Bay Builds: Kyal and Kara reveal powder rooms, wine rooms and bedrooms
In the first two video episodes following Bay Builds – ex-Block stars Kyal and Kara Demmrich’s latest property adventure – the couple has revealed two-out-of-three bedrooms, the main bathrooms and spacious home offices in two, mirror-image new builds on the NSW Central Coast.
This week, they reveal the downstairs powder rooms, wine rooms and third bedrooms.
Moody, bold tones are continued in the Spanish-inspired House Two where a vibrant, red clay basin adds impact in the downstairs powder room. A matt-black steel frame supporting the basin complements the statement black toilet, dark rock salt tiles and copper tapware.
Creating such a statement space was intentional for Kyal and Kara. “I want people to walk down the hallway and look down there and go, ‘Oh, wow!’” Kara says.
While the red basin might be a unique accent within the house, other choices help to tie it all together.
“We don’t have the red colour anywhere else in the house but we have the copper tapware, and the wall light in the powder room is the same as the wall lights in the main bathroom,” Kara says. “Those common threads make [the clay basin] feel a bit more cohesive with the rest of the room even though it is a statement piece.”
In contrast, House One‘s powder room stays close to its French-inspired aesthetic with the same champagne-coloured tapware found throughout the house, plus light tile colours and an integrated basin that appears as though it’s floating, thanks to the floor-to-ceiling mirror.
Utility was key when planning these powder rooms, and their positioning on the side of the house with easy external access was highly intentional.
“We’re beachgoers, so for me, it’s like, ‘How would I live in this house?’” Kara says.
“If we’re going for a surf of a morning and we’ve got sand all over our feet, we’re going to walk straight down the side of that house and directly into that bathroom.”
While the couple are well versed in bathrooms, with more than 35 renovation projects under their belts, building the temperature-controlled wine rooms has been a whole new challenge, Kara says.
The couple changed the floor plan and swapped the powder rooms for wine rooms, adding a sense of grandeur in the entryway that will help draw people into the house.
“We spent a lot more money on them than we thought,” Kara says. “We couldn’t do a room that just looked like a wine room – we had to do it properly.”
The couple decided to line the walls with the same statement stone found in the entryways and the exterior.
“We thought, we have this beautiful stone wall at the entrance, it’d be cool if there was a bit of stone [in the entryway], and then a bit of stone out the back to help draw people through.”
Not content with one statement feature in this space, the couple added a sweeping helical staircase in both homes, leading up to the second floor. The indoor garden beds nestled below are “another way to bring the outdoors in”, Kyal says.
Up the stairs, and the most striking feature of the third bedroom greets you as soon as you walk in – lush garden beds floating right outside generous windows.
The garden beds “were originally on our plans to be balconies, but they get a lot of that western sun and we thought, ‘No, we’re better off planting that out and creating a beautiful green wall,’ Kyal says. “We feel like that’s a better use of space in those back rooms.”
In House One, a coastal artwork inspired the soft pops of blue throughout the room, and a formal cornice along the ceiling adds to the French-inspired style of the home.
Handmade ceramics, natural brown tones and a relaxed ceiling cornice lend a tranquil, resort vibe to House Two’s third bedroom.
“A decorative cornice can help tell the story of a room. It’s subtle but all the different layers help to build the story,” Kyal says.
Both rooms show telltale signs of the couple’s meticulous planning of the Bay Builds project, with an elegant stone detail bordering the statement micro-cement feature wall.
This stone was “nested from our kitchen slabs of stone”, Kyal says. “Instead of offcuts that stay at the stone mason, we asked to plan the cutting of the slab so that we can use those offcuts on this bed. It’s a smart way to use every bit of material you have.”
Bay Builds is Kyal and Kara’s latest property series, with new episodes and room reveals dropping weekly. We’ll be covering every room reveal and you can watch the episodes here.
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