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Interior designer Ralph Rembel sits at a modern but beaten metal table on the deck of his small Sydney apartment.
The deck is a work in progress, but the interior behind the glass doors is a transformation -testimony to the power of good design, and remarkable given the mundane 1990s building it sits in.
Rembel is business partner to interior designer George Freedman at Freedman Rembel. He began his career working with Freedman 18 years ago on projects such as the interior of the legendary (but now demolished) State Bank of NSW:
The apartment, bought in 2001 was Rembel's
first step into the Sydney real estate market. While the layout was sensible, the spaces were by no means generous.
Ralph and his wife spent the first six months stripping back the unit and refinishing it themselves.
Now, the interior's sense of largesse is enhanced by a couple of design devices.
One is the use of aluminium coving at
the juncture of the wall and ceiling rather
than the shadow line detail favoured these
days. The curve allows the wall to flow seamlessly into the ceiling, removing some of the 'boxiness' of the interior. Then, dark carpet and white walls is, according to Rembel, a classic way to enlarge the sense of a room. The carpet, designed for a Freedman Rembel commercial project, is a wool-cut pile with black, brown and purple threads that together create a complex colour.
Colour has always been a part of Freedman Rembel's architectural thinking. "We use compositions that go across the full spectrum, but in a harmonious palette;' says Rembel, "like a landscape where you have a wonderful vista made up of a whole series of colour elements. You aren't living with just one colour focus."
Here, Rembel has applied colour in proportioned paint panels like pictures on the walls. The seamless join at the ceiling line presented a problem as to where to stop a wall colour. But also, "entire walls of colour would have dominated the scale of the interior,"
says Rembel. "Having them scaled down increases the sense of the volumes."
Rembel marked out the panels himself with a fine detailing tape that doesn't tear the undersurface when it's removed, and then applied paint with a roller and brush.
"My father is a painter, so from the age of 12 I worked every holidays with him, right through to university. By the time I was 24, I was pretty good at it."
Each panel (in Evergard paint) is centred on the walls, except in the main bedroom where a panel centres on the bed. A panel in 'Seal', an olive tone, beside the kitchen, and the terracotta-hued 'Hiawatha' behind the dining table denote herbs and spices, but are elegant enough to contribute to the living area. In the main bedroom is something "a bit more exciting; the orange and green -hot and cold together".
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