A Colour-Filled Family Home Renovation
Interiors
Harmony House by Altus Design Studio. Select styling items throughout from Mecque.
Diiva Pedestal Swivel Stool by Grazia&Co. Victoria lounge by Stylecraft. Park View I by Lata Shetty.
Dark green joinery stands in contrast to the pops of pastel blue and coral-tinged terrazzo.
The kitchen was relocated to the rear of the home.
Painting by Leah Bartholomew.
The custom striped banquette seat was inspired by an initial reference imagery.
Vintage Cesca chairs. Custom Branchflower pendant by Giffin Design.
Muuto Oslo lounge chairs from Living Edge. New blue joinery painted Dulux Sell Out. Various artworks by Leah Bartholomew, Annie Lucas, Kristina Engelin, Stephanie Phillips Ceramics, Tracey Lamb, Kerryn Levy.
Ligne Roset Anda swivelling armchair and Ligne Roset Asola floor lamp from DOMO.
In the media room. Snow Gum, Snowy Mountains by Henry Gold OAM. After the Rains at Jerry Plains by Amelia Horvath. Print from Fitzgerald Letterpress. Painted plates by The Storybook Rabbit. 1960s photos of Istanbul, found at a flea market and framed. Kunanyi Sunset by Michelle Evans. Embroidered foxes by Coral and Tusk.
The stairwell was reconfigured to create a five-metre-tall library for the owner’s record collection. Tikida Deep Blue rug from The Rug Establishment. Library ladder by Groth and Sons.
Muuto Soft side table from Living Edge. Ligne Roset Roll Desk from DOMO. Vitra Akari 1AY lamp from Living Edge.
Rosa Del Garda from Worldstone.
The girl’s bedrooms are located upstairs.
Study spaces are nestled neatly under the raked ceiling.
A window seat and built-in joinery also minimises the need for furniture.
The Balmain cottage from the outside.
A long hallway welcomes you to the home.
Altus Design Studio founder Josie Simpson starts every new project with a few keywords that help form her vision for the space.
For the clients of this renovated 1876 Balmain cottage, the words were: ‘textural, playful, creative and colour-filled’.
The design process started with an image Josie had seen online of a pink bench seat beside a timber table with striped legs, with quirky artwork hung on the wall behind. She felt it summed up the look the clients were going for, and they all agreed the ‘eclectic feeling’ of the space was ‘spot on’.
‘My clients are colour lovers, and this was evident in their home before I started the design process,’ Josie adds. ‘However, it was really limited to their art and objects as opposed to furniture and finishes, so I stepped it up a level and they loved it!’
Just like in the inspiration image, Josie designed a striped banquette seat in two-tone pink leather in one corner of the living area, with deep-forest green joinery in the kitchen nearby.
‘We didn’t want the house to be an ode to green, so I consciously contrasted the green and coral terrazzo island bench in the kitchen with blue stools, which then gave license for the blue pendant over the dining area,’ she explains.
This harmonious approach to embracing colour set the tone for the rest of the interiors. Pale blue joinery creates a playful storage the refreshed living room, while a deeper midnight blue was used in the study’s five-metre-high joinery wall — giving the owner a dedicated a library for his extensive record collection.
It helped that the clients also had a ‘very open brief’, allowing Josie to make recommendations that could solve some of the ‘inefficiencies’ the family had noticed after living in the home for 12 years.
‘The rear living area was so large and wide that it wasn’t really being utilised,’ Josie says. ‘By incorporating the kitchen into the existing rear living space, we created a second lounge room where the kitchen used to be located — which is game changing for a family with kids about to embark on teenage years!’
Upstairs, the redesign took a few metres off one of the two bedrooms to make way for a new bathroom to service the second floor. ‘There was lot of space behind the existing walls in the raked ceilings, so we pushed all joinery including desks, shelves, and robes into this space so the room itself didn’t need to accommodate as much furniture,’ Josie adds.
‘When I stand back and reflect that we haven’t added any square metres to the home, yet we added a second living room, bathroom, more usable space in the girls’ bedrooms and a fully functional study, record storage room… It’s incredible.’
‘All of the spaces flow much better, and it is still a spacious home. Considered spatial planning can bring amazing results.’