In reconciling a home’s Edwardian past and modern addition, Georgina Jeffries looked to European hospitality and the work of Italy’s design masters.
Melbourne-based interior design practice Georgina Jeffries was approached to bridge the heritage and contemporary inside a home with one of the city’s Edwardian gardens on its doorstep. Occupied by a scientist, a teacher, and their two daughters, the brief was to refine the existing spaces for purpose and liveability without losing their historic character.
At the same time, the studio designed interiors for the new addition by the local architectural practice Pleysier Perkins, seeking to create the same cultivated, cohesive language in detailing and spatial rhythm. Here, the flexibility is two-fold: expanding for entertaining and decompressing for day-to-day family life.
Materials are the connective thread, selected to be felt as much as seen. Georgina Jeffries introduced a palette of timber, natural stone, brass, plaster wall finish and textured fabrics to create sensory comfort and play to the home’s grandeur.
The stairs are an exemplar of this, where herringbone timber and stone floors meet the sculptural staircase. “One memorable evolution came after the clients returned from Europe, inspired by traditional pink and Carrara marble flooring,” Jeffries explains. “We had originally proposed a more classic stone for the entry, but their reference sparked a new direction that ultimately became one of the home’s defining moments.”
The kitchen and adjoining meals area were designed as a central gathering point to eat, talk, learn and connect. When the family isn’t sitting up at the generous kitchen island, they’re around the dining banquette with its Italian icons—the Karakter Scarpa 121 dining chairs and the vintage Lens pendant by Oscar Torlasco. Artwork is Toes to Attract Butterflies by Anna Van Der Ploeg from Otomys.
In the kitchen, European craftsmanship and culinary traditions are introduced with the Lacanche cooker, vintage Double Diablo wall lamp, natural Artedomus Quaresto stone, and brass detailing. Jeffries says this also allows the kitchen to complement the home’s original heritage character while giving it its own identity. A sliding door leads to the pantry, where all of the kitchen’s practical elements are stored.
In the kitchen, European bar tables were used as a reference for the timber ribboning around the island, making it feel more like a piece of furniture in the room. Drawing on these hospitality spaces, Jeffries says, was an effort to create warmth, intimacy and a sense of occasion.
While the Lacanche cooker may point to French culinary craftsmanship, the brass studs and tiled stone splashback reinterpret Italian architect Piero Portaluppi’s decorative interiors. Jeffries says this detail captures the essence of the studio’s intervention, where Italian vintage or reissued lighting and furniture enter the conversation in most of its spaces, rounded out by locally sourced or custom-designed furniture and art.
The informal living area hits the right notes with its modular, pillowy forms and textured fabrics. A Zanotta Za:Za modular sofa by Design Zaven, the GUBI Stay lounge chair by Space Copenhagen, and the Nau Billo armchair by Adam Goodrum skirt around the custom oak coffee table, in front of the curved fireplace and tiled plinth.
The stairs and hallway were designed as a deliberate threshold between old and new. By the stairs, a vintage Italian wall light, Ella Dunn’s Two Brothers (2023) from Sophie Gannon Gallery, and the Serax Pawn Geometrical side table.
The comfort of saddle-leather Cassina 412 Cab chairs by Mario Bellini makes the formal dining space one to spend more time in than just for a meal, around the custom-designed oak dining table and underneath Anna Charlesworth’s Dish pendant. Artwork is by Kieren Seymour, from Neon Parc.
In the formal living space, the gaze is drawn to the original gridded ceiling, deliberately coated in a lighter shade. While the Anna Charlesworth 4 Bowl pendant feels more in keeping with the Edwardian era, contemporary pieces such as the Edra Standard sofa and custom walnut coffee table bring the space into a modern context. An AS Oushak rug from Loom Rugs continues the dulcet tones, featured with the Ceramic plinth by Alison Frith and the Vitra Akari 10A floor lamp by Isamu Noguchi.
In the primary bedroom, a Viabizzuno Roy wall light by Mario Nanni embellishes the custom-upholstered bedhead. Underneath: a Lemon Furniture nightstand; above: Hydrangea, Candle, and Rubber Band by Lucy Roleff.
The Water Monopoly fixtures bring the European sensibility into the family bathroom, which features the Rockwell bath.
Aglow with the Angular Glass & Chrome wall light by JTKalmar for Franken AG, Austria, the family bathroom also features the Looking at You 2.0 mirror by Jordan Flemming and The Water Monopoly Rockwell basin.
