Manly Waterfront Apartment — Two Bathrooms

The brief

A waterfront apartment in a well-kept 1930s-influenced block on the Manly harbour side, with both bathrooms untouched since a mid-1990s refit. The owners were clear that they did not want the flat, grey apartment renovation that every second unit in the building had already had. They wanted something classic that belonged to the building — panelled joinery, pattern, and black tapware with brass rather than chrome.

What we found

Two constraints, both known before we quoted. The strata by-law required an acoustic report on the floor build-up, insurance certificates and SWMS from every trade, work inside 8am–4pm weekdays, and every delivery through a single lift booked ahead. And the building sits close enough to the water that the original exhaust ducting had corroded through in both rooms — replaced in marine-grade material rather than patched, because a coastal apartment will do the same thing again to anything cheaper.

What we did

The main bathroom took a white shaker double vanity with twin above-counter basins, a green subway feature wall on the vanity side, marble-look porcelain elsewhere, a walk-in shower behind a frameless panel and a freestanding bath at the window end. The second bathroom runs the same joinery and tapware but leans harder into the classic reference: a patterned encaustic-look feature wall carried down onto the floor, twin arched black mirrors, and a built-in bath. Black tapware with brass accents throughout both rooms ties them together.

The outcome

Twenty-eight days on site for both rooms once the by-law was approved. Final contract $64,900 including GST, including $2,900 for the marine-grade exhaust replacement — found at inspection and signed off before we started. Quoted separately the two rooms came to $76,400, so doing both at once saved about 15%.