Who Lives Here: Henrietta Location: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia Size: 400 square feet
What is your favorite element of your Small & Cool home? I was so lucky to find my little apartment. It is like a haven from the rest of the world. It is located among the tree tops, cooled by sea breezes and I have a wonderful old gumtree outside my window which changes its colour throughout the day. I wake up every morning to the sounds of kookaburras and lorikeets.
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What was one of the biggest challenges you faced in furnishing your Small Cool home? In addition to being quite small, my apartment has an unusual shape and most of the walls and corners are at odd angles. My apartment is still a work in progress and I am trying to be patient in my search for special pieces that will fit into the unusual space and that are also very functional.
I pulled up the carpet to discover beautiful old timber parquetry but there is a section at the veranda door that has been water-damaged and despite a lot of searching, I am yet to find replacement tiles (hence the rug!).
I have used Apartment Therapy and "small spaces" books to get inspiration, especially about storage solutions.
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Beautiful bedroom!
I love the odd angles - instant character! And I like the restrained hand in the decorating. It makes the rooms seem calm and spacious. The floors and the outlook are great assets too.
The light in your apartment is lovely. I adore that green stool! Where is it from?
The bedroom is lovely what a nice view of the trees.
I love the brightness of the white picture frames on the white, low-slung bookshelf in the bedroom - way to capitalize on that gorgeous sunlight!
This is one of the best ones yet! The floor is gorgeous, and I love the colors!
damn i want that serving tray from ikea in your kitchen. seriously, it's been my "i dont really need it, i just want it" putback at the end of an ikea shopping trip 3 times! great decorative use of it though!
I am LOVING the Sydney entries this year - hooray for Sydney!
Henrietta - have you tried looking under kitchen cabinets/in the bottom of cupboards/under the fridge for parquetry you can transplant to the balcony door?
LOVELY!
I like the layout as well as the colorful sparseness.
"Gorgeous little apartment. Lucky you! I particularly like the servery - it opens up the kitchen just enough to make a visual connection but still keeps it as a separate room. Was that original when you bought the apartment or did you put it in? The timber bench top on the servery and the little shelf above are just the sort of well thought out touches that can make all the difference."
Double bonus points for referring to "kookaburras and lorikeets."
The outlook of your place is lovely, and I'm sure it wasn't easy working with strange angles.
What a gorgeous apartment. A fabulous color scheme combined with such a light filled leafy outlook makes it feel very tranquil. Is that a sliding door between the living and bedroom? Can you fully close off the bedroom for privacy? You seem to have done wonders with storage. I want to see more! I wish you had put a photo of the bathroom in too!
Thank you very much everyone for your kind comments.
To answer some of your questions:
1. Ktknis: The green stool was my house warming gift from my parents. I think it is designed by Erik Buch.
2. Delaks: Great suggestion re: parquetry- indeed when I knocked out half the wall between the kitchen and lounge room and built in the cupboards/bench top/servery I managed to scrape together some extra tiles. Unfortunately they were used up very quickly in other damaged spots.
3. Milly 6: Please see answer above.
4. Jutty: The sliding doors were an original feature of the apartment and I can close off the bedroom if needed. My bed is actually an Ikea Beddinge sofa bed (which is actually comfortable!) so if I have little parties I can convert the bed and open up the sliding doors. This gives me much more space, extra seating and I can take full advantage of the view.
Henrietta
Beautifully restrained, and with so much character. And I absolutely love the fabrics on your cushions in the first picture.
Also, reading your own reply comments I love that you've got a bed that converts into a sofa when you need it to, rather than a sofa that converts into a bed when you need it to. Brilliant way of looking at something!
Gorgeous home. Where did you get the birds on the table from? love them
Brilliant idea of havin bed/sofa and being able to convert the bedroom space to entertaining space.
What an adorable place. The windows in the bedroom are priceless.
Beautiful apartment. I love the way you have managed to create the illusion of a separate dining space using the positioning of your light fittings. The cushions are fantastic - they look familiar, are they from Clauds?
I don't know how you ever get out of bed in the morning.
want want want want
So gorgeous.
Those bedroom windows are to die for.
a beautiful and sunny place! very well edited, there is an air of femininity but without the girly part, never liked the girly (pink, frilly) part.. :) But i do like your place. Wish I had all those windows too, I'd do yoga in that little spot in the bedroom. And the place has great bones too, the little counter between the kitchen and the living room is great!
What a beautiful place! And what great light you have there in Sydney, New South Wales!
What a gorgeous apartment. Those windows in your bedroom are amazing! And the white kitchen is divine! Your decor is fresh and clean. I wish I could see your living room. Love the birds on your dining table. Hope to see you in the finals.
Hello,
theoj: I live in a beachside suburb about 5-6 km east of the CBD.
hereoroverthere: the white birds are drizzlers (for oil and vinegar) and are made by a company called 'po:design'. I bought them in a shop called Aero but i think you can probably get them through the internet?
Thanks again for the comments.
Henrietta
Thumbs up for working around odd angles - that would drive me insane.
Beautiful apartment! I'm curious about your bedroom window treatments -- I'm looking to do something similar. Are those Ikea curtains? And how are they hung? What are the fixtures?
perfect bedroom wiev!!!
Hi Stoeches: Yes, the curtains are from ikea (they have tabs on top). I installed a floating ceiling as the original ceiling had been a grey popcorn/vermiculite and always looked dirty. The floating ceiling couldn't take the weight of curtains and I didn't want to lose any of the windows' outlook so I didn't take the ceiling right to the edge of the window. I left just enough of a gap (about 5cm) to put a curtain rail up (Kvartal system -IKEA). The rail fixtures were attached vertically to the ceiling. All up it was quite inexpensive.
What a lovely little place you have. I'm a big fan of those angled walls...gives the space dimension, and keeps the eye searching, rather than everything being revealed immediately.
The windows are great, the Eucalypts are a bonus! That's one of the perks about apartment living...you get to be perched up in the trees with lots of blue sky to see
Nice simple decorating, with lots of white mixed with timber and a few colours here and there. It's a common formula...but that's because it works so well! Lucky you for finding the parquetry floor...
me likey, well done.