MOD SQUAD

GIVING THIS TIRED mid-century home in Melbourne a polished revamp proved to be an incredibly rewarding project for interior designer Tamsin Johnson.

This is actually my sister’s house so she didn’t have a choice The house was a mid-century house in a not-so-attractive yellow. We bagged the brick and painted it white, installing a pebbled entry with mature cactuses. We replaced very small highlight windows with floor-to-ceiling, square-framed windows in white steel to bring the light in. The ground floor was separated by a very large internal courtyard full of plants with a water feature. We filled that in to make an open-plan dining room and bar, and tiered the floor plan into three different levels: a beautiful sunken lounge and a raised kitchen flowing onto a courtyard with oversized palms, planter boxes and a round marble-tiled swimming pool. A fresh mid-century family home in predominantly neutral tones with pops of colour in the art and the vibrant green Fantasia marble in the kitchen. The window seat with the beach ball-striped cushions is the perfect extension from the living room. Our parents are antique dealers so my sister had a lot of amazing pieces collected over time. The lighting was bought in Italy and France and the custom Palladiana tiles were designed by my old boss, Don McQualter from Studio McQualter. We clad the fireplace in them, which created a dramatic scale, and flanked the roaring open fire with Murano wall sconces.