Woollahra House by Freya Salter Design

For her own home in Sydney’s Woollahra, interior designer Freya Salter has created a serene, almost meditative space that embraces light at every opportunity.

She may not consider herself to be an architect, but the home Freya Salter created for herself and her builder husband Richard Oddie is, for all intents and purposes, an architect-designed home. This stunning residence, with a deep consideration of light, form and materiality, sits lightly and subtly amid the jumble of heritage and modern homes that populate the well-heeled suburb of Woollahra in Sydney’s east.

This stunning residence, with a deep consideration of light, form and materiality, sits lightly and subtly amid the jumble of heritage and modern homes that populate the well-heeled suburb of Woollahra in Sydney’s east.

The home comprises dual two-storey, white-brick pavilions – the front containing an entry, main bedroom suite, second bedroom, study and living room; the rear with a second living space, smaller study, open-plan kitchen and dining space that opens to a deck, bathroom and laundry – thoughtfully linked by a Zen-like courtyard framed by oversized sliding glass doors. “In summer, it’s absolutely lovely when all of those doors are open,” says Oddie. Salter chimes in: “There is a wonderful connection with the exterior, and we’re so lucky to have an established gum tree next door, with a large canopy that creates the most beautiful shadows.”

Its beginnings, however, weren’t quite as splendid. “The original residence had two separate dwellings: flat-roofed, two-storey fibro and brick, designed around a courtyard that borrowed from a Japanese aesthetic,” recalls Salter. “The entry was via a garden path with stairs to the ground level, so there was no connection to the street and no internal connection between the structures.”

“One of my first thoughts was to put an olive tree, set against a rough-cut limestone wall, at the heart of the house. As you move between the two pavilions, it provides a natural counterpoint to the precision of the surrounding sliding glass doors and limestone flooring.”

The couple lived there for just over a year before they started work on the new residence – her as architect/designer, him as builder. While the original dwellings were razed, Salter incorporated two distinctive mementos in what would become Woollahra House. First, the central courtyard. “I loved the courtyard in the original house, and in a terrace-like structure like ours, the ability to open up the centre was so appealing,” she says. “One of my first thoughts was to put an olive tree, set against a rough-cut limestone wall, at the heart of the house. As you move between the two pavilions, it provides a natural counterpoint to the precision of the surrounding sliding glass doors and limestone flooring.”

The second memento is bricks from the original house, which are used to form part of the western interior wall and add an important facet of the home’s character. “As a child, some of my happiest memories took place in 1970s houses with painted bricks, and I’ve always loved the honesty of the house’s structure being so visible. The old and new bricks were knitted together by skilled bricklayers, who tried desperately to go against their usual perfection to achieve the textural quality I wanted. The outlines of walls and stairs you can see in the bricks are a reminder of the original two-storey dwelling.”

“I wanted a house that was an uncluttered, simple, textural shell,” says Salter.

The white walls act in cahoots with a score of other materials and elements to imbue the spaces with a pervasive sense of lightness and tranquillity. These start underfoot – a subdued Crema Perla limestone floor from Bisanna, Havwoods’ pale raw European oak floorboards – and continue at eye level and beyond, including luxe cream couches in the living room and Bocci’s ethereal 21.14 pendant, 14 raw porcelain lights that hang in that space like a series of small pale bells. “I wanted a house that was an uncluttered, simple, textural shell,” says Salter. “In order to achieve that, I pared back the palette to allow paintings and specific pieces to come to the fore, and utilised a natural, neutral palette for a calm, cohesive design,” she continues.

Light floods in through extensive glazing, including a double-height wall of glass at the rear of the front pavilion, backed by a dramatic void bounded by Salter’s study on the top floor and the living room on the ground. “I wanted as much light as possible to flow into the living room and to be able to sit in my office and see the whole olive tree. The void also allows the entry level to connect visually with the courtyard and benefit from the airflow gained when the lower glass doors are open. I also fell in love with the Bocci light fitting and wanted a space it could travel through.”

Salter has incorporated a subtle vertical motif throughout Woollahra House, which creates a sense of connectivity, accentuates height and allows focused slices of light into rooms.

Salter has incorporated a subtle vertical motif throughout Woollahra House, which creates a sense of connectivity, accentuates height and allows focused slices of light into rooms. The verticality begins at the street, with the slats of the front fence and garage, then appears sporadically throughout, from a sliver of glass in the front facade – actually a fixed window in the ensuite – and Sairin Japanese mosaic tiles from Artedomus laid vertically for the kitchen splashback to a sculptural timber screen in the main living room that “adds a decorative element to the stairs and creates wonderful shadows at night”.

One of the home’s most unexpected moments is a roof garden that sits atop the kitchen and dining space, overlooked by the second sitting room. Including it was a no-brainer for Salter and Oddie. “We always wanted a green roof, both for insulation and for aesthetic reasons,” says Salter. “Asher Cole of The Garden Social saw it immediately as a link between the foreground and the distant green of Cooper Park. She designed the meadow-like space and it adds so much to the interior and the experience of being in that room. It also creates a feeling of connection to the natural environment,” she continues.

The white walls act in cahoots with a score of other materials and elements to imbue the spaces with a pervasive sense of lightness and tranquillity.

Above all else, it’s the light and the play of shadow that defines Woollahra House. “Light feels positive,” says the interior designer. “It creates ambience in spaces, with what it reveals and conceals. The shadows add a kinetic layer to the textures of the house – the movement of the trees, the grasses, people moving down the stairs at night all combine to add life to the space.”

Building and interior design by Freya Salter Design. Build by Richard Oddie. Landscape design by The Garden Social. Joinery by Hoffman’s Interiors. Flooring by Havwoods and Bisanna. Windows by Vitrocsa. Lighting by Gineico Lighting and Bocci.