Lightness of being

Designed by Melonie Bayl-Smith, Bijl Architecture

From whole house architect and kitchen designer:

The setting

 This family home's steep and rocky site in Sydney’s inner west, actually presented more opportunities than challenges. 

Bookended by a busy intersection and transport node at the street front, and with an enormous rockface stepping up at the rear, the topography and site character presented an excellent opportunity for a layered, form-led design and material approach.

Our homeowner’s brief appeared straightforward – a generous new home, integrated landscape, and pool for a young family. 

This called for design considerations for long term habitation and flexibility with the dwelling balancing many different potential futures given the robust demands placed upon it by contemporary family life.   

The open-plan living, kitchen, dining and covered deck at the rear operate as one flexible, expansive environment flowing out to the new pool with its dramatic rockface backdrop. 

This is a home that shelters, centres, and celebrates family and foundation. 

It is revealed through level changes and materiality: vertical and horizontal layers of brick, rock, metal, glass, and timber screening. 

The kitchen

Emphasis was made on the kitchen’s design to be open to the living space without imposing on the space visually or dimensionally. 

Light floods the room via a row of skylights that align with the tall and low-level cabinetry, and an adjacent slot window gives oblique views to the street.

The timber elements of the Polytec woodmat Tasmanian Oak joinery link aesthetic commonalities between new furniture, built-in joinery, artworks and balustrading reveals to openings. 

The concealed integrated lighting under and within the white powdercoated aluminium upper cupboards and hinged corner cupboard to the island creates a consistent dialogue between the kitchen elements through glowing fluted glass.

Caesarstone Alpine Mist was selected for the subtle movement of colour on the benchtop, with the grey balancing out the room against the opposing honed blockwork to the fireplace.

The mirrored splashback to the bar and drinks cabinetry sit to the side, reflecting light and space and offering a connection to the outdoors while exiting as a separate unit. 

Designed by: In the limelight

Story by: Trendsideas

Photography by: Tom Ferguson