Tamsin and Patrick Johnson
Interior designer Tamsin Johnson’s family home mixes creative flights of fancy and playfully curated collections with a sense of comfort and solidity.
Tamsin Johnson’s inimitable talent is her ability to inject a little magic into every room. This flair for the unexpected gives every space she designs the feel of a museum of curiosities – a curation of stories, where there is always something more to explore – while remaining undeniably embracing and liveable. As you would expect, her own home – which she shares with her husband Patrick Johnson, of P Johnson tailors, and two children – is no exception, combining the charm of the century-old harbourside home with her signature playfulness.
“My passion lies with beauty and how it’s managed. Taste before glamour,” she explains. “I always seek a sort of freshness – the result I am drawn to has an electricity to it. Even if it is a calm space, it needs to offer some intrigue and wonder. It shouldn’t bore.” For one with a passion for storied spaces, this Darling Point home was a ‘must read’. “The house was built circa 1927, and it has inflections of Tudor and Arts and Crafts without being exclusively pitted in those styles,” explains Johnson. “The building itself is a very upright ‘house-y’ shape, which is intriguing and in contrast to the more contemporary modern and linear ratios. It really feels comfortable and homey.” The residence’s heritage charm was unusual yet evident – it had never endured a renovation, bar functional facelifts to the kitchen and bathrooms – and its unspoilt original features were a seductive selling point.
Of course, such a wealth of heritage features – and a sense of responsibility for preserving them – meant a lot of restoration work, a lengthy process that required highly skilled trades. “We retained or restored all the leadlight windows and added crafted galvanised iron work outdoors, in the security gates and over windows,” explains Johnson. “We restored carpentry where needed, which was exhaustive. For example, the ceiling panelling is restored original, as is the panelling around the staircase.”
Modernisation was achieved more or less within the existing envelope of the home; most notably, the cellar was pushed out to create a lower-level living space that opens onto the garden, which was levelled to allow a swimming pool and a length of lawn, and the kitchen and bathrooms were fully renovated for contemporary living.
But the essential structure remains the same, and all changes were made with care to match the artisanal legacy of the original build. “All the renovations, I felt, were sympathetic enhancements that, in a sense, I would hope go unnoticed,” says Johnson. “This aligns with my approach to interiors generally. They need to appear as though they existed without my hand.”
When it comes to the interior design, the style is recognisably ‘Tamsin Johnson’, with the designer channelling – and perhaps even doubling down on – her own brand of opulent eclecticism. “I can obviously work with no restraint with my own home, so it was a pleasure,” says Johnson, adding that renovating her own home (this is her third such personal project) is always a “joyful exercise”. “I loved being able to place all our beautiful Australian art and some of the more ‘powerful’ antiques, vintage furnishings and objects to their pinnacle use.”
It’s easy to understand what Johnson means by “powerful” objects; each space is designed around one or more striking pieces, with the show-stopping cast dominated by antique and vintage treasures. Johnson was raised among old-world beauty – her parents were antique dealers – and her portfolio is characterised by an effortless juxtaposition of items from different eras and styles. Her own home is no different. Favourite finds of varied provenance are paired in unlikely marriages but with no jarring conflict, just an ineffable sense of aesthetic harmony.
Johnson describes the effect – the “conversation” between pieces – in reference to the living room, where modern custom sofas are gathered with Frank Lloyd Wright armchairs and a 19th-century Italian crystal chandelier. “It is like a chessboard in action, each piece stoically holding its place,” she says. Similar genius pairings are repeated throughout the home. For example, the 19thcentury marble pedestal basin in the powder room is seamlessly paired with 1960s glass sconces, while an 18th-century Spanish table in the dining room is juxtaposed with an Art Deco French baker’s stand.
Lighting often gets top billing in each room’s catalogue of visual highlights, with Johnson using rare chandeliers in nearly every space. Some of her favourite pieces include “the Gio Ponti pendant in the kitchen and the Striulli Vetri d’Arte chandelier in the stairwell,” she says. “I truly adore these. You could design a whole room around pieces like these; they are so strong.”
While the home displays ample elements of Johnson’s trademark style, she muses that it also marks an evolution of sorts, towards a greater level of richness and opulence, which fits with the beauty of the historic home. “I love the tracked design of striped stairwell carpeting and the richness of the colour,” reflects Johnson. “I think my home was the first sharper turn towards a richer palette and more weight and intensity in my approach, and you can see this in the classical joinery, tapware, pelmets, velvet, the colour language and the general saturation of the spaces.”
While the home is a showcase for Johnson’s work and the easy sense of style she shares with her husband, the intention behind the design was more elemental: she simply wished to create a family home with a sense of retreat. “The overarching goal was comfort or sanctuary. I wanted a home from this, something I could pine for, something I wanted to be in a lot. We travel a lot, so we wanted an anchor too,” she says. “We were after something with quite a bit of presence, something more immovable perhaps, and I think we achieved it.”
This sense of reassuring solidity is achieved most literally in the use of stone, from slender slices in the marble furnishings to the great slabs in the flooring (Palladiana terrazzo floors in the kitchen and bluestone pavers outdoors), as well as in the two fireplaces: a carved basalt fireplace in the living room and one in coarsely hewn limestone in the study. “I love the two fireplaces and the way they weigh down the room,” says Johnson, “as if they were part of the earth and the house was built around them.”
Natural stone has also been used in creative ways that introduce contemporary contrast to the home’s heritage features. The primary ensuite is lined with Zebrino marble, which wraps the space in striking horizontal bands. In the kitchen, the island is the room’s centrepiece, and is arguably the most stunning feature in an extraordinary home: a geometric sculpture of stacked slabs of Bianco Gioia marble. “It is just such an extravagant excuse to use such a majestic marble,” says Johnson.
Though the eclectic mix of collected antiques and modern statement pieces shows off Johnson’s playful style, the home’s design is ultimately underpinned by practicality and comfort to cater for the needs of her young family. “I wanted a mature home to live in, something comfortable, not a decorative toy,” she says. “I always intend a home to be utterly liveable and survivable with children; I am not precious.”
Interior design, furniture and artwork curation and joinery by Tamsin Johnson. Landscape design by Wyer & Co.
