Byron Bay Residence | Hecker Guthrie | 2025 | 澳大利亚
Capturing the essence of summer holidays, with all the warmth and casual comfort that entails, Hecker Guthrie designed this Byron Bay townhouse as an elevated twist on a coastal holiday house.Beachside locations can often prompt a decorate-by-numbers approach, heavy on the navy and nautical elements – but Melbourne design firm Hecker Guthrie took a different tack in the renovation of this two-bedroom brick townhouse in Byron Bay, New South Wales. From the deep terracotta floor tiles to the textured plaster walls, the home is infused with all the warmth of a summer’s day and the relaxed charm of a barefoot stroll on sand.
Though the home is now unrecognisable from its original state, which was terminally dated, Hecker Guthrie director Stacey Van Harn says the bones of the building were solid, including textured delights like painted brick walls and timber ceilings, which were retained and celebrated in the bedrooms. Aside from the practicalities – which included, crucially for the surfer client, storage for his quiver of surfboards – the brief was for a home that captured the essence of beach living while sidestepping cliches. “He didn’t want a Hamptons-esque whitewash thing. He was giving references of Mexico – he really wanted an earthy, warm feel,” says Van Harn.Instead of a predictably nautical palette, Byron Bay Residence was designed with an array of autumnal tones. “A lot of it stemmed from the beautiful terracotta floor from Artedomus,” says Van Harn. The terracotta tiles, which are used throughout the abode, inside and out, are strikingly outlined by an exceptionally wide grout line, which Van Harn says was a tricky element to specify. “There are only a few grout products that you can use to achieve that because others will crack and won’t last. We worked with Artedomus on getting the specification right, and it’s a huge hero of the project.”
The warm, ochre tones are continued in the bathrooms, which feature custom terrazzo floors and a similar deep terracotta that extends over the vanities and basins, giving each room a seamless look worthy of a luxury wellness retreat. The tactility of the rendered, waterproof walls in the bathrooms flows beautifully into the textured plaster that coats walls and ceilings in the communal spaces, as well as the dwelling’s original painted brickwork. Van Harn explains the reasoning behind this considered continuity; “We didn’t want any space to feel lesser than the other,” she says. “And it’s not a big space, so in keeping the palette reduced, we wanted to make sure it all tied together and felt like one.”Cleverly considered lighting is a modest star of the retreat. In an effort to avoid downlights, the Hecker Guthrie team thought creatively, borrowing an idea from retail fit-outs by installing Barrisol lights, which appear as faux skylights above the wet areas and, most dramatically, in the kitchen, where the ceiling pitches up towards the light. Lighting was also used as an opportunity to inject an appropriate element of fun into the holiday home – a Servomuto Bikini wall light in the kitchen introduces jaunty stripes reminiscent of beach furniture, while lighting designer Lana Launay was commissioned to produce the bunk room wall sconces and a playful modular floor lamp for the living area.
In a commitment to the beach-escape theme, Hecker Guthrie forewent a full kitchen in favour of a minimalist cooking space: “The client acknowledged they weren’t going to be doing a lot of cooking there,” says Van Harn. Essential appliances, such as the dishwasher and fridge, are fully integrated and out of sight; there’s a two-burner stove and custom sink inset into the terrazzo island bench, which is designed more for leaning upon and chatting and perhaps flipping the odd breakfast omelette than for serious cooking. In keeping with the laid-back vacation atmosphere, most of the cooking is designed to be done outside on the roof terrace, which features a Tait Tilt outdoor kitchen in a lively ochre shade.While Byron Bay Residence didn’t need practical elements like a fully kitted-out kitchen or a traditional dining room, the space is incredibly hardworking in other ways. A custom sofa stretches the length of the long living room, providing ample space for lounging on rainy days, for a small crowd to gather and talk or play boardgames, or for extra bodies to sleep. Though little storage is needed for a holiday home like this, banks of slatted American walnut timber – a material connection to the beach house aesthetic – hide several storage spaces: a narrow pantry in the kitchen and semi-open cupboards in the bedrooms.
Most importantly, from a practical sense, Byron Bay Residence needed to be able to accommodate a small gathering. Envisioning a lively rotation of friends and family, the client pitched the idea of turning the large laundry into a bunk room, which could comfortably sleep both children and adults. Though inauspicious in the abstract, the transformation from utility room to sleeping space has been a dramatic success; the custom bunk beds are designed as four little self-contained pods, each complete with a wall light and pigeonhole with power point, and screened by curtains in custom handmade textiles by Emma Shepherd and Sundance Studio.Byron Bay Residence embodies the atmosphere of a holiday home: a habitat for relaxed beach living, where real life is suspended and relaxation is inevitable. Van Harn explains that they were careful not to over-design the space and remove that barefoot-casual feeling. “We didn’t want to completely destroy what it was. It should still feel like that when you walk in – though obviously it was much more elevated by the end of the journey.”
Interior design by Hecker Guthrie. Build by Bare Build. Landscape design by Eckersley Garden Architecture. Terracotta tiles by Artedomus. Micro-cement by Mineral Fox.
- 项目文案：Shelley Tustin
- 项目摄影：Shannon McGrath
- 转载自：The Local Project
- 图片@The Local Project
- 语言：英语
- 编辑：序赞网
- 阅读原文
|
|
