THE AVENUE BY ARENT&PYKE
‘The Avenue’ is an Arent&Pyke project very dear to our hearts. We have won a number of national awards with this project and it continues to be shortlisted for many more national and international awards! The Avenue was featured in Vogue Living earlier this year and it is most certainly time to share this home in its entirety!
This 1880’s terrace in Randwick called for an update that would respect its grand heritage and uplift the spaces, revealing its beauty and creating new moments of joy. Respecting the original architecture, the success of this project relied on our ability to marry a modern family life lived within old walls with a timeless style executed in a contemporary fashion.
Once a boarding house, some rooms were stripped back to their original forms, while others were repurposed to provide a study, master robe, ensuite and bathroom. Our collaboration with the architect led to the design of new openings in the kitchen extension, and the important integration of new exterior forms with the existing envelope.
In homage to the timelessness of the existing architecture, our materials palette for the built elements was intentionally restrained. This allowed us to layer colour and texture in the decorative phase of the project. We undertook an intensively detailed curatorial design process to celebrate the grandiose architecture, harmonise the clients’ varying aesthetic and develop an eclectic yet cohesive; balanced yet unexpected; collection of spaces. When designing the spaces we worked with a range of materials, and details which complement each other to create a character for the home which is both cohesive and eclectic.
We approached the rear extension kitchen with a timeless application of classic materials and iconic pieces. White joinery, a stainless steel workbench, basalt benchtop, accents of American oak are complimented by iconic lighting from Artek to resonate with the strong black steel framed doors. Clean and uncluttered, the bold colour palette was developed in response to the clients’ much loved Enzo Mari “Apple” print.
In the formal living spaces and master bedroom, deep hues of blue and sea-green anchor the decorative schemes. Responding to the opulent scale of the bedroom, the custom-designed bed, ottoman, and antique armoire are all overly-scaled elements. Highly detailed Fornasetti wallpaper wraps through the master dressing room and ensuite, reducing the scale in these more intimate spaces with its hand-drawn appeal and whimsical cloud motif. Window treatments with accents of silk and the decorative lighting call the eye to the vast ceiling heights.
There is a recurrent preoccupation in our practice with creating spaces that are unique, individually tailored and decorative yet not over decorated. The Avenue reveals the very nature of our design process of ‘curating’ and ‘creating’, a careful balancing act. The idea of creating spaces and using finishes that could withstand the next two hundred years was importantly at the front of our minds.
‘The Avenue’ was the kind of project we always dreamt of, a unique and inspiring synergy between client, architect Tom Ferguson of TFAD and Arent&Pyke.
Credits: Photography by Anson Smart, Shoot styling by Megan Morton
