Nautically French – Inner West Project by Greg Natale
Combining a French sensibility with that of the P&O nautical influence, Inner West House plays with a heightened luxury in its harbourside address. Greg Natale layers rich textures and textiles to complement both the story of the home’s context and that of the owner’s own individual aesthetic.
Imbedding softness through curves and a matched palette, Inner West House sits amongst its newly developed Five Docks location in Sydney as a response to context. Abutting the ocean, a dynamic sensibility influences the approach to form, planning and the layered elements that comprise the home. Combined with a lightness, the surrounds are welcomed internally and animate the home, each surface interacting and reflecting back or absorbing the natural light throughout the day. The owner’s own style combines with a French-inspired aesthetic and highly crafted resolve to propose a series of spaces elevated through intentionally luxurious touches. Greg Natale carefully combines the familiar elements of home with a European understanding of space and proportion.
Built by Ciolino Constructions, Inner West House embraces the Sydney outdoor lifestyle and ensures each internal space has the capacity to become doused in natural light throughout the day. Taking tonal inspiration from the initial timber flooring as the base, pink nuances were pulled from the blond wash as the muse for the resulting layers. An array of variations and iterations of the core base palette are then applied throughout, expressed as wall finishes, fabric and added textures, injecting a cool warmth and tying each of the spaces together. A foundation of white plaster and paint ensures the expressive stone and brass additions are given the featured presence intended. Lighting and tapware further tie into the original P&O Style as bold insertions that add an elevated and nuanced nautical touch.
Spread over two floors, the four-bedroom home has been considered from a core and cohesive concept that then binds the home as one. Throughout, custom designed joinery and furniture sit along classic pieces, while lush carpets underfoot also by Greg Natale, ensure a sensory immersion. As the planning ensures a connected and openly flowing family home, it equally opens generously to its own landscape and private pool, reinforcing a sense of enclosure and privacy while also being outwardly connected. As an originally art deco style home, the geometries of its origins mix harmoniously with those introduced.
Greg Natale’s Inner West House brings a refined softness through its elevated palette and curved gestures, one that captures its past together with the essence of its present occupation.
