HARBOURSIDE HOME
Tammy Miconi
Inner West Interior Designer
Eastern Suburbs Interior Designer
Sydney Interior Designer
Best Interior Designer
Interior Architecture
Interior Decorator
Interior Designer
Interior Designer Sydney
HARBOURSIDE HOME
The top two floors of a newly built 7-storey boutique apartment building on Sydney Harbour was purchased by clients we’d worked with previously. Downsizing from their family home, the clients were transitioning to easy apartment living where they could enjoy the proximity to the city. The apartment still needed to include bedrooms for the children to stay as needed. It also needed ample wall space to showcase an extensive art collection, to take advantage of incredible harbourside views, and to incorporate the clients’ love of natural stone.
We devised a design concept based on a neutral, yet elegant approach encompassing a masculine aesthetic whilst maintaining softness. The subtle bullnose detail to the benchtop within the solid, structured oak joinery in the kitchen reveals this considered sense of contrast. Similarly, a balance was struck between the natural textures of the materials palette, the bold art collection representing Australian artists and a more minimal aesthetic for the design and detailing.
Considering the clients’ love for natural stone, the waterside location and outlook, we felt it important to incorporate natural materials throughout. We selected pitted limestone flooring and custom dark stained European oak, to create an elegant masculine base for the palette. The oak is finished with a natural oil, which gives the boards a matte finish while still allowing the timber texture to be felt underfoot. Venetian wall plaster adds to the neutral, textured scheme, and each of the bathrooms feature a different natural stone including marble, limestone and quartz.
The double-sided fireplace is the defining feature within the Living Room, clad in a honed sandstone to all four sides. Made of large slabs cut to size with minimal joins, the soft texture provides an intriguing backdrop to showcase a significant piece from the client’s art collection. Two-way glazing through the fireplace allows a sneak peek through to the harbour views, drawing you through to the other side where the full extent of the panorama is experienced the moment you arrive on the landing.
We sourced solid blocks of Hermes marble for the custom curved detailing around the kitchen island and rangehood. These are designed with a single join to maintain purity and elegance, rather than laminating together several smaller pieces. We added this curved detailing to the kitchen to soften the strong framing and colour of the stained oak joinery, adding a touch of refined femininity to an otherwise masculine space.
Floating a curved stone rangehood was something we had never done before as well as floating a refined 20mm thick stone benchtop over two solid stone legs of the island. Both of these features required significant engineering to ensure the right aesthetic – and that they were both structurally sound.
We selected a natural aniline leather for the upholstery of the Master Bedroom walk-in-robe doors. We wanted a soft plush finish, so the leather was pulled back with a soft infill.
All the bathroom vanities, including the drawer fronts, are wrapped in stone. We avoided mixing materials to maintain the purity of the stone as the focal point of the space. We collaborated closely with the stone mason to cut and book-match stone flooring and walls for the bathrooms, working through photo montages based on slab sizes and the exact dimensions of the bathrooms to ensure the stone veining aligned perfectly prior to installation.
Photographer: Prue Ruscoe
Film Production: Tommy Devy