Calming Simplicity – Lilac Linen by Sally Caroline

Connecting to place and the people who reside within, Lilac Linen combines a light and feminine palette to create an overarching calm. With an artisanal approach, Sally Caroline layers a series of considered gestures in curating the newly conceived interior of the home.

A home has two very distinct duties – it should respond to the surrounding context, both natural and built, and it should allow for the personalities of its owners to be present throughout the various spaces. In its new iteration, Lilac Linen exemplifies these principles. Within the existing midcentury home along the Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula surrounded by natural vegetation, Sally Caroline has created a greater sense of connection, both internally and out toward the surrounding landscape, and incorporated personal nods to its inhabitants. There is softness to the native plants that thrive in the area, and the resulting interior approach takes heeded inspiration from that restraint in its scale. Retaining the outer shell, the new becomes an expression of the location along the coast and a proximity to the water.

There is softness to the native plants that thrive in the area, and the resulting interior approach takes heeded inspiration from that restraint in scale.

While the encasing brick walls provide a weighted anchoring to the site, through the dousing of a lightened palette, the home feels intentionally calmer. Newly inserted black steel framed windows frame views, while a new front door offers a hint to the changed internal experience about to unfold. In a matching to the location, the cooling down of the palette is balanced by the further introduction of pink and blush tones, which brings with it another layer of warmth in a more crafted way.

The principles that underpinned the existing home were ones of an open connectedness internally, and yet through tweaks to the planning, adding custom areas for those visiting and those furry, the home becomes its own custom response. Throughout, a stripping of the unnecessary gives way for newly imagined joinery, every piece with its own playfulness that brings an element of the unexpected with it. Furniture and joinery are treated like artful pieces themselves, each with their own personalities and unique detailing. The new generous island bench then acts to expand the kitchen to be more than a preparation zone, becoming a key social space that openly connects to the other living areas.

Furniture and joinery are treated like artful pieces themselves, each with their own personalities and unique detailing.

Combining key functional and aesthetic considerations, Lilac Linen results from an opening up of the previous home and bringing the life of its occupants into the spaces. Through listening and a hand-made approach, Sally Caroline embeds the owners themselves into the home, which now rests as the ultimate place of retreat.