A stack of borrowed 80s references becomes the making of R St., where Studio Stamp channels a Palm Springs mood through Bayside Melbourne’s softer light.
It started, by Studio Stamp’s own account, in the depths of a Melbourne winter, with the team standing on a wind-battered building site, clutching fabric swatches and dog-eared 80s magazine pages at midnight. Outside, the Bayside site was bare concrete and scaffolding, more building yard than oasis; the palm trees, the kidney-shaped pool, the sun-warmed stone were still only images pinned to a mood board. It’s an unlikely origin story for a Palm Springs oasis in the heart of Melbourne, and an unlikely place to imagine the finished, sun-drenched result of R St. by Melbourne-based interior design studio Studio Stamp.
The house had also arrived mid-build on the interiors; Carr Design had completed the architecture, and the homeowners brought in Studio Stamp co-founders Sophie Gunnersen and Alexis Reid to see the interior design through to completion. “We worked closely with the client, whom we have done many projects with, so we knew their style well; it was a really enjoyable process. We were given a lot of freedom to go out and have fun with it,” says Gunnersen.
That freedom, paired with an already established shorthand between the designers and their client, is arguably what let the house become as playful as it is. The clients wanted the mood of Palm Springs transplanted into a Bayside block: “open, light, bright spaces, bringing the outside in, lush foliage and big open rooms,” says Gunnersen. It was never going to be a literal translation. “Melbourne’s light is characterised by softer, more diffuse daylight compared to the bright, harsh sun of Palm Springs,” Gunnersen explains, which shifted the palette toward something muted and pastel rather than the saturated, high-contrast hues of the original reference. “The local context acted as both a constraint and an inspiration,” she adds, pushing the team toward a tailored interpretation; Palm Springs’ relaxed, retro spirit, filtered through Bayside’s own softer register.
