House Gretchen’s clients are an artist couple and their teenage son – and what they wanted was something brighter, with a greater sense of spatiality and integration of nature. Lintel Studio Director Emiliano Miranda took this brief, along with his artistic clients’ love of colour, and delivered just that, belying the exterior’s modest appearance.
While Miranda retained and restored the original heritage facade, making minor modifications to the two bedrooms at the front of the house, he cleared away a series of dilapidated rear extensions that had been added over time. This allowed for a newly landscaped stepped backyard and new outdoor dining area that brings the outdoors in and, along with the new internal courtyard adjacent the second bedroom, perfectly bookends the home’s living spaces. Indeed it’s here – in the skylit kitchen, lounge and dining areas – that Miranda’s playful design finds its greatest expression.
“Our client had an unwavering commitment to bold decision-making, entrusting us to develop an experimental approach to the floorplan’s organisation,” says Miranda.
“It resulted in myself and the team quite literally instating a cooktop and oven in the centre of the living areas,” he adds.
This ‘cube’ resolves any potential spatial conundrums by centralising the entertainment, storage and kitchen and bar on three of its faces, while the fourth contains a pivoting door that deftly conceals the walk-in laundry.
Far from being an obstacle, the structure anchors the narrow space and zones it, allowing for both social gatherings and private moments. It must be quite the talking point at dinner parties as well, with joinery that not only highlights the clients’ varied tastes, but also showcases Lintel Studio’s exemplar way with colour and materiality.
As Miranda explains, “We worked collaboratively to integrate an eclectic interior into the scheme, while considering its enduring appeal and relevance into the future. Our clients’ request for an unflinchingly orange kitchen typifies this brief, as it required extensive sampling to understand the variability of several shades over the course of a day and within the context of character-rich timber veneer and chunky terrazzo.”
The bright orange joinery sections are complemented by other sections finished in orange-toned tiles, not to mention the orange chips in the black and cream terrazzo. And the same striking palette is repeated in the lounge area’s joinery and two built-ins flanking the dining area’s full-height glass doors. Unsurprisingly, the customised bathtub (hand-formed and finished by a shipbuilder, no less) in the bathroom is also orange, as is the joinery and tapware. Miranda has swapped out the tiles for light blue though, and the terrazzo is the palest of greys, with chips in black, white and brown.
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There’s incredible nuance in the detail, including the decision to use this pale grey terrazzo as the desktop for the main bedroom’s built-in study, and the use of salvaged gymnasium timber floors (still marked with painted basketball court lines) in the hallway. In totality, it’s a masterful study in how to create a residential interior that is joyful yet understated, fun yet calming.
As for the clients, it’s positively transformed their lives: “This home is a unique place of refuge that seeks to nourish their creative spirits, while fulfilling everyday needs with a balance of mischievousness and sophistication,” says Miranda. “It’s appreciated enthusiastically by both of them.”
