PROJECTS
St Margarets Penthouse
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| Apartment | ||
| 2005 | ||
| Sydney |
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IT WAS THE first time an interiors magazine had been asked to decorate a penthouse display apartment, but when the developers of St Margarets in Surry Hills, Sydney, approached Vc1gue Uving, we agreed to the project only if we could do something unexpected, bold and eccentric. In a word, experiment. Too often display apartments are a bland, predictable assembly of off-theÂÂrack furniture, devoid of excitement or soul. St Margarets, designed by architectural firms PTW and SJB, uniquely com bines a converted hospital with new residential blocks in an inner city urban village. It offered a compelling opportunity to suggest alternatives, and break some rules. We did not approach this as decorators or designers, but rather as magazine editors. Our role is to present ideas, provoke thought and stimulate the imagination. We curated this interior, gathering the things that we love, to make a living gallery of furniture, textiles, rugs, objects and artwork, aiming for new discoveries at every turn. Where we couldn't find a piece to express a particular idea, we commissioned artists and artisans, Australia-wide, to make it for us. The aim was not to create a polite, tasteful interior, but rather, one that reflects the reality of the collector - a tapestry of interesting objects acquired over time. We used colour and pattern courageously, and every room in the two-storey space presented opportunities for a new idea, a different mood. The living area - the largest space - required the most thought. How to resolve a dining and living room, cater for entertainment technology, and offer the unabashed glamour that a penthouse with spectacular Sydney views requires? Conceptually this space became for us the 'Peggy Guggenheim Salon', a moderne Italian melange of furniture and art - classic and refined, bold, even brash. We didn't shy from 'over the top'. Instead of a single antique gilt mirror, we filled an entire wall with them. For the neighbouring wall, Hans Bilstein painted a giant triptych in the surrealist style of de Chirico. For the remaining wall, art consultant Virginia Wilson curated a floor-to-ceiling art wall of contemporary Australian works with Flemish paintings and photographs. As a nod to new media, we incorporated into the art wall miniature screens (supplied by Avisum) and a large Bang & OlufSen plasma screen between the artworks, each playing a digital art video moving images among the still ones. In the kitchen, the tone was set by the vibrant 'Wattle' fabric by Julie Paterson of Cloth, that Beilby Workroom made into curtains. Donna Marcus's playful sculptures from old aluminium kitchenware were hung like fish kettles above the sink. For the curious, Object Gallery (also part of St Margaret's) installed vignettes of glass art and ceramics inside the cupboards. The bedrooms became thematic playgrounds, where one idea led to another. The black boudoir was inspired by the work of Sydney textile designer Ilias Fotopoulos who had a black gloss on matt linen fabric he wanted to turn into wallpaper. The boudoir walls became the prototype, and when Adelaide furniture maker Tom Twopeny agreed to black-lacquer his four-poster timber day bed for us, we knew the room would smoulder. And it did. Next to it is the white bedroom. For this, we invited Fiona Lyda, who hosted an exhibition of white paintings by Carnie Lyons at Spence & Lyda earlier in 2004, to create a natural room - not the well-worn white-on-white. The main bedroom we saw as a romantic folly in pink - all silk and sequins, tapestry and taffeta ball gowns, with a mural by artist Ebony Bizys as a backdrop. The den downstairs was for the travelled hunter/gatherer. Among the antique club chairs, berber rugs and brindle cow hides, are artefacts from the personal collection of Vogue Living contributing editor Antonia Williams, who was "excited to see them gathering dust on someone else's shelves for a while".The terrace off the den has spectacular Sydney views and was transformed by Ken Lamb of Imperial Gardens into an ikebana garden, inspired by the skyline. There are many people to thank for this project. The retailers, tradespeople, artists and consultants who generously lent us their products, time and effort, collaborating with us in the best spirit of creativity.
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