This story originally appeared in Habitus Magazine – find out more and subscribe here.
When you can have it all, what you need is an eye that lends everything harmony. Greg Natale has such an eye, and when it comes to maximalist layering, there is no one better.
Designing, as he so often does for an existing client, the brief for the four-storey, four-bedroom townhouse was relatively open, with an entirely free hand for the ground floor art gallery/art school and a combination of pink and green for the remainder. The clients, who Natale has designed for in Brisbane, also own a home in Forte dei Marmi (Fort of the marbles) outside Florence and their proximity to the great Carrara marble quarry prompted a desire for a variety of marble to be used extensively. Compounding this was a recent trip to France and, as Natale puts it, “they loved, loved, loved all the maximalist restaurants and the design language of Paris.”
Taking these cues head-on, Natale made the radical decision to make the public and private spaces completely different. For the gallery space, a sparse white-cube interior, in line with the New York Gallery scene, is cool and minimal in the extreme. Also, somewhat tradition led, the doors to the building have been returned to the New York two-door configuration as a gesture that speaks authentically to the building’s original design.
The remaining floors are given over to Natale’s incredible ability to layer and combine design pieces, patterns and colour. That said, a perennial aspect of a Natale design is the quality of the base layer. His skill in this area allows the whole house to remain fabulous even if all the loose pieces are removed. It is a rare talent and one that has his clients returning to him for multiple projects. The floors, for example, are all an unusual oak chevron, which Natale has recently designed for Tongue & Groove.
“I wanted to reinvent a traditional parquetry. So, it’s a cross between herringbone and chevron, and I did it with a wave. It’s so cool,” says Natale and rightly so, it is indeed very cool, with a ripple running through the usual design.
Walls too are completely revisited with new mouldings and details sharpened. The wall pinks are warm and warmer, but nothing loud, while the greens shift between muddy and chartreuse. It is a deftly handled palette with each pairing of pink and green slightly different. “When you’re walking through a house, we want the story to unfold, and we don’t want it to be too repetitive. If everything’s too repetitive, then it’s very hard to tell a story. It’s very hard to have an element of surprise,” says Natale.
That said, it is no surprise that the stone work is extraordinary, and while a hallmark of Natale’s design language, this particular project invited the clients’ stone mason to New York to oversee the marble work. As such, the door architraves and portals are marble clad, as are the bathrooms and kitchen benches. Marble has also been used for the dividing walls in the very large dressing room that was once an office. For this room, the Verde Alpi marble has been cut into unusual shapes reminiscent of the Memphis movement, with circles and wiggles shaping the outer edges.
The next layer is more intense, with richly patterned rugs including the latest from Catherine Martin and Christopher Farr. Lively wallpapers and fabrics are rich and varied and include Natale’s own design and a hand-painted wall by de Gournay that plays on the motifs of Matisse. For the loungeroom, the Papiers de Paris mural of Kandinsky’s Deux points verts is breathtaking, as is the primary bedroom’s use of a rich bronze Chinoiserie from Iksel. For this room, Natale has paired the tight decorative motif of Iksel’s wallpaper with the expansive gesture of a brilliant bedhead by one of the greats of French design, Vincent Darré.
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Over these layers, Natale places a curated collection of vintage and contemporary pieces, paired with bespoke and custom designs. The ebullient floral pendant lamp in the lounge room, for example, is a custom design by Crizu made from bouquets of paper flowers, which in turn are made from old Italian books. With five adult children, the lounge is designed to be spacious, but with enough seats for everyone. It is a difficult task with most opting for a very large lounge. Instead, Natale has selected an intimate collection of lounges and lounge chairs that work well together without overwhelming the space. Moreover, the lengthened arrangement of the room creates a natural decompression, so that both nooks and the whole room are used without feeling either empty or crowded.
The dining room is arguably the most French of the rooms, with a bi-coloured mirror casting bronze reflections into the mint-coloured room. It is a room of shapes and flamboyance with the swirling colours of a MeltingpotDining Ellipse by Kooij holding centre stage. Natale has paired the table with Juliana Lima Vasconcellos’Giraffechairs, which as a suite sit below a pastel Murano glass chandelier from Barovier & Toso, sourced on 1stDibs, and a sublimely beautiful painting by Indivi Sutton. The son of a concreter, Natale never shies from what is needed. As such, once the room was complete and he felt that it needed something more, he promptly moulded a relief detail into the ceiling.
Sculptural form is likewise an impressive part of Natale’s palette, with some interesting combinations creating great moments. The small foyer leading to the dining room is a case in point with an Odin sofa paired with a Merve Kahraman floor lamp. The lamp is quirky and extremely cool, and more so for sharing the space with Catherine Martin’s Tiger Knot rug and a Scala leather stool by Stéphane Parmentier for Giobagnara, which Natale picked up on 1stDibs.
Adept at minimalist, regency and any other style he puts his hand too, it is these maximalist explosions of glamorous richness that signal Natale as a designer who knows how to bring a wild assortment of exquisite pieces into a unified harmony of loveliness. He, like this house, is simply extraordinary.
