Worlds Collide by Sally Caroline Atelier

WORLDS COLLIDE

Architects Powell + Glenn and Sally Caroline Interior Atelier bring the best of the past and present together inside a Melbourne bayside home.

DESIGN Sally Caroline Interior Atelier | ARCHITECT Powell + Glen | STYLING Marsha Golemac | PHOTOGRAPHY Sharyn Cairns | WORDS Stephen Crafti

Insitu Palladiana flooring is a defining feature of the home. Artwork by Nickolas Harding.

Originally built in the latter part of the 19th century and extended by architects Powell + Glenn, the interiors are now beautifully ‘stitched together’ by interior designer Sally Knibbs, of Studio Sally Caroline. “All the bones of the original were still there, but the house needed updating for a growing family,” Sally says, who took her design cues from both the home’s heritage fabric and the owner’s joyous and bold personality.

While the original house was extended to create open plan living spaces, a new masonry-rendered wing was also added. The two-storey classic form with symmetrical doors at ground level and windows directly above, now overlooks the pitched slate Georgian roofline and the swimming pool and verdant garden by Myles Baldwin.

Brass wraps the island, with a Verde Alpi stone benchtop and splashback, integrated Gaggenau appliances and Vola tapware. Olive green Diiva swivel stools add to the rich material mix.

Bespoke joinery, rich parquetry timber floors and sumptuous materials such as Verde Alpi stone, a deep green marble, was used for the island bench and splashback in the new kitchen. This marble also appears on the polished Palladiana floors of the ground level of the pool pavilion, with the children’s bedrooms directly above as part of a new build that is better suited to the site and the home’s orientation.

Customised built-in joinery and individual pieces such as the desk in the study, provide a personal touch.

Sally’s ‘brushstrokes’ feature a number of soft and muted tones, including deep wine hues, strong and soft shades of green and what she refers to as a ‘yellow-based green’, a citrus green for the carpets in the five bedrooms, including the main bedroom and dressing area. “Many clients wouldn’t have been as bold to go with these colours, but the owner was certainly up for it and wanted a point of difference,” Sally says, who kept most of the new contemporary living spaces white. Colour also defines the front formal sitting room and an adjacent study, located at the front of the house and benefitting from the original leadlight windows. A customised lacquered timber desk in an emerald green complements this sophisticated scheme.

A Depadova Square 16 sofa, custom coffee table and Réaction Poétique side table by Jaime Hayón for Cassina.

Vintage clam shell wall sconces with brass backplates emanate a Parisian experience in the powder room.

The pool pavilion bar conjures a European holiday, featuring the Amalfi barstools by Janus Et Cie on insitu Palladiana terrazzo flooring.

We’ve kept all the original features, including the decorative ceilings and tall skirting boards. But we were keen to make this a home for contemporary living, not just a relic from the past."

- Sally Caroline

The formal parts of the house, given over to the parents, feature a melange of green hues.