In Camberwell, a lush suburb of Melbourne, a young family has entrusted The Stylesmiths with the restyling of their Victorian home.
The designers oversaw the transformation from an informal apartment for a family with small children to an elegant and sophisticated home inspired by the New York abode of Italo-American icon Carmen Dell’Orefice.
The main goal of the Matlock House was to transform a Victorian style home into a chic and artistic mix of vintage furnishings with contrasting decor elements to highlight the owner’s collection of art objects and prints.
Danielle Brustman, interior designer for The Stylesmiths looked to identify the obsolete elements that could be sacrificed in order to inject more personality and style into the environments. After a thorough analysis, furnishings, fixtures and surfaces were removed that according to the designer, rendered the area flat and boring. Brustman then proceeded to layer in a new color palette that could accommodate a vast array of materials and finishes.
Each room was painted with a different color, leaning towards the soft and subdued tones of pastel pink and blue. Meanwhile, bold contrasts in intense green, navy blue, black, gold, and magenta were scattered throughout in the form of furnishings, varnishes, wallpapers, and surface treatments. Folding in textures, Brustman employed surfaces like glossy, reflective glass to rich velvet, and textiles in wool, linen, and leather. By assigning each space a different color, rooms are more effectively separated and take on distinct identity.
Old upholstered chairs are given new life with a bottle green velvet lining, while the dining table takes on an entirely new identity thanks to a fresh coat of lacquer in Black Japan and black glass. Each environment pairs decorations and light fixtures to create continuity throughout the apartment while simultaneously lending a distinctive identity to the individual spaces. The core concept was to treat each room as a whole, where colors, textiles, and materials blend harmoniously to guarantee a strong impact throughout the entire project.
in opening "DIVERSE ELEMENTS IN THE COMPOSITION ARE COORDINATED WITH A NEARLY MANIACAL ATTENTION TO DETAILS IN A CONTINUOUS GAME OF ECHOES AND CONTRASTS"
