PROJECTS

Ciolino House

DETAILS

Arch / Design:		Greg Natale (web)
Type:		House
Year:		2007
Location:		Sydney
Photographer:		Anson Smart (web)

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PROJECTS BY ARCHITECT GREG NATALE

PROJECTS PHOTOGRAPHED BY ANSON SMART

Ciolino House is an unique collaboration between Greg Natale and his childhood friend / client Melissa Ciolino.

The "relative unproblematic" site is standard one-level,red-brick art deco residence in a quiet Sydney suburb. It is a building identical to countless others across the land. A ubiquitous structure that has "nice lines and good bones."

Melissa and her husband Vince began a two-month whirlwind renovation, moving the kitchen from the front of the house to the back, ripping a red-brick fireplace from the sitting room and knocking down walls, paving way for designer Greg Natale's alchemistry. The brief was broad but clear - a sense of Hollywood regency, layer-upon-layer mix of glamour, pattern and detail typified by the work of interior designer Kelly Wearstler.

The colour scheme - based around burnt oranges, greens and black are inspired by Susan O'Doherty's U-Turn. Greg chooses Florence Broadhurst's Imperial Brocade wallpaper for the living room. The paper is silver foil with a printed pattern in a champagne tone to echo the lounge suite. Greg hangs one hand-blown glass Murano chandelier in the lounge and another in the kitchen to achieve his "unexpected" repertoire. He orders rugs that matched the geometric champagne-on-silverfoil wallpaper in the hall and asks Melissa to scour outlets for quirky china, glassware and neo-classical busts. For the study, Greg designs around a black Eames chair and footstool which conveys a sense of masculinity and moody. In the bedroom, he re-upholsters Melissa's 100-year-old French antique bed, turning it from a pink, distressed, shabby-chic object into a "homage to Kelly Wearstler." The ethos of the design is about mixing neoclassical 'vocabularies' with modern 'dialect', citing David Hicks as another inspiration, Greg experiments layering with geometric patterns, overlaying opulent ornaments over minimalism. The story is different in the children's room - there is no pattern on the walls, the joinery is clean and minimalist and the detailing is kitsch-inspired fun. Broadhurst design reemerges in the bedspreads, cushions and crayon-stained ottoman.

Due to the unique relationship between the designer and his clients, the process of the Ciolino House is organic andextemporaneous