A Boldly Expressive Family Home Filled With Art

There’s a particular kind of brief that only comes after years of knowing someone and their evolving needs. After a decade of living between Amsterdam, the US and Australia, the family decided to make Melbourne permanent, and called the one practice they knew could make it happen: Sally Caroline.

Dubbed “Homecoming” by founder and director Sally Knibbs, “it marks a new chapter for the family,” she explains. “It was the home they purchased when they decided to stop moving.” Knibbs catalogued and relocated everything from both previous homes, weaving new acquisitions alongside pieces that had already lived full lives elsewhere, from a salon-style wall of 80 family photographs to a rug whose border spells the family’s names in Morse code. “I think these pieces really do make you stop and start a conversation,” Knibbs says.

The kitchen is the home’s boldest gesture, featuring green timber veneer, hand-finished stainless steel, two different marbles and a full suite of Gaggenau appliances. The Gaggenau Expressive Series ovens are arranged in an elevated gallery formation, their passepartout detailing framing the glass door the way a photograph is framed in a gallery. “When I look at that elevation, I feel like it almost looks like an artwork in itself,” Knibbs says. “The products just make it absolutely sing.”