INSIDESIGN named as award finalist for Kitchen and Bathroom Designers Institute of Australia (KBDi)
Great news! My design has been nominated as a finalist in two KBDI Design Awards categories this year: Design Space (other than kitchen or bathroom) and Traditional Design. I’m very excited about this honour and biting my nails in anticipation of the final resuts!
The winners will be announced mid-August – meanwhile you can vote for the People's Choice Awards in here.
Here's a before and after view of this project.
Brief
My clients live in Inner West Sydney in a stunning Victorian manor house from the early 1900s.
The brief was to transform their large but disused, beige front room into a sophisticated, elegant lounge with two specific zones. A room where the adults of the house could entertain friends over a drink or watch TV — away from the bustle of the teenagers.
This is what the room looked like before: it had great bones – soaring ceiling and period features. It just wasn’t used and it lacked a meaning and purpose.
Before – the room was only half used
Before – TV area
Before – a second dining area that was hardly used
Before – a beige room
After – two separate zones for relaxation
After – the TV is hidden inside a cabinet
After – a cocktail lounge for the parents
After – fresh and bold
The colours and furniture would need to be bold but elegant, fresh but still in touch with the period character of the home. The joinery would need to house a well-equipped drinks cabinet with a fridge in one end of the room and a TV in the other end.
As an extra challenge there were air-con floor vents in the area where the cabinetry was to go and they had to be taken into account.
Cabinetry
This room is classically symmetrical space, so I began there. I divided the room to two areas with back-to-back curved sofas. The two pieces of joinery in each end of the room are of similar proportions outside but hide very different functionality inside.
Overview of the room layout
The drinks cabinet on the right is placed amongst a comfortable seating group with cocktail tables. Inside there’s a mirror-lined cocktail bar with a handy pull-out tray underneath for mixing the drinks. The F&P fridge drawer is placed half inside the kickboard space to keep the heights practical and balanced. A carpenter carved the fridge ventilation through the kickboard and skirting board. Air-con vents were directed with a cowl through the kickboards.
Drinks cabinet with a mixing tray underneath. Double door at bottom right is a fridge drawer.
TV is installed with a bracket arm inside a cabinet
The TV cabinet hides a bracket mounted TV when not in use. Originally I designed the TV cabinet with pivot sliding doors but due to budget limitations they were changed to bifold doors.
Both cabinets have ample display space with lighting in the top part, really highlighting the stunning height of the room.
Colours
This room is right off the entryway, which we painted with the stunning Dulux Angry Ocean. It’s one of my favourite Dulux colours, and I used it to create a bit of drama to match the glamour of the home’s exterior and build a sense of anticipation.
Following on from the moody, dramatic entrance hall, I wanted to invite a lighter, fresher feeling into the lounge room. I also wanted a feeling of glamour and serenity, so I chose two shades of Dulux green.
Dulux Brassica was the perfect wall colour — the green is bold enough to evoke a sense of romance and luxury, but light enough to match the brightness and airiness of the space. I complemented the wall colour with a slightly deeper green in Dulux Brussels for the joinery. By keeping these in the same colour family, I was able to create consistency and depth in the room.
Two tones of green
Finally, I highlighted the beautiful period features with a bright, clean white that would give the space a bright, airy, and welcoming feel, consistent with the rest of the home.
Fabrics and furniture
The client specifically wanted patterned fabrics and initially we looked at quite bold fabrics for the sofas. Eventually we settled for two plain green tones for the two curved custom sofas and used a beautiful Designer Guild floral fabric in the smaller furniture and cushions only.
Tabletops repeat the marble and gold tones from the fireplace and chandeliers.
My clients love their new space and use it every day.
All photos were expertly styled by Viktoryia from Domi Interiors and photographed by Helen from Inward Outward Photography.
I was a finalist at the Design Awards also in 2020 in small bathroom and laundry categories. That time I didn't place at the top - fingers crossed for this time!
Do get in touch if you want your house redesigned in award winning (well, nearly!) way.
PS. How did it go?
I won the KBDi Designer Award 2022 in a national category "Design Space"!