Stepping into a room that reflects the colours of the Australian bush instantly creates a sense of calm and connection. Warm terracotta from the outback, soft ochre of sunlit soil, and the muted greens of eucalyptus leaves bring the natural landscape indoors.
At Sticks & Stones Co., we know designing with these tones can create spaces that feel grounded, welcoming, and in harmony with the environment. Whether you’re redecorating a living room, planning a backyard makeover, or curating artwork for an office, understanding Australian landscape colours and how to use an earthy colour palette can transform your space from ordinary to inspiring.
Our concrete basin collection reflects the colours of the bush, bringing the warmth and subtlety of the Australian landscape into your home. Explore the collection to see how natural tones can shape your space and inspire your design choices.
This guide will explore what earth tone colours are, how to build a palette inspired by the Australian landscape, and practical tips for designing with landscape colours that feel authentic, balanced, and inviting.
Table of Contents
- Understanding Australian Landscape Colours
- Creating an Earthy Colour Palette for Your Bathroom
- What Are Earth Tone Colours?
- Common Earth Tone Colours and Their Meanings
- Tips for Bringing the Colours of the Australian Bush into Your Bathroom Design
Understanding Australian Landscape Colours
We’ve always been inspired by the Australian bush. There’s something about the warm reds of the outback, the soft ochres of sunbaked soil and the muted greens of native trees that is both timeless and comforting. These colours tell a story of the land we live in, and we’ve found that homeowners across Australia are drawn to interiors and spaces that reflect that natural connection.
That’s why our colour range takes its cues straight from the bush. Each shade is chosen to capture the essence of the landscape, whether it’s the earthy warmth of a riverbank clay or the subtle blues of water rippling in the wind. By bringing these tones into your home, you create spaces that feel grounded, welcoming and unmistakably Australian.
Climate and local flora play a huge role in shaping these colours. Sun-bleached soils, vibrant wildflowers, and the muted greens of native trees all contribute to the palette, creating a harmony that is unique to each region.
Understanding this helps us design a palette that doesn’t just look good but feels right for the Australian environment, making it easy for homeowners to connect their interiors with the land around them.
Creating an Earthy Colour Palette for Your Bathroom
To introduce some warmth and balance, it’s important to complement some warm and earthy tones such as terracotta, ochre and sun-baked clay with some cool and neutral hues like muted greys, softer greens and stone-inspired tones. This will add dimension and ensure that the space doesn’t feel flat and one-dimensional.
Not only does this earthy colour palette nod to some of the natural textures found in the Australian landscape, by introducing elements such as timber vanities, concrete benchtops and textured tiles, you can create a bathroom design that is layered, tactile and more inviting.
For those who prefer contemporary and urban spaces, design elements for industrial interiors can also be combined with an earthy colour palette. Think pairing raw metals, concrete finishes and exposed brick with warmer, earthy tones and natural textures that will help soften the space but keep the lines modern and structured.
What Are Earth Tone Colours?
Earth tones are, as you might guess, colours found in nature: warm, muted and grounding. They can be vibrant terracottas and sandy beiges, soft greens and slate greys, and they all have different vibes and energies.
Common Earth Tone Colours and Their Meanings
Colour can influence the way we feel, the way we remember and even the way we experience a space. Earth tones have the ability to promote a deep sense of grounding, warmth and connection to nature.
The more you learn about what these colours mean to you personally, the more intentional you can be about bringing them into your home and creating spaces that look beautiful, feel meaningful and truly speak to you.
Let’s dive into some of the most common earth tones and how they might add to your space.
Barossa
Barossa is a landscape full of warmth, richness and character. The deep reddish-yellow hues of the valley's soils and sands are classic earth colours. They're anchored in the natural pigments found in the landscape. But they also have a glow that evokes the sun-soaked vineyards and rolling hills that are so characteristic of the region. There's a depth, a warmth, a vibrancy and a sense of history in these colours.
We were inspired by Barossa because it epitomises the Australian landscape. It's bold but approachable, earthy but elegant. We wanted to interpret that in our colour range, to give homeowners the opportunity to bring a little of this world-famous wine region into their homes - perhaps with an orange concrete basin, or with matching design features.
Jimbour
Jimbour is a deep, grounding colour, a true earth tone. Inspired by the rich, dark soils of the Jimbour Plains in regional Queensland, the colour evokes a sense of stability and resiliency, and a quiet, inner confidence. Jimbour is a colour for reflection and connection to the earth, bringing a sense of calm and grounding into your home.
Our black concrete Jimbour collection is an obvious connection to this natural colour palette. The depth of Jimbour highlights the structural strength and raw beauty of the material, and turns this essential, functional design piece into a real point of design difference in your home.
Jimbour works beautifully at home, too, used in combination with lighter neutrals, natural timbers, or textured finishes to let its emotional warmth and strong, grounded presence anchor a room, without upsetting the equilibrium.
Whitehaven
Whitehaven is our ode to Whitehaven Beach in the Whitsundays; a colour that perfectly captures a sense of clarity and calm. When it comes to practicalities, this white with a touch of grey is not only beautiful, it's a workhorse too. It's brilliant for light bouncing around in smaller bathrooms and compact spaces, it offers a neutral base for anything and everything, and of course, allows the timber, metals or bolder features and fittings to really sing.
Choosing from our Whitehaven collection is also a sure-fire way to find that perfect equilibrium of balance and longevity. There's something so fresh and natural about its understated elegance, and the resulting look that gives you the freedom to play with textures, materials and finishes, while still maintaining a feeling that is totally timeless and easy to live with.
Fraser
Inspired by the soft, golden sands of K’gari (previously known as Fraser Island). This warm neutral is the stuff of natural wonder and serenity. For when you want to invite a little calm, grounding, and timelessness into your home, Fraser is the hue to create spaces that feel open, relaxed and effortlessly inviting.
Honouring the island’s Indigenous name, K’gari, which means “paradise”, we wanted to do more than bring the tranquil magic of this special place to your bathroom. Our beige Fraser concrete basins let you bring a bit of connection to nature indoors, a versatile, enduring colour that works with both bold and subtle design choices. It’s a tone that not only looks good, but feels good, with the calm, escape and simplicity of sand, sea, and sun.
Maleny
Inspired by the rolling green hills of the Sunshine Coast hinterland, Maleny is the perfect name for a colour that's all about peace, balance and connection to the earth. Its muted green tones encourage calm and rejuvenation in your home - it's perfect for a bathroom you want to feel like a sanctuary for recharging and reconnecting with yourself.
Pair any products from our Maleny collection with natural timbers, soft neutrals or stone textures to create a bathroom with a completely cohesive, harmonious feel. It will work in either a modern or rustic bathroom, and its natural, earthy tones will keep your bathroom grounded and relaxing.
Cradle Mountain
Cradle Mountain draws inspiration from the snow-capped peaks of Tasmania’s mountain ranges and the light, soft grey tones that often blanket the sky above. It’s a colour that’s both gentle and enduring, light yet with a sense of quiet strength. Cradle Mountain is the colour of grounded spaces that also feel open and approachable, with a sense of calm clarity about it; the stillness of mist on the mountain slopes, the cool whisper of the wind, the enduring presence of the land itself.
Emotionally, this collection of earth toned concrete products can speak to a sense of stability, reflection, and reassurance. It’s a colour that asks you to pause and consider, providing a subtle backbone in a room while allowing other elements and colours to shine. There’s an element of resilience in its lightness, reminding us that strength doesn’t always have to be bold or loud; it can be steady, quiet, and all-pervading, like the mountains themselves.
Bondi
Bondi is based on the shimmering waters and light sands of the world-famous beach in Sydney, Australia. It is all about that easy cool, breezy energy that comes from the coast in a soft, light blue hue. It’s not earthy in a conventional sense but is based on natural elements of the sky and sea and that soft, light wash of colour found on the ocean and in sunlit surf, so it is an earth tone by extension. It’s about open space and wide horizons, feeling calm and free.
Our Bondi range has the lightness of the first morning surf and gentle cadence of the ocean. It evokes space to breathe, refreshing expansiveness and a feeling of weightlessness. It will lighten up the energy in your home and bring a little sense of play and ease of coastal life into a room while still being a natural, calming colour palette.
Oberon
Somewhere deep in the pine forests of Oberon a small, inquisitive mushroom is quietly coming into being. Blushing pink amongst the damp, grey forest floor. It may not be loud, nor imposing, but it’s at home in the dark and quietly confident in its place amongst the trees. Oberon is the colour of this mushroom, a reminder that beauty isn’t always brash, but thrives best when it takes time to show itself.
The beautiful in-between of the natural earthy grey and the blush of a newborn mushroom. Drawing from both, creating an organic pastel without ever becoming cloying or detached. A colour that sits quietly in a room, yet still has an impact and refuses to be ignored.
If you’re after a colour that isn’t afraid to whisper secrets to you, our Oberon collection is the one for you. An earthy, Australian tone that leaves enough room for that splash of surprise we all crave.
Barren
Brown is the colour of the natural world. It’s been there all along in the soil, bark and stone that cradle us, yet in design it’s often been the quiet workhorse, put upon and ignored. With Barren, we bring it back. We take it back. Brown as a tone of depth and warmth and grounding.
The name is inspired by Cape Barren, an isolated island off the coast of Tasmania. The land there is rough and the seas are wild. Beauty comes at you not polished and prim, but weathered and wild, and tough. Barren is the reminder: often our most elegant moments are in the “ordinary”.
Barren coloured concrete carries that grounding energy into the home. Style them right and they won’t drag a space down, they’ll anchor it. Think warm neutrals and textured timbers to create a layered, organic space. Or push back with crisp whites, brushed metals or even soft pastels to let the richness of Barren speak in understated sophistication.
Barren is not about show. It’s about substance. It’s a colour that makes a space feel inhabited and rooted and complete.
Hart
Under the hot sun of South Australia, at Lake Hart, the salt flats turn pink. It’s not paint or an artificial process. It’s minerals in the earth, reflecting light over time. It’s not easy to capture nature’s magic and use it as an inspiration. But that’s exactly what we set out to do when creating the Hart basin colour.
Pink as an interior paint colour can come across as either too fun or a little too sweet. Hart is in a league of its own. Sourced from the crystalline hue of pink salt, this colour has a gentle, but punchy quality to it. It has the warmth of a desert sunset and the richness of a natural stone.
When styling our Hart products, the approach is a balance between contrast and tone-on-tone layers. Bathrooms will see the tone rendered in pale timbers or a touch of brushed brass to heighten the natural warmth of the colour. In kitchens or alfresco areas, it’s a natural point of difference to pair with darker shades like charcoal cabinetry, dark olive or even greys with a concrete edge.
Taking colour inspiration from Australia’s own salt lakes gives Hart a little twist of the surreal. It’s as if nature is saying it can always do better than us, when it comes to colour.
Uluru
And sometimes, the best is saved for last. More than just a colour, this deep, earthy sandstone is a pigment that has been etched into the land. Inspired by Uluru, the iconic monolith at the very centre of the Australian continent, this shade is as rich as it is grounding.
Uluru is a living, breathing, sacred place which is looked after and respected by the Anangu, the Traditional Owners of the land. From sunrise to sunset, the hues shift from rust red to deep maroon, capturing all the drama of the Australian outback. Our brownish-red concrete products aren’t an imitation of that, but a respectful nod towards it, drawing on its natural palette to create a sense of connection within the home.
In design terms, this colour works in the same way as the land it’s inspired by: strong, sure and commanding attention without having to shout. Try it paired with muted neutrals, and allow it to take the lead, or use it as part of a palette that also includes stone, terracotta and timber for an authentic Australian feel.
Tips for Bringing the Colours of the Australian Bush into Your Bathroom Design
Whether it’s the warm, muted greys of stone, the rosy blush of salt lakes or the inky darkness of Uluru itself, there’s a whole range of beautiful earthy tones to explore. Earth tones like these help to bring the natural beauty of the bush into your bathroom, and at the same time they can create a feeling of balance and timelessness.
There’s a sense of place and a story to be told behind the colours of the Australian landscape. Remember to work with layers when you use these colours in a bathroom space. Combine statement hues with softer neutrals to balance out the overall effect, or mix in elements of texture through timber, stone and matte surfaces that reflect the raw beauty of the bush.
Inspired to start? Order a few colour samples so you can see these rich tones in the light, on your bathroom surfaces, in your home. If you’d like some help creating an earthy, distinctly Australian bathroom, or if you’d like to see our complete range of colours, get in touch with us today.