St Kilda Apartment by Fiona Lynch Office.

“We had an instant synergy with our client,” Fiona Lynch remembers. “They are passionate about design, craftsmanship and gardens.” The Australian interior designer created this three-bedroom apartment located in St Kilda — 6 kilometres south-east of Melbourne’s Central Business District — for a couple who lives in a country home in the Macedon Ranges, in Central Victoria, an advertising TV production and a landscape designer. With their busy working lives, they both often need to be in Melbourne so they wanted their compact apartment transformed into a relaxed, detailed and private living space.

Nestled in a 1990’s concrete apartment block with a brutalist aesthetic, the project is spread over 150 square meters — including a 20-square-meter balcony. “Our approach was to soften the architecture by creating gentle, inviting spaces through light materials and soothing colour,” Lynch says. “The interior serves a dual purpose. It allows the couple to entertain in a vibrant space while maintaining a quiet sense of repose for rest and relaxation.”

Light oak floorboards lighten the south-facing space and contrast with rich walnut while the bold figured stone is balanced with polished plaster walls in a soft white. “The couples beloved labradoodle Bruno is a perfect golden shade,” Lynch says. “We were inspired by his coat when choosing the wheat coloured silk rug which he unsurprisingly adores sleeping on.”

For the tonal colour palette, the interior designer mixed rich and receding hues, playing with green everywhere: through the furniture and curtains; the bold marble in the kitchen; and the linen curtains, which give visual continuity between the living area and master bedroom.

In this place of restfulness and elegance, textural layers and rawness meet, creating a sense of theatre, especially through the heavy drapery that blurs the edges between inside and out. “The kitchen, dining and living spaces spill out to the green balcony, masterfully landscaped by the couple,” Lynch says. Every piece was carefully selected to create the perfect atmosphere and fit the space. Designed by Piero Lissoni for Living Divani, the Dumas sofa was custom ordered in two pieces and assembled onsite while the timeless Mad Swivel Armchair by Marcel Wanders for Poliform invites the owners to relax.

“The compact scale of the apartment was a challenge but compelled us to explore inventive design solutions to create a sense of generosity in the space,” Lynch confesses. “Consideration of the scale and modularity of furniture was essential.”

The couple’s love for entertaining and their interest in bringing nature inside also inspired the interior designer throughout this project, which subtly captures the spirit of its owners.

[Images courtesy of Fiona Lynch Office. Photography by Tom Ross.]