{"id":243818,"date":"2024-12-09T10:15:22","date_gmt":"2024-12-09T15:15:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/interiordesign.net\/?post_type=canvasflow&p=243818"},"modified":"2024-12-09T10:15:27","modified_gmt":"2024-12-09T15:15:27","slug":"streamline-moderne-home-by-greg-natale","status":"publish","type":"id_project","link":"https:\/\/interiordesign.net\/projects\/streamline-moderne-home-by-greg-natale\/","title":{"rendered":"Embrace Streamline Moderne Architecture In This Sydney Home"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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In Sydney, a Vladimir Kagan sofa, Warren Platner lounge chair, and freeform custom rug define the sunken living room in a 3,600-square-foot, two-story house recently renovated for the second time by local designer Greg Natale.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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December 9, 2024<\/p>\n\n\n

Text: <\/span>Peter Webster<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photography: <\/span>Anson Smart<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Embrace Streamline Moderne Architecture In This Sydney Home<\/h1>\n\n\n

Battered by the Great Depression, the 1930\u2019s public escaped into the sleekly glamorous, white-telephone world of the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musicals. Those and similarly art-directed American movies helped popularize Streamline Moderne architecture globally, and the aspirational style\u2019s rounded edges, smooth surfaces, and curvilinear forms were often seen in residential and commercial properties from Beirut to Buenos Aires. In Sydney, too, where designer Greg Natale<\/a> recently got to revamp a house dating from the swing era, a two-story structure with a contoured stucco exterior that still retains a feeling of creamy swellegance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, this was Natale\u2019s second bite at the apple. A dozen years ago, his eponymous firm completed a major redesign of what was then a two-apartment building on a compact site in Bellevue Hill, a leafy suburb, transforming it into a 3,600-square-foot, single-family home. This required structural changes, including the creation of a sunken living room and the addition of several Juliet balconies, each accessed by multipane French doors. Taking cues from the original terra-cotta roof, for the interior, Natale channeled another, slightly later movie-inspired aesthetic: Hollywood Regency. \u201cIt was all black and white with pops of color,\u201d he reports, referring to such style signifiers as checkerboard marble flooring, Chippendale-Chinoiserie dining chairs lacquered red, and blue-and-white dragon-patterned vases. \u201cThere was a lot of painted wood paneling and crown moldings, too,\u201d he adds, noting that the spaces were above all rectilinear. Much published, the eye-catching project became an exemplar of Natale\u2019s signature style.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greg Natale Channels Hollywood Regency In This Sydney Residence<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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In Sydney, a Vladimir Kagan sofa, Warren Platner lounge chair, and freeform custom rug define the sunken living room in a 3,600-square-foot, two-story house recently renovated for the second time by local designer Greg Natale.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In 2020, socialite Eleni Taylor bought the house for herself and her two teenage children. \u201cThe property checked a lot of boxes for her,\u201d Natale says. \u201cNot too big, in the right location, and it had a swimming pool.\u201d However, while the new homeowner loved the high ceilings and overall feel of the interior, she sought a softer, more feminine look that would bring the curves of the exterior indoors. Taylor, who has Greek heritage, envisioned the kind of pared-down, seamlessly fluid spaces found in Cycladic architecture. \u201cEven though I hadn\u2019t done a project like that before, Eleni got in touch with me,\u201d Natale continues. \u201cAfter meeting our team, she felt confident we could achieve what she had in mind, so she hired us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once again, Natale gutted the place and started from scratch, which was a first for him. \u201cI\u2019ve gone back to projects to add rooms or layers to what we\u2019ve already done,\u201d he explains. \u201cBut here was a great chance to reinvent myself as a designer.\u201d Apart from reconfiguring and slightly extending the second floor, which now comprises four bedrooms and three bathrooms, there were few structural changes (the garden-level kitchen and living, dining, and media rooms were not relocated). Outside, the balconies\u2019 painted-ironwork balustrades are new, as are the simplified single-pane French doors and some other fenestration, including four glass-block windows on the ground floor. However, the interior envelope is all but unrecognizable: Its moldings, paneling, and ornamentation are gone, its straight edges and angular corners replaced with sinuous lines, swelling forms, and arching portals. Finished throughout with a natural-clay plaster that gives the walls and ceilings a silky tactility, the lofty living spaces are at once organic and pristine, suggesting a light-filled, soign\u00e9 version of Ali Baba\u2019s cave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spotlight On A Star-Worthy Home<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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The formerly rectilinear space has been softened with curving forms and a natural clay\u2013plaster finish on the walls and ceiling.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Flanked by Lara Bohinc\u2019s Celeste chair, a new sculptural staircase rises from the entry\u2019s Patagonia Verde quartzite floor.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

In something of an \u201copen sesame\u201d moment, entering the custom bronze front door reveals a new showstopping sculptural staircase that ascends in a flowing arc to the private family quarters. Adding to the effect, the entry hall is paved with slabs of Patagonia Verde quartzite, a Brazilian stone awash with bold sea-green and smoke-gray swirls. \u201cThe colors remind Eleni of the beach,\u201d Natale says of the flooring, which sets the stage for another of the home\u2019s signature elements: the extensive use of marble in a variety of dramatic patterns and hues, enlivening the otherwise muted palette. \u201cThe client likes color, but she loves <\/em>marble,\u201d the designer discloses. \u201cFrom day one, we knew it was going to be full-slab bathrooms.\u201d These include moody, emerald-tone Verdi Alpi in the powder room, and jadelike Arcadia that wraps one of the bathrooms upstairs. Taylor was so enamored of Breccia Capraia, a Carrara marble with veins of delicate pink, inky purple, and charcoal gray splashed across a white background, that she imported a wealth of the striking stone from Italy. Now it not only clads the kitchen countertops, island, backsplash, and vent hood but also appears in the main bathroom: on the floor, lining the long, windowed shower cubicle, and as a backdrop wall for the custom vanity, a massive double-sink unit made of the same material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Along with marble and plaster, the principal material is American oak. The blond wood is used for the chevron-patterned flooring throughout, as well as the minimalist kitchen cabinetry and the handsome millwork in the two kids\u2019 bedrooms, including a built-in desk with round travertine drawer pulls in the son\u2019s study area. Gio Ponti\u2019s 1931 Bilia table lamp sits on the work surface, which is served by Grant and Mary Featherston\u2019s circa 1960 Scape chair\u2014two pieces created 30 years apart but sharing the spirit of 20th-century modernism that pervades the house. Other furnishings, which range from mid-century classics like Warren Platner\u2019s steel-rod lounge chair and Vladimir Kagan\u2019s slinky Serpentine sofa in the living room to contemporary pieces like Lara Bohinc\u2019s space-age Orbit chairs and Marco Pagnoncelli\u2019s flying-saucer Masai pendant fixtures in the dining room, also exude the aura of eternal youth epitomized by Fred and Ginger and their streamlined world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inside A Showstopping Home By Greg Natale<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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The striking Breccia Capraia marble that clads much of the kitchen was imported from Italy by the client, Eleni Taylor, who has a passion for the material.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Christopher Boots\u2019s Sugar Bomb pendant fixture hangs above the powder room\u2019s custom Verde Alpi marble vanity.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Kelly Wearstler\u2019s Melange sconces bookend the mirror in a secondary bathroom wrapped entirely in jadelike Arcadia marble.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Beneath Marco Pagnoncelli\u2019s Masai pendants, Bohinc\u2019s Orbit chairs surround a vintage Lella and Massimo Vignelli table in the dining room, where the glass-block windows are new.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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In the main bathroom, Natale\u2019s customized Milazzo tub sits on a floor of Breccia Capraia slabs, which also compose the custom vanity and cover the backsplash wall.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Custom travertine drawer pulls ornament the built-in oak desk in the son\u2019s bedroom, while Grant and Mary Featherston\u2019s Scape chair faces Gio Ponti\u2019s Bilia table lamp.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Beyond Patricia Urquiola\u2019s Husk bed, new single-pane French doors and painted-iron balustrades enhance the main bedroom\u2019s Juliet balcony from the previous renovation.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Matte black fittings make a graphic statement in the main bathroom\u2019s all-Breccia windowed shower cubicle.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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New skylights illuminate a felt wall hanging by Sarah Robson in the upstairs hallway, which has the chevron-patterned oak flooring that\u2019s used throughout the house.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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A ceramic side table by Tanika Jellis sits next to the tub in the second bathroom, one of three on the upper level, each featuring its own distinctive marble.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

GREG NATALE: <\/strong>VICTOR WONG; GEORGA GOODWIN. UNITEX:<\/strong> CEMENT WORK. LUSSO VENETIAN FINISHES:<\/strong> PLASTERWORK. CLEVER BUILT CONSTRUCTIONS:<\/strong> GENERAL CONTRACTOR.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FROM FRONTKNOLL:<\/strong> LOUNGE CHAIR (LIVING ROOM). SEM<\/strong>: COCKTAIL TABLE. BAXTER: SIDE TABLE. ARTILLERIET:<\/strong> EASY CHAIR. CHRISTOPHERBOOTS:<\/strong> SMALL PENDANT FIX\u00adTURES (LIVING ROOM, POWDER ROOM). APPARATUS:<\/strong> SCONCE (LIVING ROOM), PENDANT FIXTURE (KITCHEN). DIMOREMILANO:<\/strong> MULTILEG SIDE TABLE (LIVING ROOM), ARMCHAIR (MAIN BEDROOM). THROUGH 1STDIBS:<\/strong> VINTAGE SOFA, MIRROR (LIVING ROOM), VINTAGE GLASS TABLE (KITCHEN), VINTAGE TABLE (DINING ROOM). ICONE LUCE:<\/strong> PENDANT FIX\u00adTURES (LIVING ROOM, DINING ROOM, MAIN BEDROOM). TANIKA JELLIS:<\/strong> CERAMIC SIDE TABLE (LIVING ROOM, SECOND BATHROOM). ANNA CHARLESWORTH:<\/strong> PENDANT FIXTURE (ENTRY). BOHINC STUDIO:<\/strong> CHAIRS (ENTRY, DINING ROOM). ESSENTIAL HOME:<\/strong> BARSTOOLS (KITCHEN). INSTYLE:<\/strong> STOOL LEATHER. ALIAS DESIGN: ARMCHAIR. LO & CO INTERIORS:<\/strong> CABINETRY HARDWARE (KITCHEN, SON\u2019S BEDROOM). VISUAL COMFORT & CO.:<\/strong> SCONCES (SECOND BATH\u00adROOM, HALLWAY). GLASS BRICK COMPANY:<\/strong> GLASS BLOCK (DINING ROOM). MEEK BATH\u00adWARE:<\/strong> TUB (MAIN BATHROOM). ART\u00ccCOLO STUDIOS:<\/strong> PENDANT FIXTURE. GRAZIA & CO:<\/strong> CHAIR (SON\u2019S BEDROOM). FONTANAARTE:<\/strong> TABLE LAMP. GREG NATALE:<\/strong> MARBLE VASES. B&B ITALIA:<\/strong> BED (MAIN BEDROOM). KANTTARI: <\/strong>NIGHTSTANDS. THROUGH CONLEY & CO:<\/strong> VIN\u00adTAGE TABLE LAMPS. GIOBAGNARA: <\/strong>SIDE TABLE. KELLY WEARSTLER:<\/strong> RUG. THROUGHOUTASTRA WALKER:<\/strong> BATHROOM SINKS, TUB, SHOWER FITTINGS. DESIGNER RUGS:<\/strong> CUSTOM RUGS. TONGUE & GROOVE:<\/strong> ENGINEERED OAK FLOORING. DULUX: <\/strong>PAINT.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n