Toorak Residence by Workroom

Richmond-based design studio Workroom evolved Toorak Residence into a home that represents its inhabitants while carrying forward the history deep in its bones.

When Workroom was presented with the brief – to turn a dark, ageing building in Toorak into a warm, open and inviting home – the team approached the project with a purposeful sense of wonder and awareness. Utilising a rigorous understanding of space, form and material, Workroom set about to completely transform this building into the family home it was meant to be.

This bold tonal balance, a dance of light and dark, becomes a recurring theme throughout the house.

The team were presented with a confused, disconnected dwelling, with a dominating staircase that served only to further separate the rooms within. The first job was to let the light back into the home. Through the use of wall-to-wall panelled glass doors, the lush greenery of the garden feels but a step away, while the new light play within the main room grants opportunities to create balance in the form of jet-black furniture, cabinetry and fixtures. This bold tonal balance, a dance of light and dark, becomes a recurring theme throughout the house. The home’s monochromatic exterior brings this balance to new levels, working in tandem with the interior palette while also forming a link back to the building’s past through considered material choices.

Wanting to move far away from the disconnected nature of the previous layout, this house relishes in its open-plan ground floor. Arriving into the entry way, one emerges into a wide, open lower floor, which serves as a joint kitchen, dining and living area. Beyond the main room, the house offers enough tucked away areas to offer privacy as well as easy access to the outdoors. Meanwhile, the open ceiling is further accentuated by a series of drop-down lamp fixtures, all of which hang loosely suspended. Beneath them, the space is anchored by an imposing marble kitchen island, serving as one of many communal areas in the design.

The home’s monochromatic exterior brings this balance to new levels, working in tandem with the interior palette while also forming a link back to the building’s past through considered material choices.

Workroom shows constraint in the texture and design of the home’s bathrooms. And while moving away from warm and inviting for the private areas of the home, they delve into a world of monochromatic simplicity, highlighting sleek minimal design concepts and modern luxuries.

Thoughtful design wrestles between function and aesthetics. With Toorak Residence, Workroom has struck a balance that allows a once disjointed and disconnected home to come together with a true sense of balance and purpose.

Architecture and interior design by Workroom. Build by Duobuilt. Landscape Design by Ben Scott Garden Design.