Rich yet minimalist

 Designed by Katrina Mair, Johnson Schropp Interior Design

From the designer:

The setting

A driveway sits at the top of a hill in the heart of the Eumundi town. 

Walking down the drive, you are lead along a leafy walled hill that opens up into a lush green haven, where an unassuming black shed sits tucked into the hillside.

This project quickly became a story of designing a new family home while retaining the existing garage, making the two buildings work in harmony together. 

The evolution of design took over a year, however the core brief remained intact from the day the property was viewed to the day the house was complete. 

Above all else, the view was to be the hero of this project, and all materials were to be a complement to it.

Being sat on a hill there was an opportunity to play with compression, and expansion which can be best experienced upon arrival. 

The exterior entryway has two overlapping cantilevered roofs that bring you down into the formal entry which is met with 2.4m ceilings. 

This then opens into the main building, a cathedral style space with a top height of 4.2m that houses the living, dining, and kitchen within the 18m of uninterrupted living space, with large windows and doors that capture glimpses into the varied gardens.

Being a Queensland home, it was important to the owners to maintain as much connection to the outdoors as possible which inspired the core colour palette – a warm, earthy homage to the native bush plants of the area. 

The walls are a warm clay colour not too dissimilar to the clay earth found in the yard. 

The house is fully clad in black stained cypress, with rust coloured Heka Hoods (a minimalist awning hood system). 

The kitchen

For the kitchen, black leathered granite stone is paired with rich ‘browchoal’ joinery from Nikpol, then layered with bronze and marble hardware from Lo and Co. 

It was important that the kitchen feel rich and minimalist at the same time. 

For this reason we wanted to hide the hood fan behind an expansive design element. 

With a minimalistic colour palette we have layered tones of charcoal and clay in two feature tiles. 

A glazed handmade tile from Mexico in earthy clay and green are used as the splashback, while smaller-scale, crisp porcelain tiles in charcoal are used above on the hood fan.

It became a bit of a running joke for owners Katrina Mair of Johnson Schropp Interior Design and Andrew Kenny of Meadan Homes that there would not be a single white element in the home. 

“Besides a white bathtub, we stuck to our convictions, and created a home with earthy, rich, tones and textured layers,” Katrina Mair says.

Story by: Trendsideas