Under The Tree
In the home stretch of their addition designed by Welsh + Major architects, Arent&Pyke were engaged to complete the home with furniture, decorative lighting and art. “When something’s beautiful on the outside it should be beautiful on the inside too,” says the owner. “I wanted it to have warmth and interest, and I needed help working out the personality and soul of the house so we could be true to that.”
- Scope
Interior Furnishing, Object and Art
- Architecture + Interior Architecture
Welsh + Major
- Landscape
Sue Barnsley Design
- Photography
Anson Smart
- Awards
Winner 2019 Australian Interior Design Awards AIDA Residential Decoration
Winner 2019 Interior Design Excellence Awards IDEA Residential Decoration
Winner 2019 Belle Coco Republic Interior Design Awards Residential Interior and People’s Choice Award
Winner 2019 House & Garden Room of the Year
The African ‘palaver tree’ is a place where ideas are shared, stories are told, and agreements are reached. Our South African expat clients had grown up observing this, and wanted to pay tribute to it by planting a large ficus at the centre of their renovated home in Annandale. It turned out to be an appropriate metaphor for what was an unusually organic project.
We wanted to bring softness and ambient glow into the spaces, introducing various Isamu Noguchi light sculptures. Colours and textures were charged with the same task, so we selected earthy and warm hues from mustard and chartreuse to forest green, and chose abaca rugs, woollen blankets, boucle upholstery, belgian linen and cotton velvet to provide thew tactile warmth that was required.
The art selection wasn’t about filling the walls: the clients wanted to wait for the right pieces to come along, and the feeling was mutual. “It would have been such a mistake to choose everything off one page, we built it up over a period of time in a much more thoughtful way. Arent&Pyke had so much patience!”
Arent&Pyke acknowledges the traditional custodians of this land. We pay our respects to them, their culture and traditions. We recognise their connection to the land and honour their elders, both past and present.