Warehouse Apartment

+ Hay Street, Perth off King St + $100,000 + 51m2 + 2008-2009 + Full design service The brief encapsulated a broad overarching desire to create an exciting, unique and comfortable inner city apartment that celebrated its beautiful heritage and combined it seamlessly with contemporary ideas of living. The renovation involved totally gutting the interior of the apartment - part of a 1916 warehouse - only to leave the old timber joist ceiling, brick walls and concrete floor, framing a beautiful four-metre volume – all qualities hard to find in new apartment developments today. The challenge with the design was the balancing of the program with the limited floor space of 51 square metres. The result is a very sculpted space with no distinct rooms or doors, but the use of materials, form and changes in level to define the spaces. The renovated apartment achieves a deception of space that creates a feeling of expansiveness, making it feel more generous than it actually is. Upon entering, the bedroom and bathroom are open to one another, with a change in level and materiality into the bathroom defining the space. An impressive full height mirror captivates your attention, with a floating vanity unit proportionally balanced off it, while providing privacy to the shower and toilet recesses behind. The kitchen and living areas are seamlessly detailed, with reflective black gloss cabinetwork weaving its way around to frame the stainless steel kitchen workspaces and underlining the living room entertainment area. Miele kitchen appliances are featured throughout, all carefully integrated to maintain the clean lines of the cabinetwork, to reduce clutter and to further promote a seemingly larger space. The quality of the resulting finishes is exceptional, with a strong palette of stainless steel, black and white against platinum coloured furniture contrasted by the original painted brickwork walls, ornate timber ceiling and raw exposed concrete. The use of these reflective finishes helps bounce light around the interior to make the apartment feel more expansive than it is. It is fundamentally a grafting between new and old, smooth and rough, dark and light. The eclectic and bespoke. + WINNER OF ASIA PACIFIC PROPERTY AWARDS 2011 BEST RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY INTERIOR + WINNER OF 2010 AUSTRALIAN INTERIOR DESIGN AWARDS BEST OF STATE (WA) FOR RESIDENTIAL DESIGN + WINNER FOR RESIDENTIAL INTERIOR DIA WA DESIGN AWARDS 2010