Issue 66

Kitchen & Bathroom Issue

Kitchens and bathrooms are, arguably, the most consequential rooms in the home — and almost always the first to be considered. Whether approached through renovation or new build, their design has the power to recalibrate how a home is lived in and experienced. For this issue, our guest editor, Mardi Doherty, principal of Studio Doherty, explores what it truly means to transform these pivotal spaces — and why thoughtful design in kitchens and bathrooms delivers dividends far beyond the purely functional. Her insights both as an architect and as her own client give an open and honest account of the thinking behind creating a home.

Order Issue

Explore

Subscriptions

Habitus

Connect

Network

A Product of

People Habitusliving Editor

Sara Thorn and Piero Gesualdi

Meet Piero Gesualdi (yes, the owner of that
house in Habitus 08) and Sara Thorn, who bring their creative passions together
to create textiles and interior products.

You can see Piero Gesualdi’s home in Habitus issue 08.

What are your individual creative approaches/aesthetics?

Sara: Creativity to me is an innate
gift, which I express through my love of colour and ideas. I enjoy spontaneous
inspiration, where something inspires me and a million ideas pop out, I allow ideas
to evolve before I think too much about them and then go back and work on and
develop an idea/design, trawling through historical and traditional references
often inspire me further

My aesthetics are wide and varied, I gravitate towards the individual
self expression, the artisanal and the quirky, I admire designers such as Paul
Poiret and Christian Lacroix that fuse traditions with a personal sense of
opulent and decorative style. I can appreciate anything that has been created
with love and passion.

Piero: I am fascinated by scale, proportions and how that works back to a
human scale. I like to work with monochromatic, neutral and monotone colour
palettes so as to bring out the form. I like juxtapositions such as
Decadent/refined, bold design and materials that seduce the senses.

What do you find inspiring?

Sara:
I find everything inspiring, beauty, the sacred and precious in life, symbols and
mystery.

Beauty inspires me; currently
jewels and their cuts fascinate me, ancient cultures and the way that design
incorporated natural elements and veneration of the divine.

Piero: Nature inspires me,
environments, elegance, the refined and minimall, where the essential nature of
a design is bought forward. Solitude, cinema, music and of course Italy, my
birth place.

Where are your five favorite
spots/shops/design locations in Melbourne?

Favorite spots:

Sara: Sitting and looking at
Mythological fountain sculptures around Melbourne’s inner city parks left over
from the Victorian era

Piero: Visiting Victoria market and having pizza at Doc & Ladro in Carlton

Shops

Sara: Husk – Various outlets across
Melbourne

Amor y Locura – Gertrude
Street, Fitzroy

Graham Geddes – Armadale

Kleins
Perfumery – Brunswick st, Fitzroy

Piero: Newtown café

Gertrude, Smith,
Johnston, Brunswick streets, the whole block

Assin