A Victorian Mansion Turned Luxury Home Where Art Takes Center Stage

Faced with the challenge to transform a Victorian-style mansion into a luxury home fit for a contemporary family, without compromising its grand architectural heritage, Studio CD more than rose to the occasion.

Tasked with transforming a grand historic house into a youthful contemporary family home, Claire Driscoll Delmar, creative director of the Australian interior design practice, just needed to make sure it that reflected the clients’ passion for art, travel and fashion. She was otherwise given a completely blank canvas to work with.

Claire has boldly complemented the luxury home’s period features with contemporary furniture, sculptural lighting, textured fabrics, playful wallpapers and bursts of colour, as well as the clients’ playful art collection of paintings, photographs and sculpture wherefrom the project, Art House, takes its name.

Built at the end of the 19th century in Woollahra, one of Sydney Australia’s inner-city suburbs, the two-storey luxury home contained a treasure trove of beautiful period features that were meticulously restored. From the formal wainscoting and parquet flooring to the ornate ceiling cornices and roses to the sculpted marble mantelpieces and the arched openings, the refurbished décor not only speaks of the architectural building’s history but also reflects the clients’ love of European architecture.

Swathed in a muted palette of white, and light and dark greys, the renovated private residence was transformed into an austere canvas upon which the interior designer has unleashed her creativity by adding playful touches of vibrant colour, sumptuous textures and playful forms that imbue the spaces with a sense of whimsy as much as elegance.

A series of bespoke furniture by Sydney designer Jonathan West, such as the hallway sideboard, kitchen stools, and bedroom headboard and bedside tables, are interweaved with contemporary and modernist pieces, and a selection of artworks that “bring a sense of fun and lightness to the house”, as Claire says, softening its masculine grandeur.

Every room of this modern home has been meticulously curated, harmoniously balancing old with new features, muted tones with colourful accents and polished surfaces with soft textures, as part of an interplay between the masculine and the feminine psyche. The result is a luxury home of exemplary refinement and youthful spirit that is simultaneously calming and inspiring.