The best bath of the summer might not be in the bathroom at all. Across Australia, the freestanding bath is moving outside, onto timber decks, into walled courtyards and under the canopy of a garden. An outdoor bath turns an ordinary evening into something closer to a holiday.
At Volupto, we design our stone composite baths to belong in both worlds. The same sculptural form that anchors a master ensuite can sit just as naturally beside a plunge pool or at the end of a garden path. Here is how to plan one.
Why an outdoor bath works in Australia
Our climate makes outdoor bathing practical for much of the year, not just the height of summer. A warm soak under the stars on a cool spring night, or a cool one after a hot day at the beach, uses the outdoors the way Australians already live.
An outdoor bath also does something an outdoor shower can't: it asks you to stop. It becomes a destination in the garden, a focal point that gives a courtyard or deck a reason to exist.
Choosing the right freestanding bath for outdoors
A bath that lives outside needs to look good from every angle and stand up to the elements. Our stone composite baths are made to order in a solid, dense material with a smooth matt finish, and are suited to both indoor and outdoor projects.
Bathing for two: Brancusi in its 1800mm length is 900m wide, giving two people room to sit back and face each other. It is one of our favourite for an outdoor bath shared at the end of the day.
> Shape: round designs such as Raphael suit corners and sociable spaces, up to 150 cm across.
> Sculptural presence: Botero, inspired by the generous, rounded forms of Fernando Botero, has a soft oval body and a banded profile. It reads like a single carved piece of stone, and looks as good from across the garden as it feels to sit in.
> Colour: every design comes in every one of our 18 stone composite colours, so you choose the shape and the colour separately. Graphite grounds a bath against sandstone, concrete or timber decking. Garnet, a deep burgundy, brings warmth to terracotta, native planting and the late afternoon light. Alabaster and White read cool and calm against greenery.
Our most popular designs, Brancusi and Renoir, are as at home in a courtyard as they are in an ensuite.
Placement, plumbing and practicalities
Good outdoor baths are planned, not just placed. Talk to your builder or plumber early about these four things.
> A level, solid base. A filled bath is heavy. Set it on a concrete slab, stone paving or a properly supported deck.
> Hot water and filling. Plan a hot and cold supply, ideally a floor-mounted or wall-mounted outdoor mixer, rather than relying on a hose.
> Drainage. Decide where the water goes before the bath arrives and check with your plumber and council about connecting to the waste system.
> Privacy and shelter. Screens, planting, a pergola or a corner of the house create a sense of enclosure and some shade from the midday sun.
Indoors and out, one design language
The most striking homes carry the same bath inside and out: one model in the ensuite, its twin on the terrace. Because every Volupto bath is made to order, you can specify the same design and colour for both spaces and let the architecture connect them.
The look doesn't have to stop at the bath. We can match a stone composite basin and pedestal in the same colour, for an outdoor bathroom, a garden wash station, or a vanity inside that echoes the bath outside.
Planning for summer
Volupto baths are made to order, with a lead time of 12 to 16 weeks. That means a bath ordered now arrives in mid-January to February, in time to enjoy the second half of summer. We deliver Australia-wide.
See it in person
Visit our showroom in Caringbah, south of Sydney, to see and touch the collection and the full colour range. Whether your project is nearly finished or still a sketch, we're happy to help you plan the bath that lives indoors, outdoors, or both.