The kitchen features a porcelain undermount Blanco sink and Halliday+Baillie pull handles powder-coated to match. Pictured: Alma kitchen tap. Artedomus honed quartzite slab. Lacanche free-standing cooker in ivory. Integrated Miele dishwasher and Sub-Zero fridge. Leather and aged brass bar stools by Jover+Valls.
The Atrium by ANNA.CARIN updates a plain inner-city townhouse in Sydney with neutral tones, clay walls, and a porcelain kitchen.
Design principal and founder Anna Carin notes that the starting point for The Atrium was “a very ordinary 1990s terrace with little personality and soul”. Bringing natural light into the centre of the home, the existing atrium is the one main element that was retained and made the most of by the new interiors. To highlight the double-height volume, a custom designed transparent Perspex sculpture by Sydney-based artist Anna Dudek casts light, shadow and colour. Carin says that the “sculpture’s surfaces reflect and fracture the light, sending it into the surrounding spaces in a way that feels magical”.
Referred to as a “jewel box” by the owners, the atrium and powder bath with floral wallpaper lean into this sensibility. As does the kitchen with porcelain, aged brass, antique mirror, and soft pinch-pleat bistro curtains adding selective views to the street. Carin specified honed quartzite in the kitchen, clay-coloured joinery, and sanding and sealing the existing timber floors that extend into the dining and living rooms, choosing complementary tones to unify the spaces.
Colour is introduced in the artwork and joinery worked in with a selection of layered and mostly neutral finishes. In the main bedroom, a bench seat with earthy rust-coloured surround and pink velour cushions leads to a blue-tiled main bathroom suite. With views from the balcony on one side and out to the atrium on the other, the second bedroom’s timber and upholstered linen headboard with white and cream coloured bedding heroes the homeowners’ photographic art directly above.
An Anna Dudek sculpture custom designed for the atrium references the five seasons in Chinese medicine with surfaces that reflect and fracture the light.
Pictured: Mark Tuckey oak table. Pierre Augustin Rose dining chairs. MONC XIII shearling bench seat. De Padova timber and paper pendant light.
Living between New York, Miami and Paris for fifteen years before relocating to Sydney, the couple’s art and furniture was shipped over with the intention of re-housing the collection. This became an important aim of the project. “Our role was to design a home that could hold those pieces in a personal, respectful way as a lived collection.” To achieve this, the mostly neutral palette was devised as a subtle backdrop. Adding to this, Carin explains “we integrated specific places to display ceramics by international female ceramicists throughout the home”.
Carin attributes the project’s soft and pared back interiors contrasted with moments of pattern and colour to having great clients. “We were given full freedom and trust.” Every suggestion was met enthusiastically with “yeses” making it a dream project.
Furniture collected over years of travel includes a Pelican armchair by House of Finn Juhl and PP Møbler Flag Halyard chair by Hans J. Wegner. Pictured: Flos Gatto table lamp. Tibetan wool and silk hand-knotted rug by Designer Rugs. Pierre Augustin Rose sofa. Morfa No.2 coffee table by Lucas Recchia.
A mostly neutral interior with a jewel-box moment in the powder bath. Pictured: VOLA tapware and towel hook. Hollyhocks wallpaper by House of Hackney. Ripple wall light by Koda.
The screening room. Pictured: Living Divani Extrasoft modular sofa by Piero Lissoni. 2615 Collection carpet by Van Besouw.
The main bedroom. Pictured: W225 Ion Wastberg bedside lamps. Nemo Lampe De Marseille wall light by Le Corbusier.
The Garden Social designed the entrance and courtyard gardens for connection and as a place of respite bringing a “whimsical feminine quality to the outside areas”.
