A ‘Jarring’ Victorian Home Resolved With Colour, Art, + Joinery

Ioanna Lennox Interiors overhauled this Mosman home with colour, art, and joinery. Photo – Pablo Veiga

A gallery wall featuring the client’s prized collection brings character and warmth into the new dining area. Photo – Pablo Veiga

Integral to the project’s success was the reorientation of the kitchen combining multiple storage solutions and purposes under three-metre-high ceilings. Photo – Pablo Veiga

Photo – Pablo Veiga

Subtle mid-century influences are seen across the furniture scheme and joinery featuring timber and reeded glass. Photo – Pablo Veiga

Bifold doors behind a sheer curtain open up to a northern facing courtyard. Photo – Pablo Veiga

This new domain is a space where the family and friends gather. Photo – Pablo Veiga

Updates to the remainder of the home were driven by the clients’ love of green, amber, and orange shades introduced across the soft furnishings and textile art. Saturated, dusty, blue-grey walls in the formal lounge meanwhile complement the detailed restored ceilings. Photo – Pablo Veiga

Traditional Otomi embroideries were custom-ordered and hand made in Mexico especially for this room. ‘We selected the colours, size and once they arrived had them framed and floated in glass. This is a great example of the level of detail we go to, to tell our clients’ stories and bring together their likes and collectables,’ says Ioanna Lennox. Photo – Pablo Veiga

The bathrooms in this house had a small footprint. The challenge was therefore to make them look more spacious and lighter, while injecting a feeling of understated luxury,’ says Ioanna. Photo – Pablo Veiga

‘We relied on beautiful materials and a calming palette to design whimsical spaces to get ready in and unwind, in sync with our clients’ intention of creating interesting, approachable and timeless interiors,’ says Ioanna. Photo – Pablo Veiga

Numerous previous additions had left this Victorian home in Mosman, NSW, in a jarring state, calling for Ioanna Lennox Interiors’ expertise on a cohesive overhaul.

Their renovations primarily focused on the second half of the ground floor (beyond the original, period rooms) where a new kitchen, dining room, laundry, and powder room were created.

The reorientation of the kitchen was integral to the project’s success. The new layout connected the kitchen and dining space, combining multiple storage solutions and purposes under a three-metre high ceiling.

Creative director Ioanna Lennox explains, ‘We designed joinery in the dining room that’s a visual extension of the kitchen, but responds to the function and purpose of this room as a space to equally gather and entertain, as well as a work-from-home place. We took a simple and restrained approach to the desk area, which extends into a sun-soaked banquette by the window to idle the hours away.’

A gallery wall featuring the client’s prized collection brings character and warmth into the space above the dining table, which opens out to a north-facing courtyard behind bifold doors. ‘It’s a room that just makes you feel good and is hard to leave,’ Ioanna says.

Also evident in the new domain are subtle mid-century influences across the furniture scheme and joinery featuring timber and reeded glass. ‘Our clients are big fans of the mid-century modern era, so the challenge was to bring elements of this style into this Federation home in an effortless and unforced way and have them sit in harmony next to ornate plaster ceilings and Victorian fireplaces,’ says Ioanna.

Updates to the remainder of the home were driven by the clients’ love of green, amber, and orange shades introduced across the soft furnishings and textile art. Saturated, dusty, blue-grey walls in the formal lounge meanwhile complement the detailed restored ceilings.

The resolved home is more practical, yet whimsical and sophisticated, for a Mosman family of four.