A garden-inspired luxury bathroom has been revealed as the winner of the 2013 I Love My Bathroom competition, the annual Reece search for Australia’s best bathrooms.
Yes, this bathroom belongs to a real couple, not the pages of a magazine!
Category: House Tours
He just sold it, reportedly for around a million bucks after spending five months renovating himself (trust me, I know Darren and there was a lot of hard work!). Want to have a look for yourself and play judge the judge?! See the pictures and video at ninemsn here.
This apartment, by David Hicks, is in the iconic Banff Building on St Kilda’s famous Fitzroy Street. It was once used as an army barracks by the Americans during World War 2.
“The owners came to us as they liked what we do and had been following our work. They are a professional couple who had downsized from a larger home nearby to allow freedom to travel while providing a bolt hole in their home town,” says David. “The apartment has been the home of many notable St Kilda icons due to its prime position overlooking Albert Park towards the city skyline.”
It’s not huge, as 85 sqm, with two bedrooms, one with ensuite, a powder room, study, separate dining, living and kitchen. “Although we are known for our many high end large scale luxury apartments and residential building designs, the clients could see that our aesthetic of modern luxury could be related to a smaller space. They had an understanding of how we combine architecture with decoration and our dedication to detail and material selection. We have a very strong focus on achieving quality design that is both intelligent in its layering and comfortable.”
Minor structural works were undertaken with one large bathroom divided in two to create an ensuite for the master bedroom and the powder room, complete with shower, that can be used with the second bedroom.
It’s always a delight to share one of Greg Natale’s stunning projects here. They’re guaranteed to look gorgeous, of course, but this is a really interesting one too. It was done in two stages: first the front of the house, and then, a few years later, the back. “The front is more pretty and feminine and about her. The back is more about the husband, a builder.”
The formal living room (above) is Greg’s favourite part of the 1940s red brick house in Sydney’s Five Dock. “It’s just stunningly beautiful. I love the green, orange and yellow together, I always have. It’s very Brady Bunch.”
Darren Palmer is having a good year. First, he was guest judge on The Block and now he’s done the interiors for Jennifer Hawkins’ new home, published in this week’s OK! There’s not space to talk about everything else in between, like co-presenting at decoration + design with me (surely the highlight?)!
While his work’s been on the pages of mags like Belle and Real Living, a women’s glossy is a first for him. “It was fantastic,” he says. “I really enjoyed seeing Jennifer in the pictures with the interior finishes we worked on together. She makes a fantastic styling prop!”
Laura and Mark Greaves fell in love with their Art Deco upper duplex in the Northern Beaches but soon decided its tired kitchen would be their first major renovation project.
Laura says: “We wanted it to be very open and airy, so we knocked out the wall between the kitchen and the dining room. It’s made such a huge difference. We now have a proper entertaining space. It’s open-plan but can still be completely closed off from the living areas. We wanted a sleek, modern look that was a little bit different. There was no way I was going to have one of those cookie-cutter ‘Caesarstone-and-a-red-splashback’ kitchens you see everywhere. I’m a big fan of very dramatic colour palettes and initially wanted jet black units, but Mark and our kitchen designer eventually convinced me that a dark charcoal grey would be less imposing and more practical. I’m glad I listened!
“We also wanted lots of bench space as the old kitchen was very cramped. And I wanted open shelving to display my two-dozen cookbooks, as I like the splash of colour they add to the otherwise monochrome room.”
Was it hard choosing a modern kitchen for a character home? “We did briefly consider going for a full-on Art Deco look as I’m completely obsessed with the era but the original tiling in the kitchen was in a sorry state and couldn’t be salvaged,” says Laura. “We also realised pretty quickly that, although we are lucky to have lots of character in our house, it actually has quite a modern look and feel thanks to our furniture, flooring, colour scheme and artwork.”
Since knocking the wall out, Laura loves that she can cook and chat to dinner guests at the same time. “Oh, and I love my dishwasher – it’s a trivial thing but the old one used to make the dishes dirtier than when they went in, so having them come out clean is still a novelty!”
Their next major job is the original green Art Deco bathroom. “It’s not actually waterproof and is leaking into the walls! But we’re a lot less sure about what we want to do with it than we were with the kitchen, so we need more time (not to mention money) to ruminate!”
The Greaves’ kitchen was designed by John Olsen from Collaroy Kitchens.
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