The clients behind Cera Stribley’s Coolatai House share an insatiable love of the great outdoors. To reflect the serenity of the surrounding environment, every aspect of the house has been designed with nature in mind.
Tucked away atop a verdant hill overlooking Wye River, along the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, the site provides astonishing views that the owners simply fell in love with. Creating a dream coastal getaway in this exquisite locale became their mission.
The brief for the design was to create an enduring coastal home – low maintenance and robust – with considerations for ageing in place. One space where the designers were given carte blanche was in envisioning an extraordinary bathroom.
Bringing nature to life in an unexpected and visceral way is an internally glazed wall that has been digitally printed with lush foliage. To achieve this immersive effect, architect Matt Hainsworth (associate at Cera Stribley) borrowed a friend’s DSLR camera during a site visit, capturing a series of breathtaking photos of the wild forest. The result is a stunning experience that evokes a sense of oneness with nature, especially when standing in the shower.
Desiring a main bedroom and bathroom as luxurious as a hotel suite, the spatial planning, fixtures and materials elevate this notion of serenity further, in particular with the exquisite antoniolupi Reflex bathtub. A generously proportioned dual-basin vanity, which doubles as both a room divider and a bedhead, creates a central core that opens up the views to a backdrop of verdant Eucalypts in both the bedroom and bathroom.
Project details
Location – Wye River, Victoria, Australia
Traditional custodians – Gadubanud people
Architecture and interiors – Cera Stribley
Photography – Derek Swalwell
