enclose the shower. No frame, no track along the base, no black line of mould appearing at the six month mark. A round combination shower rail pairs an overhead rose with a separate hand shower, which matters more than it sounds when you are rinsing the tiles down or washing a child’s hair.
The 1500mm freestanding bath sits beneath the feature tiled wall, fed by a wall-mounted swivel spout and mixer. Running the tapware off the wall rather than the floor keeps the space around the bath clear, so the bath reads as a sculptural object in the room rather than an appliance with plumbing attached.
Comfort Through a Sydney Winter
A 4-heat IXL combo unit handles heating, light and exhaust in one ceiling fitting. A heated towel ladder means a warm towel in July, which is a small thing that people notice every single day. Four downlights and a new exhaust fan complete the ceiling.
A licensed electrician installed all electrical work, wired to comply with AS/NZS 3000.
The Two Days Nobody Photographs
Everything that goes wrong with a bathroom in year five is decided during waterproofing. It is the one stage that gets rushed on a tight subcontractor schedule, and it is the one stage you cannot inspect once the tiles go on.
Becky’s shower and floor were waterproofed with a Duram Multithane X membrane across the entire floor and an Azcothane membrane up the shower walls, exceeding the minimum Australian Standard requirements. Empire holds its own waterproofing licence, so this stage is done by the same business that carries the guarantee, not by whoever was available that week.
Every Empire Bathrooms renovation is backed by a 10-Year Leak-Free Guarantee.
Keeping the House Livable
Becky’s brief said zero disruption to the rest of the home, and that shaped how the job ran day to day:
- Drop sheets were laid across the access route every morning and lifted every evening, so the hallway was walkable by dinner
- The skip bin arrived before demolition started, so day one was spent working rather than waiting
- The team worked in an occupied home and managed noise and access around that, not the other way around
- A supervisor completed a final site inspection before handover, so the snag list was Empire’s problem to close out, not Becky’s to chase
The Result
The room Becky walks into now is the one she described in the first consultation. Morning light moves across the travertine instead of dying on dark tile. The freestanding bath gets used, which is more than the spa bath ever managed. Two people get ready at the same time without negotiating for bench space.
The heated towel ladder earns its keep from May to September. The niche keeps the shower looking like the day it was finished. And the palette will still look considered in 2036, because it was never chasing anything in the first place.
The rest of the house stayed livable the entire time.
Planning an Ensuite Renovation in Thornleigh or the Hills District?
Empire Bathrooms has renovated 2,733+ bathrooms across Sydney since 2007, holds building, plumbing, drainage and waterproofing licences, and runs a showroom in Dural where you can see the materials before you commit to them.
Book a free design session at the Dural showroom, and an all-inclusive written quote with no hidden costs.