Best designer suite is great escape for Mum and Dad with five children

When you stay in a luxury hotel, it’s often the bathroom that impresses the most. And that’s just the look the owners of this Auckland home wanted for their private suite.

With five children, and a lifestyle that involves frequent professional entertaining, the couple asked designer Shelley Ferguson for a bathroom that would give them “a boutique, hotel-style experience, while establishing a strong connection to the surrounding coastal landscape”.

The suite Ferguson designed to meet this brief has just won the Trends International Design Awards (TIDA) New Zealand Designer Suite of the Year Award.
To achieve privacy, the cohesive suite occupies its own dedicated wing, accessed through “statement” double doors. Ferguson says these were designed to provide a “distinct sense of arrival and separation from the rest of the home”.

The bathroom features Invisible White marble, which was carefully mapped and installed to ensure continuous vein alignment across multiple surfaces and sharp changes in direction around a central dividing wall.

Positioned to frame the coastal views, an origami-inspired Apaiser bath sits against the glass wall. And a large skylight brings additional natural light deep into the room, shifting the tones and visual movement within the marble throughout the day.

There’s also a large, walk-in wardrobe featuring bespoke cabinetry paired with leather-fronted joinery, custom floor-to-ceiling brass shelving, and tailored internal organisation systems within every drawer.

The TIDA judges say they were impressed with how the suite reflects the owners' design sensibilities while maintaining a calm, highly functional environment that elevates everyday routines.

Powder room drama

Katie Scott of Sticks+Stone Design won the TIDA New Zealand Powder Room of the Year award with a dramatic powder room in a Northland beach house.

Scott says each bathroom in the house takes its inspiration from a native bird - for the powder room the owners chose the tui. Rather than a literal representation, the design focuses on the bird’s plumage, colour and movement.

Deep grey-blue tones on the ceiling and walls create a sense of immersion, while turquoise accents echo the iridescent sheen of tui feathers catching the light.

Scott says because this is a beach house, functionality was a priority. A shower was positioned close to an exterior door so guests can rinse off sand and salt before coming inside.

To soften the geometry of the space, a curved wall introduces an organic, sweeping line which recalls the movement of a wing and the rounded fullness of the tui’s breast.

For the TIDA judges, this design delivers the expected drama of a powder room while celebrating a uniquely New Zealand icon.

Other winners this year were Teri Donnelly, TLD Studio & QPC Build Group, who won the TIDA New Zealand Bathroom Designer of the Year award for a bathroom in a Matakana home, while Mike Greer Homes Marlborough and Jamie Durrant, Durrant Design won the TIDA New Zealand Group Home Builder Builder of the Year for a Nelson project.

“No single dominant direction’

Paul Taylor, chairman of the TIDA judging panel says In reviewing the entries and preparing them for the judging process, it became obvious that there’s no single dominant direction in bathroom design right now.