Review: New Greg Natale Flagship store

By Penny Craswell

Interior designer Greg Natale has made his name through bold yet elegant colours and geometries, gradually augmenting his interiors with ranges of his own designed objects, homewares, textiles and more. Now, for the first time, you can browse the entire collection at the new Greg Natale Flagship store in Sydney’s Potts Point.

Greg Natale Shop, Sydney. Photo: Anson Smart

The shop itself is also designed by Natale, with floors in his own Rubato tile made with Jurassic marble, teamed with pale grey wall and ceiling finishes and elegant high arches to a wall niche and doorway.

Custom-made visual merchandising tables and round plinths in the same Jurassic marble and in a grey fluted finish create sculptural stands for the display of goods on sale.

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Review: Marrickville Library by BVN

By Penny Craswell

The new Marrickville Library by BVN is a strikingly beautiful adaptive reuse of an existing hospital building, which was originally built in 1871 and is heritage listed. BVN won an invited design competition for their scheme, which favours a community-first approach with a heavy emphasis on sustainable building practices.

Marrickville Library entrance by BVN. Photo: Brett Boardman

“Incorporating a building as historically rich as the old Marrickville Hospital, and developing it into a piece of contemporary architecture, to meet the needs of Marrickville’s diverse community, was a truly rewarding project for us,” says BVN Project Director Brian Clohessy.

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Sydney bayside home, with bookcase

By Penny Craswell

Sam Crawford Architects has refreshed and rationalised the interiors of this townhouse in Sydney’s Blackwattle Bay to create an expanded, streamlined and light-filled home with a focus on the beautiful things in life, including art, objects, books, and views of the bay and city skyline beyond.

Blackwattle Bay Townhouse by Sam Crawford. Photo: Anson Smart
Blackwattle Bay Townhouse by Sam Crawford. Photo: Anson Smart

The first step in this renovation was to shift and expand the kitchen and living areas by moving the study. The newly enlarged kitchen features a generous brass-clad island bench as a centrepiece, with green tiles on the splashback, white cabinetry on the back wall and black cabinetry on the island. Along one side of the kitchen and adjoining living area, a wall of plain white cupboard doors conceals a large pantry to the left and a stunning drinks cabinet and bar with wine storage in warm timber to the right.

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Review: Tayim restaurant at the Harbour Rocks Hotel

By Penny Craswell

On the ground floor of the Harbour Rocks Hotel, with dining overlooking busy pedestrian street Nurses Walk in Sydney’s The Rocks, is Tayim, a new restaurant, bar and deli with design by architecture studio Welsh & Major. The exterior brick facade has been restored and updated, while the interiors are a lesson in successful adaptive reuse, pairing historic sandstone walls with minimal design insertions to create a blank canvas for complex Middle Eastern flavours.

The kitchen at Tayim restaurant, Harbour Rocks Hotel by Welsh & Major. Photos: Tom Ferguson

The project was made all the more challenging by the heritage constraints to the site, which was previously the 1890s Evans’ Stores warehouse, as well as the considerable functional requirements of creating a working restaurant, bar and deli.

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Review: Reflection Pods by Lucy Simpson

By Penny Craswell

Three large dome-like woven structures have been installed in a seating area at Westpac’s Sydney headquarters as a physical manifestation of the bank’s Reconciliation Action Plan. Conceived and designed by Yuwaalaraay woman Lucy Simpson, these “Reflection Pods” are as part of the bank’s new interiors by the design team at Geyer, who worked with Simpson to realise her concepts.

Reflection Pods at Westpac Sydney by Lucy Simpson, Koskela and 21 Indigenous artists from the Northern Territory. Photo: Maree Homer

Initially Simpson had envisioned that local artists would weave the Reflection Pods, but in the end, the structures were woven by artists from Elcho Island Arts and Milingimbi Art and Culture thanks to a collaboration with Australian design brand Koskela. Koskela already has a history of working with the artists from Elcho Island Arts on their Yuta Badayala series of light shades. Read more

Design and maximalism: the anti-Minimalist movement

By Penny Craswell

There is no doubt that the world of architecture and interiors has been under the calming, ordered influence of modernism and minimalism for a long time. Especially in Australia, the majority of designers prefer clean lines, simple colour palettes and form follows function – there’s even a magazine about it. But if you sometimes like breaking rules and shaking things up a bit, Maximalism may give you the licence to follow your patterned dreams.

Maximalism is a direct response to Minimalism – it layers bold pattern and colour on top of each other. Fabulously expressive, Maximalist interiors and designs offer the designer to get really creative – to explore play and to indulge in an orgy of extremes.

Drake Commissary in Toronto, mural by artist Alex McLeod. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid

The Drake Commissary in Toronto includes the work of a number of artists in an evolving exhibition called “Fast Forward”. Most spectacular is a huge mural by artist Alex McLeod called Ancient Hills, which spans 10+ metres and depicts an incredible fantasy landscape created using 3D modelling tools. Other works include textile works, sculptural pieces and video art.

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Review: The Doss House Bar

By Penny Craswell

There’s nothing quite like a whiskey bar – it conjures images of smoky rooms, timber-lined walls, leather furniture, and of course, damn fine whiskey. Sydney’s The Doss House fits this criteria (apart from the smoky air, which is probably best) and adds some more.

A fireplace at a whiskey bar – The Doss House, designed by Buck & Simple. Photo: Tom Ferguson

Design studio Buck and Simple is responsible for the interiors, which reference the building’s past as an opium den, gambling house, bootmaker and boarding house dating back to the 1840s in the historic precinct of The Rocks. Read more

Review: The Collectionist Hotel

By Penny Craswell

Checking into this hotel is a unique experience. Each room features a different design, with distinctive colours, textures, objects and even layouts, creating and evoking various moods – and you get to choose which one to stay in. Are you feeling playful today or quiet? Artistic or minimalist? Do you want to keep company with an expressionist artwork or would you rather luxuriate in a fake fur bed spread? Do you want to be enveloped by a sexy all-black room or transported to Africa?

Rita Velour room, designed by Amber Road, Collectionist Hotel, Sydney. Photo: Terence Chin

The Collectionist Hotel in Camperdown, Sydney, is the brainchild of entrepreneurs Daniel Symonds and Toby Raphael. Symonds was inspired by a car hire process in the US that allowed him to inspect the various vehicles for hire first. At The Collectionist, this opportunity to select your own room yourself puts the guest in the driver’s seat (so to speak).

The earlier you check in, the more options there are, with open doors to rooms that are available and hangers on the door indicating the different categories you can choose from (determined by price). When you select your room, you let your friendly concierge know, and are welcome to enjoy a free drink from the bar on the ground floor – a small nook with distinctive stone walls and floors and a neon sign that says “I hope this looks good online”. Read more

Review: Little Bonny’s chicken shop

By Penny Craswell

A French-style interior in a chicken shop and cafe in Sydney uses layered geometries to create an inviting space for diners. Interior design studio Luchetti Krelle were appointed to bring a fresh and modern take on the classic Australian chicken shop in this suburban shopping mall in Menai in Sydney’s South.

Little Bonny's chicken shop by Luchetti Krelle. Chairs by Design by Them. Read more on The Design Writer
Little Bonny’s chicken shop by Luchetti Krelle. Chairs by Design by Them. Photo: Anson Smart

Their approach makes use of a variety of textures and colours layered to create a sense of elegance that is also calm and inviting. Concrete, terrazzo, timber and copper all feature in this interior, with bespoke lighting, joinery and upholstery adding to the character of the space. A white backdrop is given depth thanks to pale pink, navy blue, duck egg green and warm mustard yellow. Read more

Review: Alleyway bar, Sydney

By Penny Craswell

Alleyway is a new micro whiskey bar tucked in a laneway behind 200 George Street in the centre of Sydney. Interior designers Angela Biddle and Shehani Kumarasinghege from Scott Carver had to make use of every millimetre in a tiny space with a width of only three metres.

Alleyway, with bottle shelving made of apple crates, interiors by Scott Carver. Photo: Luc Remond

Everywhere you look in this little spot, there is an interesting detail or pattern. Recycled Tea Grey timber was used for the bar front, contrasted with Bronze Verdigris metal finish for the bar serving ledge – this will patina with time. Read more