Inside a celebrity vacation home with breathtaking ocean views

As a firm we sort of like to let our imaginations run a bit wild and come up with an amazing concept and then work really closely with those artisans and craftsmen to achieve something that's totally unique for our clients. My name is Nina Meyer, I'm the lead designer of this project and welcome to Residence F. Residence F is located in Bellevue Hill. It sits right atop the hill with the most stunning gun barrel views of the harbour bridge and sight lines across Manly and all the way up to Redfern. The property itself is situated on a private driveway so it's very private and secluded you sort of walk or drive down the long drive and then the house reveals itself and there's this beautiful landscaped walkway leading up to the large pivot door. Once you open the door we really wanted that sense of reveal so there's the stunning staircase in the centre of the room but the rest of the layout is open plan so straight away you've got sight lines across to the harbour, your eye carries through to the deck and the terrace beyond. It has this very generously proportioned feel to the space. So the original brief was simply to create a world-class home fitting of the location and the area. We're very lucky with these clients, we have a very close relationship with the homeowner. This is the third property we've worked on with them. They really wanted this to be their showcase home to entertain guests. They have a country house and a beach house so this was really supposed to be you know a really beautiful residence to spend time with family and friends. So what makes this project so special for us as a firm is it's our first ground up construction in that we completed the architecture planning and development as well as the project management and the interior design. All in all it was a five-year project from planning to delivering a finished product and it was just an incredible opportunity to sort of see our vision all the way to the end. So because the property was really surrounded by beautiful beautiful heritage trees, some of them 80 to 100 years old, we really wanted the house to have a very monolithic feeling and for it to hold its own against these stunning specimens of trees. So we decided to clad the whole building in Italian travertine which gives it a very strong sense of gravitas, earthiness, a sense of history as well. For a new build it doesn't present that way, it feels like it's been here for the ages and you have the sense of living in the treetops and we really tried to bring that in. So as well as the glass conservatory which gives that stunning connection to the courtyard, upstairs you've got beautiful organic shaped skylights so everywhere you look you're seeing the beautiful canopy, you really feel engulfed and surrounded by greenery. Again on the terrace when you're standing there you have a sense of there's no neighbours, it's just a sea of green that then joins into the harbour. It was important to create that seamless indoor-outdoor flow. We achieved that by using a complementary floor tones from the inside to the outside and also having the glazing completely disappear into cavities so when you're inside in the kitchen it feels as though you were outside. The staircase is definitely one of my favourite features, it's something we laboured over for many years to get the engineering right but it's just a thing of beauty, marble treads all lit up by LEDs and as you walk up through the curve your eyes look up into the circular skylight which is just sort of a stunning aspect of the tree canopy above and then looking down through the staircase you get glimpses of the formal lounge and the conservatory. One of our favourite places to design in every project is the kitchen. We really feel it's the heart of the home and an opportunity to create a real statement and language for the home. In this kitchen we didn't want to detract from the view but obviously it is on display and one of the first things you see when you enter the property. So we worked with Worldstone to source a really stunning Italian stone which has the most beautiful colour variations through it and came up with a very sort of sinuous curved form for the island. We worked with Lacanache to get a beautiful oven in situ and then really sort of designed the finishes around that to complement it. We custom designed a beautiful hand-moulded rippled glass and bronze pendant light and then created two complementary wall sconces to go back with it. One of the extraordinary things about this home it is north facing but the light play throughout the day is just magical. We really wanted to enhance that so we used a lot of hand-polished plaster on the walls so they really sort of reflect the rippling light through the day. We tried to incorporate beautiful skylights where we can as well so again the movement of the sun is reflected on all surfaces. Each area has a very different feeling so in the morning for example the conservatory just gets this stunning dappled light coming through the treetops reflecting on the walls. Sunset the place to be is the terrace it has this sort of warm enveloping sunset which is just so beautiful and during the middle of the day sitting out on the deck at sort of full sunlight looking out to the harbour is absolutely stunning. So with all our projects we we do like to push the boundaries and try to create new things so that each client ends up with an entirely unique home. This project particularly was our first foray into creating our own building products so we wanted a glass brick and we couldn't find any that we liked in the market so we set around designing our own. Essentially we created some moulds and did a lot of sampling until we were happy with a sort of very rippled organic shaped brick which we then produced and used that to clad the first two stories of the house. The reason we chose the crystal brick is to get that stunning translucency of light so when you're in the powder room it's got this incredible backlit feeling of the light outside and when you first approach the building as well even at night time if the light is on inside you have this sort of glowing wall of two stories of crystal which is just such a unique aspect upon entering the home. I think what I'm most proud of when I look around this project obviously is the result we've managed to achieve for our client. The challenges obviously were in being in construction during COVID so one of the proudest things is we were able to deliver the project on budget and on time which was a huge feat and is always something we strive for with our clients. Obviously the reason we design homes is for our clients and the thing that makes us most happy is seeing them use the space and enjoy what we've created for them. So the most special moment and the thing I'm most proud of was when the family came to site for the first time. None of the family members had seen the property for several years and seeing the look of just pure joy on their faces as they walked through the property for the first time was something I'll never forget and so rewarding for all our hard work.