Layered Warmth – Darling Point by Phoebe Nicol Interior Architecture
From a return to base principles, Darling Point sees the existing yet idyllically located home stripped back and then layered with texture and warmth, creating the ideal calming escape. Phoebe Nicol Interior Architecture references a Belgian restraint in composing the resulting home, where a minimal and tonal celebration of light and collected treasures become the focus.
Located in its namesake Sydney suburb, Darling Point sees the reconfiguring of an existing home into one of welcoming warmth. As a reflection of its owners, the space needed to embody a refined and elevated elegance through mature and considered details and inserted elements. By stripping the existing back to a core and elemental base, the new home could take hold. A new planning approach is overlaid, and an integration of key joinery elements creates an open flow internally, which then further enhances the sense of scale throughout. An overarching minimal approach ensures each of the newly carved spaces feels connected, while also feeling consistently calm and as a natural extension of one another. Together with Built by MK, Phoebe Nicol Interior Architecture recrafts the apartment through rich textures and a careful composition of elements.
From the open-planned living space sitting at the heart of the home, light is a focus throughout, ensuring the surrounding natural elements become a key part of the experience of the home. The overall lightness of palette and materiality used throughout then further boost the volumetric feeling internally, while also inserting surfaces for light to interact with throughout the day. In looking to Europe for inspiration, namely to a Belgian sensibility, the new spaces are conceived through a layered and textural approach. Deep timber tones sit comfortably against a more muted composition, with linen and symmetry keenly evident.
Sitting at the top floor of an existing apartment building, the opening of the home allows for a better connection to the surrounds and to the enviable views from within. As a combining of styles and personality, the owner wanted to feel immersed in a masculine-feeling home, reflecting his own connection to his surrounds while also being connected the location. In opening visual connections internally, a better sense of flow is created, encouraging free movement. The new spaces reflect an appreciation for the collected and pieces with a storied past through the curation of antiques alongside new pieces, while all being connected to a core commonality of raw and honest materiality.
