When exploring Melbourne’s property market mid-pandemic, communications professional Michael Cooley found an off-the-plan apartment that ticked most of his boxes.

Specifically, it was a studio in a new Brunswick building, being developed by Milieu and Neometro, and designed by Fieldwork and DesignOffice, that caught his eye.

‘It had a lot more space than other one-bedroom apartments I’d checked out and offered a level of quality I hadn’t come across when looking at similar price points,’ Michael says.

‘The apartment shell came with generous 3.4 metre off-form concrete ceilings, timber oak flooring, and extensive glazing that opened onto a full-width balcony. I knew the building would look great.’

Michael purchased the 51-square-metre studio with plans to completely personalise the space, with the design expertise of his architect partner, Brett Robertson, who is the co-director of Robert Nichol + Sons.

They began refining the interior while the building was under construction, focusing on design solutions to define each ‘room.’

‘My partner even created a to-scale layout, which included key items of furniture I was looking at purchasing (sofa, divider, table) to work out whether they could work and how they might sit in the space… kind of like my own little 2D dollhouse to play with!’ says Michael.

Key to unlocking the space was creating a custom floor-to-ceiling shelving unit — which essentially divides the apartment in half — leaving the kitchen and bedroom on one side, and living area on the other. The shelving unit also houses a bar, and a television concealed by a velvet curtain.

‘It anchors the entire apartment and the space wouldn’t work without it,’ says Michael of the shelving unit. ‘It was always going to be a bit of an unknown and we didn’t know whether it would dominate the space until it was installed… but once it all came together (like a box of lego really) it was incredible and fits perfectly.’

Colour also works to define zones in the apartment, as seen in in the use of green and and orange — colours Michael is naturally drawn to. ‘It led me to a few other bold and bright choices,’ he says.

‘Limited by the apartment size, I decided that I would only collect quality and classic design pieces and not overfill the space with too much furniture.’

Pops of intense colour are balanced across the walls and joinery (featuring a combination of Dulux Raw Sunset, Algae, Grey Jade, and Natural Flow), artwork, and even the kitchen tap. ‘The orange Vola kitchen mixer is a bit of fun…I was told when it was ordered they said they hadn’t received an order for an orange one before!’

The customised studio is now perfectly suited to Michael’s lifestyle.

‘I have never needed a lot of space so I felt like a studio would be a good fit. This offers me plenty of space even when it’s a full house with my partner Brett and dog Daisy,’ he says.

‘My previous apartment had no outdoor space and was 35 square metres total, so this is a major improvement!’