A young family with a love of mid-century architecture become custodians of one of Australia’s most significant homes. With all eyes watching, two questions arose. How to respect the building while still making it feel like their home? And, who best to take on such an onerous task?
We were looking around the Studley Park area for mid-century homes for quite some time without success, but the stars aligned when the first residential home by Robin Boyd became available. The agent said, “You’ve got forty-five minutes to put in your best and final offer.” We did, and we got it.
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We felt pressure to find an innovative but sympathetic design partner. We were worried people would knock on the door and judge us for what we might do. We liked minimalist mid-century design but then Flack Studio came along with bright colour and marble. We wondered whether we could dare to go as far as [David] Flack [Flack Studio principal and founder] was going to push us.
But as much as [David] pushed us creatively, he also listened. He researches to understand where the house has come from and where it can go. Everything is considered and genuine. They’re geniuses at working within the constraints of a historic building without compromising on creativity.
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The timber room is our favourite room in the house. We love the new bar and original panelling; it’s got a big heavy door so you can really shut everything out. He recently suggested an update – repainting the ceiling in a warm caramel gloss.
We wanted to bring softness and earthiness to the house and that’s what we’ve got. The house feels alive with constant movement as light dances softly around the polished plaster walls and gloss ceiling.
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David is such a down-to-earth country boy, and that’s rare in architecture and interior design. He gives clear creative direction without being pushy and ego driven. Because of that, his team are great to work with. Every-one loved working on the house. The bricklayer – who only had a little bit of work to do – asked, “Do you mind if I take a brick home from a Robin Boyd house?”
One thing we’re very proud of is a lot of people can’t really tell the old from the new. We feel lucky to be given the opportunity to love and care for a house with historical significance, it feels like we are protecting something special for future generations.
This extract of Flack Studio: Interiors (Rizzoli) is republished with permission from Flack Studio.