Located in Sydney’s Elizabeth Bay, Solid Air by Anna.Carin Design Studio is an interior designer’s own home that is imbued with a renewed rhythm and voice that speaks to the owner’s Scandinavian heritage. Upon arrival, the apartment immediately stood out to the owner with its arched windows, high ceilings and window seats that complemented the home’s interior. Yet, as with all projects, Anna.Carin Design Studio worked to draw out the unique aesthetic of the apartment with architecture and furniture design. Beginning with removing some of the walls in the apartment, Anna.Carin Design Studio delved into an array of contemporary design methods that revealed the home’s true nature. Additionally, as the inspiration of song comes into play with each project that Anna.Carin Design Studio works on, Anna-Carin chose the song Solid Air by John Martyn to influence the interior design.
With the apartment tour beginning in the hallway space, Anna.Carin Design Studio has placed two main rooms on the left and two to the right. On the left, the light-filled study allows space for work and play, whilst the master bedroom is stationed on the right side of the hall, along with the main and guest bathrooms. The primary living spaces include a kitchen, dining and living room that are all filled with a natural light from the large arched bay windows. Through renovating the interior and architecture, Anna-Carin also considered how she wanted to feel within her own home, the emotions she wanted to evoke and, most importantly, how she wants to live there. As such, Anna-Carin McNamara sought to find three emotive words that would express the space of her apartment and decided on ‘serene’, ‘evocative’ and ‘cosmopolitan’.
Throughout the interior design, Anna.Carin Design Studio has chosen darker colours to create a monochromatic mood, all of which is then complemented by Made by Storey’s timber flooring. Loosely based on the chosen shade of the Vola tapware in the kitchen, there is an additional celebration of darker shades throughout the furniture, materials and joinery. However, it is within the home’s interior design that the darker areas fuse with the lighter ones - a union that is seen from the darker kitchen with quartzite benchtops and splashbacks to the limestone employed in the bathrooms. The island bench has been designed to appear as if it is floating or disappearing into the kitchen, with glass mirrors on its side that reflect the immediate surrounds of the interior designer’s own home.
Further adding a warmth to the design of the apartment, Anna-Carin has added a hint of Swedish design with furniture pieces from her move from Sweden to complement those she has found and repurposed. As seen with the round table in the kitchen, which Anna-Carin found on Facebook Marketplace, it has been stripped back and sealed with a wax finish from Tasmania. Additionally, the dining chairs were restored after being bought at a vintage store, whilst the cowhide casino chairs in the living room were found in an antique store. The coffee table is made from leftover slab from the kitchen bench and has become a prototype for a future Anna.Carin Design Studio table collection. Filled with call-backs to Anna-Carin’s home country and a natural progression of space, the design and architecture of Solid Air allows an ease of communication between the inside and outside.
00:00 - Intro to the Nordic-Inspired Apartment
00:25 - An Inner-City Suburb Location
00:48 - The Instant Connection
01:21 - A Walkthrough of the Nordic-Inspired Apartment
01:51 - The Process of Identifying a Unique Aesthetic
02:30 - The Initial Stages of the Design Process
03:20 - A Monochromatic Mood
03:33 - A Predominant Material Colour
04:26 - Repurposing and Reusing
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Photography by Pablo Veiga.
Interior Design and Styling by Anna.Carin Design Studio.
Build by Kilbri.
Timber Flooring by Made by Storey.
Joinery by Joinery Hub.
Filmed and Edited by O&Co. Homes.
Production by The Local Project.
The Local Project acknowledges the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Owners of the land in Australia. We recognise the importance of First Nations peoples in the identity of our country and continuing connections to Country and community. We pay our respect to Elders, past and present, and extend that respect to all First Nations people of these lands.
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