Rather than relying on a single palette, Botanical House unfolds as a series of chromatic moments. Colour signals transition, while furniture and finishes anchor each space with theatricality and personality.
When you have views that overlook Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens, it would be easy to design an interior that let the gardens do all the talking. But that’s not how Mim Design approached the redesign of a home the clients have lived in for 27 years. Instead, the 1920s heritage home is a sequence of interiors where colour sets the tempo, and a curation of furniture adds a layer of narrative.
Given how long the owners had inhabited the home, it was important that the renovation offered a sense of renewal, without erasing the many years of memories it held. What the team at Mim Design have created is an interior that shifts mood, room by room. A key part of the brief was to inject the interior with the homeowners’ love for travel, literature and art—reflecting an eclectic and layered taste.
“[The clients] were drawn to the idea of an ‘outfit change’ for every room to excite the senses and deliver changes of pace throughout,” Mim Design principal Miriam Fanning says. Colour is the organising device. Rather than a single palette stretched across the house, each space now asserts its own identity.
Fanning explains that “Colour-immersion was core to each space, inspiring us to layer decorative elements and experiment with strong, deep colours or contrasting midtones and light hues. As a result, every room reveals its own personality, enriched through intriguing specialist lighting, artistic stone and graphic art.”
Tom Dixon Fat stools and Sub-Zero appliances pictured in the kitchen.
The main living area is inside the new extension at the rear. Here the colour palette shifts into a softer, lighter palette, saturated by natural light. Berry toned additions, such as the Cassina Utrecht armchair, give depth, while the muted grey joinery is carried through in the Perry modular sofa by Flexform. Artwork by Jonny Niesche, courtesy 1301SW. Articolo Cuff coffee table.
The dining room features Apparatus Median 4 pendant lights, Grazia & Co Stamp dining table, Cassina Cab chairs, and Tongue & Groove solid European oak flooring.
The first hint happens when stepping through a grand arched portico. Here, the foyer commands attention with a weighty, Tassel 57 chandelier by Apparatus that immediately anchors the room with drama. A textural plaster finish dulls the light in this space, drawing the eye to the sculpted stair and bronze-encased lift beyond. Oversized checkerboard marble floors in subtly contrasting greys give a hint of Parisian influence.
To one side of the foyer is the salon, inspired directly from the gardens opposite. It’s cloaked in lush green tones and botanical wallpaper. Across the hall, the study pivots sharply into peacock blue, contrasted by graphic artwork, and the enchanting Horizon Desk by La Chance—a stand-out piece that Fanning confirms is the first one in Australia.
The new rear extension stretches along the garden edge, linking kitchen, dining and living spaces to landscape and light. In these everyday spaces, the colour softens to neutrals with hints of colour that shine through in the velvety, Bordeaux-hued upholstery on the Cassina Utrecht armchair and peachy rug underneath. Pale timber chevron flooring lays the ground across the living space. Atop, the kitchen joinery and island bench counterbalance the linearity and modernness of this zone. The grey striations in the Bianco Cristallo stone from Glux has been picked up in the adjacent joinery. At the kitchen bench, Tom Dixon Fat stools mimic the generosity of the curves visible in the island’s stonework.
Moving upstairs, five bedrooms reference English heritage interiors, Fanning shares how they are, “layered with textural softness and a pleasing array of inlaid wallpaper robes, Italian glass chandeliers, and commanding beauty”.
The entrance sets the tone with a custom table by Just Adele, Apparatus Tassel 57 pendant, Susie Stanford door handle, Hill House Chair by Cassina and Gebruder Thonet coat rack.
Downstairs in the hidden basement cellar, the colour story goes decidedly dark. Rich, ruby jewel-toned Rosso Levanto marble wraps the stair and powder room. A move that Fanning says is about, “evoking a sense of Prohibition, inspired by the home’s 1920s origins”. The depth and lack of light is used to its advantage in this space, where brass accents and espresso-toned upholstery create an intimate counterpoint to the lighter spaces above.
Reflecting on the project, Fanning shares that, “This project enabled us to produce a boundaryless design, achieved through the close collaboration with the builder, which also allowed our studio to pursue unique ‘first-offs’ and experiment with evocative interiors.”
Journeying through each room is akin to riffling through chapters of a book. Botanical House shows how colour can be used as an atmospheric, shape-shifting driver—one that transforms how each room is experienced day to day.
The salon on the ground floor takes direction from the abundance of green from the adjacent gardens. A whimsical botanical wallpaper (Le Jardin Aux Oiseaux Grisaille from Anabo) is grounded by the richness of the dark forest greens, particularly in the custom sofas by IMGC. At the centre is the Allure coffee table by Baxter, while a Sommerard Triple Arm floor lamp by Aerin and Baxter Miss Rope chair adds height. Also pictured: Glas Italia Fountain side table and Baxter Tebe side table.
The study brings a lively energy. The custom La Chance desk is the centrepiece with a Dale Frank artwork (courtesy Neon Parc), a custom Behruz Meraki rug underfoot with other elements, such as the Babel table lamp by Santa & Cole on the desk.
“A pinnacle detail is the garden room and study’s ombre-finished ceilings, executed through a long and detailed process by a master-painter, immersing the space though colour with a playful, rich and layered experience,” Fanning says. A teal gradient softens to the ceiling where a Synapse pendant light by Apparatus carries the same bronze and frosted glass materiality from the foyer. Artwork by Jonny Niesche, courtesy 1301SW, striped Boborelax chair by Arflex.
Pictured: Apparatus Reprise wall sconces, Vola tapware and pink quartzite in the powder room.
The basement-level den and wine cellar cocoon the senses in chocolate browns. Pictured: Volker Haug Pyramid Scheme pendant.
Embracing the dark undertones of the basement level, a den and wine cellar cocoons the senses in chocolate browns. Artwork by Diena Georgetti, courtesy 1301SW. A Fanuli Keely modular sofa sits easily with the Dalma armchairs by Baxter. A Yuzu pouf by Arflex, in a thick mustard yellow adds a playful pop.
Down in the basement, a sense of dark mystery is evoked with earthy, rich red Rosso Levante marble from CDK Stone and textured red walls for the stairs and powder room. Art Deco flourishes—an Italian Murano wall sconce from Emoderno—add to the sense of a Prohibition-era escape. Also pictured: Rachel Donath Senne mirror.
Abode bedding and a custom bedhead by Mim Design, Cassette armchair by Alter Ego Studio, pink Poliedri chandelier from E’Moderno, artwork by Bill Henson from Starkwhite, and a custom Behruz carpet in the primary bedroom.
In the en suite, Aquamare quartzite from Glux is paired with a Kifu Paris Dandy stool, York freestanding bath and Italian Murano Lecce sconces from E’Moderno.
Pictured: B&B Italia Borea outdoor chair by Piero Lissoni.
