Table of contents for June -July 2023 in Belle

DOMINIC FINLAY-JONES and I go way back. In 2000 my husband and I bought a modest but notable house by pioneering modernist architect Bruce Rickard on Sydney’s North Shore. Dominic had worked alongside Rickard for eight years at a formative period early in his career. We took house tours together and bonded over our mutual appreciation of the Rickard oeuvre. “It was a fully immersive experience [working] with Bruce. Shopping with Bruce, cooking with Bruce, making coffee and generally absorbing his humanist attitude to life as much as to architecture,” explains Dominic, now principal of his own firm, DFJ Architects, in Byron Bay. Dominic, alongside architect Nick Kent, worked under the Rickard edict of “Draw what you know, then come back to me”. This hands-off, low-intervention approach conveyed the trust…

ROMANTIC MODERNISM The cool restraint of the cover promises much to those in search of low-key style. Featuring as an opener the newly finished home of US designer Bobby McAlpine, the book moves on to a range of his elegant projects, from a seaside pavilion in the Bahamas to a minimalist country house in Tennessee. All reflect the designer’s ethos that interiors should speak to the heart, exhibiting beauty and poetry in design. Bobby McAlpine, Susan Sully, Rizzoli, $145 JOHN IKE: 9 HOUSES, 9 STORIES Renowned US architect John Ike’s diversity of projects allows him full rein to express his talent. From a glass-and-brick creation in the San Francisco hills to a beach house overlooking the Atlantic his designs are perfectly tailored to the site, the clients and the times…

WHAT APPEALED ABOUT THE SITE? Joe Farage: My wife Katy and I fell in love with the building’s heritage. It looked like something out of Paris or Milan. It was built as the Harp of Erin pub and most recently owned by one of Sydney’s most influential art galleries, Watters Gallery, which was here in Riley Street, East Sydney, for almost 60 years. They renovated around 30 years ago, working with architect Walter Barda. From the start I loved the Brutalist concrete stairs leading to level one. It was natural to design around [them and] keep the gallery feel. I wanted our garments to sit within the beautiful, minimalist concrete architecture akin to a gallery, allowing our clothing to be the hero like art pieces. HOW DID YOU SET ABOUT…

The first contact for this home in Melbourne’s peaceful Eaglemont is the front door handle, its metallic scales a tactile reference to the craters of the moon. It’s the initial talking point in a house governed by feng shui principles, a process that involves the arrangement of spaces to achieve balance within the natural world. The concept, driven by the owners, was interpreted by multidisciplinary practice Biasol which, in the early days of the design development, consulted with an expert in the field. Thereafter, the floor plan was tweaked slightly to ensure everything was in the most favourable location possible. “We wanted to maximise our health and prosperity contact in the home, and as we had a blank slate, it was our opportunity to optimise the principles of feng shui,”…

Balancing the comfort and practicalities of family living with the style and amenity for parties and visitors was the task at hand for Studio Tate in designing this mature and masculine Melbourne home. Armed with established plans by renowned architect David Watson, Studio Tate further developed a full scope of interiors including lighting and joinery. The house was designed with formalities up front. A portico and large panelled timber door opens into a grand entry hall featuring a helical spiral stone staircase that connects all three levels, a stream of light pouring through from top to bottom. Branching off a gallery-like corridor is the dining room and formal sitting, the latter with a heavy Verias Green marble fireplace hearth and concealed bar – the ideal spot for a cocktail and…

There’s nothing quite like planning a wedding at a property to kickstart the renovations. Such was the case with this historic Federation cottage on the Hawkesbury River that became a dream project for owners Kendall Bora and Matt Doran. Having discovered the area and fallen in love with it in 2021 the couple searched the length of the river for a suitable house to buy. Matt found “the one” while Kendall was overseas for work and put in an offer, even though it wasn’t on the market. The combination of the “perfect” name – Sunny Corner – and its position right on the water where Berowra Creek meets the Hawkesbury, as well as the incredible flora and fauna in the surrounding Muogamarra Nature Reserve made it irresistible. Built in 1905,…

Industrial buildings can be challenging to repurpose without looking like faux facsimiles of their former selves or overly beautified and decorated imposters – pretending to be something they never were. How refreshing it is to appreciate buildings that have been restored with an original design infusion without betraying their more humble origins. We are lucky to feature two such projects in this issue. Firstly, our stunning cover: La Manufacture Royale de Lectoure in France’s Gers region is a former tannery now reworked as a boutique hotel. The pilgrims along the Camino de Santiago will be delighted to find this extraordinary reworked industrial gem as their place of respite. I don’t think I would be able to get back on the track after a stay there. Owner, interior designer and stylist…

WHAT WERE THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE SPACE AND WHAT APPEALED TO YOU ABOUT THE SITE? Tali Roth (principal of Tali Roth Interior Design) It was the old Acne Studios store so the interiors had a more minimalistic, futuristic look than what we were going for. The space was lovely but we wanted to inject more personality, something world class that spoke to the other Grace boutique in Church Street, Brighton (that we had also just completed), but still felt totally unique. Ilana Moses (owner): We had great bones to work with so the requirements involved lightening the space and infusing it with our own aesthetic. It’s housed in a Victorian building with an internal garden right in the heart of High Street, Armadale. I grabbed it as soon as it…

IT’S LIKE BEING THE LEAD in a superbly styled Nancy Meyers film; the wonderful thing about walking into a Ralph Lauren store is the feeling that life is fabulous, everything is in order and you are the star at the centre of this carefully curated world. The expansive new Ralph Lauren showpiece in Sydney’s Pitt Street is a journey into the exquisitely detailed life and times of Ralph Lauren. His cinematic eye and lifelong desire to create an idyllic lifestyle infuses the four storeys in the picture-perfect circa 1878 heritage building at the new Pitt Street, Sydney headquarters. And while RL has many ambassadors the man behind the brand has always been at the forefront. The opening of this seriously glamorous 700 square metre-boutique further reinforces the company’s confidence and love…

Interior designer Simone Haag confesses that she often makes things difficult for herself. But the end result of her sometimes unconventional choices is well worth the angst. In the case of this spectacular home in Melbourne’s Kew, the result of a collaboration between architects Edition Office and interior designers Flack Studio, Simone was engaged for the furnishings, art, lighting and textiles. Faced with a house of curves her inspired move was to follow the arcs of the walls and joinery with bespoke curved rugs. Not as easy as just plonking down a rectangular rug, as delays to joinery and templates caused a few tense moments leading up to the handover date. However, it all worked out perfectly and the contoured rugs are just one of the many remarkable features in…

First impressions can be deceiving. This is true of when interior designer Nellie Tilley walked into this stately federation arts and crafts home with her long-term clients. “It went from that initial meeting when we were just planning to open up a couple of doors, change the carpet and paint the walls to gutting and rebuilding the whole house,” recalls Tilley, who has reimagined four homes for the same family with three grown-up children. Set on 2100 square metres down a long driveway in Bellevue Hill, the property had a lot going for it. Built in 1919 by Sunday Times owner and entrepreneur Hugh McIntosh, Belhaven was once and still is one of the area’s grand estates. With panoramic harbour views, the spacious three-level home had a pool, tennis court…

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR WORKSPACE? Quite a mess really, to my girlfriend’s chagrin. Desks and shelves are littered with 3D prints, material samples, nuts, bolts and pieces of electrical cables and light fittings. This is a necessary evil, as the goal is to produce something physical, and I need to work with real-world objects. The space itself is in an apartment block in Sydney’s Annandale, with a wall of glass in front of my desk, a tiny balcony and a city view. Behind me sit walls of shelves, holding design books, samples and boxes of parts for projects in progress. WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVOURITE FEATURES OR PIECES IN THE SPACE? I am lucky to sit in an Eames Aluminium Group chair from Vitra. It is so comfortable,…

» In association with FANULI, Australia’s leading furniture and design brand, Belle is delighted to announce that entries are open for the 2023 INTERIOR DESIGN AWARDS » Now in its 13th year, this prestigious awards program is committed to supporting the creativity and innovation of the local industry by celebrating and rewarding excellence in Australian interior design and decoration by individuals, partnerships and design practices at residential, hospitality and commercial levels. 2023 AWARDS CATEGORIES » BEST RESIDENTIAL INTERIOR» BEST RESIDENTIAL INTERIOR – READERS’ CHOICE» BEST RESIDENTIAL KITCHEN DESIGN» BEST RESIDENTIAL BATHROOM DESIGN» BEST HOSPITALITY INTERIOR» BEST COMMERCIAL INTERIOR» BEST WORK WITH COLOUR» EMERGING DESIGN STAR» HALL OF FAME» BELLE/FANULI INTERIOR DESIGNER OF THE YEAR ENTRIES CLOSE FRIDAY, AUGUST 25, 2023 ENQUIRIES TO (02) 9282 8456 OR BELLEAWARDS@AREMEDIA.COM.AU. TO ENTER, GO…

WHAT APPEALED TO YOU ABOUT YOUR HOME? We (my partner Ben Whittaker and I) knew we wanted an apartment in the city and within Melbourne’s Collingwood or Fitzroy area. We had been looking for a small space to call home when we came across a development and thought we would try our luck in asking the developer if we could purchase one of the apartments – on the condition we could alter the floor plan and design the interiors. Purchasing off-the-plan was a little risky, but we were fortunate to be given the green light to make our mark and this gave us the flexibility of achieving an outcome that reflected our vision – and a few material bonuses along the way, such as the concrete floor. HOW WOULD YOU…

Old walls are comforting. We reclaim them; ushering them forward into new times. We conserve traces of their history and, like the lines on an old face, we take reassurance from the stories evoking a sense of ‘if walls could speak’. And sometimes, like Christèle Ageorges, the owner of this now-beautiful home, we embrace the canvas they offer – the invitation to create something new. Every year, Christèle and her husband Hubert Delance would walk a section of the celebrated pilgrim trail, the Way of St James. In 2017 the path led them up a steep promontory known as Lectoure. In the 1500s this fortification had the defensive advantage of height. Today, the history remains in the remarkably intact traditional village of Lectoure, which looks over the rich, fertile plains…

Interior designer Henrietta Summerhayes puts it succinctly, “It’s funny how challenges can end up bringing bonuses you never imagined.” Engaged to reimagine this Victorian terrace house in Sydney’s inner west, Henrietta encountered challenges aplenty but she managed to navigate them all with ease and deliver a home completely in line with the owners’ wishes. The initial appeal of the circa 1885 three-level house was its position opposite a waterfront reserve and the engaging views of the working harbour. The interior was dark and shabby but the potential was undeniable. The owners had recently completed a renovation of their previous home in Sydney’s east with Henrietta and were keen to work with her again. However they weren’t so keen on living in the unrenovated house with one small child and another…

Like so many working arrangements over the last few years, circumstance meant that renovating from a distance was unavoidable for creative director and principal designer Gillianne Griffiths of Studio Griffiths. For everyone in the architectural and interior-design community, the inability to visit sites, experience tactility and see how the light hits became decisions made across computer screens. When Gillianne was engaged to work on this home – a property that her clients had purchased online during lockdowns – she felt equally as enthused as she was nervous. “This whole project came about during Covid so everything was done on Zoom. We relied on the real estate 3D model and floorplan for the design concept and went through the inspirational imagery online too. It was really risky stuff,” she reflects. “Everything…