Andy Kelly and Mitchell Zurek
A prized corner property on an iconic Melbourne strip has become a personal reflection of work, life and play for Andy Kelly and Mitchell Zurek, the visionary duo behind Oigåll Projects and Brud Studia.
The key thing to know about Andy Kelly and Mitchell Zurek is that they’re all about the hustle at full gusto. It’s a trait that has allowed the couple to make their indelible mark on the design and art scene, whether it’s through the precise pieces they create for their furniture and object practice Brud Studia or the variety of shows they curate for their gallery, Oigåll Projects. A two-storey Melbourne corner terrace proved to be the integral centrepiece of these creative pursuits. Separating work from life was never part of the brief, and the pair knew that what they wanted was a place only they could envision. “We knew early on that all of the things we wanted to do were going to be quite expensive – all of the fittings, all of the little details,” recalls Kelly. “So, straightaway, it was like if we design it ourselves, then we save on architect fees.”
Formerly a women’s fashion store at street level, and with six artists’ studios on the upper level, the property on lively Gertrude Street in Fitzroy held promise and not much else. Zurek recalls that “every single window was cracked and sticky-taped up”. “There was a hole in the roof where you could see the sky,” comments Kelly. Purchased just before Covid took hold, the property was settled in the thick of lockdown, and this context did have an impact on what the couple could realistically do. The site was initially meant to be an office for Zurek “and a bit of a showroom for Brud”, says Zurek of the dwelling that now houses the Oigåll Projects exhibition space downstairs, while, up a flight of stairs, neatly situated above, is the pair’s two-bedroom apartment. “We didn’t really know what downstairs was going to be,” explains Zurek. “It quickly changed because upstairs was such a horror show, so we concentrated on making sure that it could be liveable and be our house, and then downstairs kind of weirdly just evolved.”
As Kelly tells it, the house came in a vision fully realised after a late night. “We actually designed the house all in one morning – Ella [Saddington of Cordon Salon], Mitchell and myself,” he recalls. “We woke up, sat down and designed the entire thing in about two hours, and then we did exactly that plan – we never changed anything.” Zurek’s landscape architect skills came into play; having encountered many house projects in his day job, drawing upon that knowledge would inform his own. “Mitchell’s drawings are really good, like top, top tier,” says Kelly, and he directs to Zurek – “you are a psychopath – you were just able to do really beautiful, good drawings, which meant it was easy for the builder to do it.” A few friends – including interior designer Brahman Perera – shared their own drawings, which helped determine the viability of Kelly and Zurek’s sketches for both their home and the retail space.
The line between work and life does blur in the couple’s headquarters. “People come up and they just think it’s part of the gallery,” says Zurek. “Bruce [one of their Italian greyhounds] will come running out and they’re like, ‘Oh my god, does someone live here?’” It has, in many ways, become a living, breathing Oigåll catalogue. “The gallery has definitely infiltrated upstairs. We constantly open it up to clients to come up and have a look. The second bedroom is full of stock. We’ve had clients look at a piece of art, turn around and buy one of Ella’s mirrors, one of our lamps, one of Brem’s [Brahman Perera’s] pendants, go home, then paint their house the exact same wall colour.”
Aluminium is a signature material of Brud Studia, with chairs, tables, lamps – and “a vase Mitchell designed for Andy for Valentine’s Day” as Brud’s website states – fabricated in the utilitarian, brutalist metal, and it has a place in Kelly and Zurek’s home. The kitchen is wrapped in it – a nod to the aesthetic way the couple lives. “Mitchell’s favourite restaurant is Supernormal, and the bar there is covered in zinc and super patinaed, so you can see where people sat and drank, and that was always something that we really loved and wanted to try and emulate in the house,” explains Kelly. “And aluminium allows for that – it’s food safe, but it’s also super soft and scratches. It’s like we wanted to do what everybody doesn’t want to do in the kitchen, and that was to have it wear quickly and show its story.”
“We always wanted upstairs to feel very pared back; aluminium, the wall colour, all of the fixings, the door handles – everything’s that same tone or that same material,” says Zurek. “When we started buying our own furniture – the couch and the Michael Giddings chair and all these pieces that were starting to pop around – we wanted them to be the focal point of the room. Everything else in the background just blended into one. Aluminium was perfect because it was the same silver as what we wanted to do the walls in.”
The walls also bear the purposeful trace of unfinished plaster. “The builders were like, ‘oh, don’t worry about the texture. I’m going to put new plaster on there or get rid of that,’” says Zurek. “We were like, ‘No, we love the texture. Just paint it as is and leave all the texture. And actually, all the plaster on the opposite side, can you fuck it up and make it all rough so that it blends?’”
The duo acknowledge that leading such an aesthetically minded lifestyle may seem a little extreme. “Although it looks like we have this very fussy life and the design of the house is really hard and we have to live with it, we’ve chosen things that make it really easy,” says Kelly. “You can clean our house with bleach and a scrub brush and hose it down.” This thinking encompasses both upstairs and downstairs. “Even putting the travertine floor down in the gallery, most people would be like, ‘That’s crazy – why would you do such a fussy stone in a commercial space?’ So we make these decisions with materials consciously and subconsciously – if they do break or get wrecked, they look better. The more destroyed and rough and nonchalant we are about them, the better they become.” Zurek adds: “Our favourite piece is a chair in the courtyard that we made five years ago that is really aged and patinaed. It has a life of its own and looks more beautiful with age.”
Kelly and Zurek’s commitment to a sense of place that encapsulates the expressive value of their professional life in a highly considered and deeply personal way has become a guiding light, informing the way they approach their life and work. “Yes, upstairs could probably be more comfortable or whatever, but I just like that it’s weird and we live this kind of abstract life,” says Kelly. “I have a lot of out-of-body moments, where I feel like I’m looking down at Mitchell and myself being like, ‘Geez, you guys are odd. You’re odd people doing odd things, standing up eating dinner because you don’t have stools.’ And I enjoy that though, I think it’s a funny layer to us. You suffer through it, but you also meet people being so weird. You’re like a flame for other weird moths. There’s something to be said about the extremity in which we have chosen to have this reductive life – it’s also a really great way to find community because if you get it, then we immediately know that you are a friend for life.”
Building design, interior design and styling by Brud Studia. Build by Agora Homes.
Furniture and decor by BMDO, Studio Henry Wilson and Soft Baroque.
