What is the interior design of a house for a person who enters the third age? This Sydney home proves that, by being out of touch and fashions, it can be more modern than any young man.
Already Hydrogenesse said in his song: “To the old everything feels good”. And interior design is no exception. Because this house in Sydney is all a reflection of its owner, a man of old but with sophisticated tastes and lover of the design, in which is created a mix of styles, times and materials that transcends to any fashion and defies the time already any convention.
After having worked in commercial properties with him, the Australian studio SJB was commissioned to decorate this client’s house: a historic mansion in which he wanted simplicity to prevail but without renouncing opulence. They bet for a modest and livable luxury but in which the furniture defies all trends. “No matter what time each piece of furniture or material was, each item has been selected as the ideal solution for the home. It is designed to be a reflection of the rich life of the owner and his wide aesthetic sense “, they emphasize.
It was decided to recover and give new life to the eucalyptus soils that populated the house but in areas such as the living room were covered with quality carpets. Thus, two carpets bought in Anatolia with powerful yet sober prints are used to define two separate spaces. The furniture is intentionally sophisticated, such as the burgundy Minotti armchairs, Classicon’s green and gold table or the SJB-designed cabinets made of silk and gold leaf and with Chinoiserie detail, so fashionable centuries ago. Glass Italia’s coffee table, however, gives a little air to the room.
The kitchen is perhaps the area of the house in the most has been mixed, without cover, times and materials. The wardrobes are made of exquisite maple wood, very fashionable at the beginning of the 20th century, on the wall glass bricks have been included, characteristic of the 80’s in many homes, and white tiles have also been added as anti-splashes that appear to have emerged from the 1990s. The independent bank is, on the contrary, a completely contemporary piece. “The color, textures and sculptural tones of many furniture have been used to reject the prejudice that the requirements of a customer of a certain age usually have to do with ugly furnishings and rooms where the power to move”, abstract from SJB.
The bathroom of the house itself has been made in a way sensitive to the accessibility of the owner. The floors and ceramic surfaces are curved and without steps or edges to facilitate the passage and the furniture have been placed in such a way that they facilitate to be grasped to them. But all this without giving up a touch of design that makes it different. “All this aesthetics tells us is that the customer is still a fabulous person, instead of being a constant reminder that it is not what it used to be,” they conclude from the study.