INTERIORS

Mansion

Japanese accent Wabi-sabi meets Victoriana

Basic black Decor pieces to dial up the drama Perfect ease The Eames Chair comes into its own

This page: The entryway retains a traditional Victorian feel. Opposite: The unusually angled pendant lights are a nod to wabi-sabi

FULL TILT

Melding seemingly disparate design philosophies proved a challenging but inspired way to update a traditional Victorian cottage

S tory by SAM DUNCAN Photography by SEAN FENNESSY

In the ancient Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi, the world is accepted as imperfect, unfinished and transient, and should be celebrated as such. It’s an aesthetic that interior architect Miriam Fanning sometimes likes to draw on.

With this project – to reshape a Victorian-era cottage in the wealthy tree-lined suburb of South Yarra, Melbourne – she found the perfect opportunity. “Sometimes it’s nice to use a little bit of wabi-sabi, where there are things on angles or slightly off cue,” she says.

This was just one of many inspirations for Fanning when she took on the task of uniting three disparate styles in the 1890s terrace.

The owners – one Japanese born, the other Australian – tasked her with reshaping their newly acquired home by injecting modern design references along with traditional Japanese elements, and also preserving the property’s Victorianera feel. Certainly a challenge, and not for the fainthearted.

There is an element of wabi-sabi in the design and positioning of the lights, says Fanning, who founded her Melbourne-based interior architecture practice, Mim Design, almost 20 years ago. The unusual black pendant lights jut out at interesting angles, but they also tie in perfectly with the black-steel-framed doors and windows used throughout.

Fanning says the intention with the lights was to bring a sense of modernity without being “ultra-slick”, and also to inject an interesting aspect of Japanese culture with the use of wabi-sabi. It is incorporated in other ways, too, with the selection and positioning of the curated furniture, and a mirror panel that tilts like a secret door as the entrance to the ensuite. “Lots of things that are just a little bit off centre that you wouldn’t normally find in a Victorian home,” she says.

When Fanning listened to the owners’ vision for the project, her first thought was: “Wow, how do we do this?” Some parts of the existing structure needed to be demolished, others reconfigured or refurbished.

Fanning decided to focus heavily on the design philosophy before moving on to the concept stage so that the team could work out how to meld together the three styles cohesively.

“The philosophy phase really does set up the DNA for a project,” she says. “It’s the body of what the project means: how you feel when you’re in a space, what i Opposite: The kitchen’s marble bench, top; the windows and doors recall Japanese shoji screens. This page: Furniture has been carefully curated

you’re looking at, and what are the key elements that are going to make a space have a personality.”

It’s also the best way to get clients and the design team all on the same page, Fanning adds.

Walk through the front door and you’ll find a traditionally planned, decorative Victorian central hallway with extensive cornice and architrave work, as well as ceiling roses. A large sitting room at the front with a stunning Victorian stone fireplace has been opened out and extended with glass panels and doors, so that when you enter the front of the home the whole room opens up. Fanning says she kept the palette simple there to inject modernity into the space.

The glass panels, framed in black steel, in the floor-to-ceiling doors and windows throughout the house were employed by Fanning and her team as one way of bringing coherence to the project. They were designed with a traditional Victorian style in mind, she says, but also allude to a Japanese shoji screen and allow nature inside – another key element of traditional Japanese design.

There are some spaces you wouldn’t find in a Western home, such as the tatami room and Japanese-style family bathroom. The tatami room provides a space to meditate and read, and it also serves as a fourth bedroom where guests stay.

“With the tatami room we chose to open the windows out onto a beautiful courtyard space, which has a massive Japanese maple,” says Fanning. “That courtyard also has a window on the other side that visually takes you through to the living room. The living room is quite pared back – just very simple joinery, which is something that appealed to the Australian owner from a modernity perspective and to the Japanese-born owner from a cultural sense.”

The family bathroom is complete with a Japanese tub and shower. The traditional way is to first rinse your body outside the bath with the shower or a washbowl, and once clean you enter the tub for a relaxing soak.

The main kitchen, which is the hub of family life, was designed to reflect the original Victorian nature of the home: a black-steel range hood and a big, strong marble island bench that the family gather around you walk through,” Fanning says. “You can see the Japanese influences and you can see the modern influences, but it’s all very subtle and I think that’s why it works.”