April 2020

Belle

Interior design and decoration magazine

Belle1 min read
60 Seconds With Lucy Montgomery
For this issue of Belle, interior design editor Lucy reported on the here-and-now of design, p40, and styled vivid wallcoverings, p85. Favourite career experiences? Collaborating with interior designers to translate their work into beautiful, dynamic
Belle3 min read
Editor’s Letter
There is something spellbinding about stepping into a beautiful kitchen. As someone who adores to spend time cooking – albeit too infrequently these days – entering a gloriously designed and well-equipped kitchen is a thing of epic satisfaction (and
Belle2 min read
Ashore Things
Bestow your abode with bespoke pieces by specifying the size, fabric, timber stain and accessories across a range of homewares. domayne.com.au WEEK, March 12-22, will host an exciting array of works across its program, including Partu (Skin) by Johnn
Belle3 min read
Graphic Content
WHAT HAVE BEEN SOME OF YOUR ENDURING CREATIVE INFLUENCES? Louise Olsen: Poetry – words that inspire, open us up and fertilise the imagination. Stephen Ormandy: Twentieth century art has had a major influence on my work – it’s one of the most dynamic
Belle2 min read
Shining Lights
Hôtel Le Coucou in ski haven Méribel, France, called on designer Pierre Yovanovitch who worked with local trades to create furniture and lighting that reflect the region’s tradition. pierreyovanovitch.com; lecoucoumeribel.com Designer Chris Wolsten’s
Belle2 min read
A DESIGN TALK with PROSPERO RASULO
The artist and designer applies poetic principles to his functional pieces for Italian bathware brand Valdama. Your creative influences? I was an artist first and foremost and then through [architect and designer] Alessandro Mendini I was exposed to
Belle3 min read
Nurturing Shelter
MANY THINGS in life pivot on the seemingly inconsequential, and for celebrated Sri Lankan architect Channa Daswatte it was his squeamishness, his inability to cut up a frog, that precluded him from the career in medicine his parents hoped for. With a
Belle2 min read
Architecture News
Tasked with providing Turin with a Rinascente store to equal Milan’s, Italian architects Act_Romegialli undertook a three-year renovation of this historic building. Reinstating a sense of theatre at the entry with the barrel-vaulted ceiling and trave
Belle3 min read
Making Tracks
With artistic direction from Brook Andrew, the 22nd Biennale of Sydney has been realised as a global assembly of First Nations voices under the title NIRIN. Meaning ‘edge’ in the Wiradjuri language of the artist’s mother’s Nation, the word has broade
Belle4 min read
Rhapsody In Blue
Last year finished on a high for internationally sought-after interior and furniture designer Francis Sultana, who I met nearly a decade ago when I visited his first studio in a compact shopfront on London’s Fulham Road. In 2019, he celebrated 10 yea
Belle2 min read
Open Glamour
SYDNEY’S POTTS POINT district has come upon a rather dramatic refashioning over the past several years. At the gateway to The Cross, the once-audible buzz of the neon Coke sign has been upgraded with high-tech, eerily silent LEDs. At the other end of
Belle2 min read
Showing Off
A SHOWROOM SPACE which highlights a brand’s offering in the best possible environment – harnessing the power of cutting-edge technology and displaying impressive design finesse – makes the experience of visiting all the more inspirational, useful and
Belle2 min readArchitecture
Broad Horizons
AS IS THE CASE for much of the furniture they select, Hayden Bagnall (pictured below, right) and Heath Baldwin of Sydney-based interior design outfit Baldwin & Bagnall say that they seek bench seats that merge visual interest with comfort. “Quality d
Belle2 min read
Woods Man
THE ARTIST WHO HAS BEEN AN ENDURING INFLUENCE? My friend David Bromley for his ability to be very creative and run a successful business, his permanent can-do attitude and boundless energy [3]. CONTEMPORARY ART YOU MOST ADMIRE? I’m pretty into Ben Qu
Belle5 min read
Best In Show
ON A RECENT summer afternoon, Eric and I decided to take a staycation. I’d been working long hours and Eric was suffering in the heat, but mostly we needed to reconnect with some quality time together. We decided to check in to The Old Clare Hotel in
Belle2 min read
Natural Comfort
Exclusive to Domayne, the Dunlopillo range of mattresses, bases and pillows offer everything from superior support springs to temperature regulating comfort and natural fibres for softness and sustainability. With three outstanding mattresses to choo
Belle2 min read
Moveable Feast
THE PERFECT GUEST is invited everywhere because they give an evening zip. They are congenial, undemanding, thoughtful and entertaining towards other guests and the hosts. If you’re a perfect guest, no-one will expect a reciprocal invitation – which i
Belle2 min read
Inner Sanctums
True to its title, this book explores design that is not just cutting edge but right on the edge – of mountains, clearings, rocky escarpments and cliffs. And whether the structures resemble a pair of binoculars or stack of irregular shaped boxes, the
Belle4 min read
Play the Blues
Looking around this waterfront abode in Sydney’s Balmoral, you’d swear the beautifully composed colour palette had been lifted straight from its coastal surrounds. But just a few years earlier, when the home’s owners first moved in, this property was
Belle3 min readEconomics
Parallel Lives
For their Mixed Use House in Melbourne’s St Kilda, Matt Gibson Architecture + Design (MGA+D) and DDB Design sought to challenge Australia’s typical housing paradigms: traditional, inward-looking homes on detached quarter-acre blocks or cramped domest
Belle4 min read
Art And Soul
Just four photographs provided the starting point for the design of this expansive coastal property that is home to a large family. With a heritage listing, the requirement was to upgrade the original house and add a contemporary wing. Presented with
Belle4 min readArchitecture
Spanish Queen
As far as first impressions go, you could say the entrance to this home in Melbourne’s Bayside area leaves a textural, full-bodied taste in your mouth. As you walk beneath its columned arches and drink in the celestial moulded ceilings, a travertine
Belle4 min readArchitecture
Upon A Time
The storied history of this handsome Italianate mansion dates back to the 1880s when it occupied a three-hectare block in Melbourne’s affluent Toorak, complete with horse stables and a carriage path. Commissioned by a banker, the estate has been home
Belle3 min read
Blush Hour
Pastel pink lets me show my softer side – that’s why I love this house,” says its designer Greg Natale, best known for his masculine black-and-white interiors. Proof he won’t be pigeonholed, the colour departure for this Sydney home resonates for a m
Belle4 min readArchitecture
Stepping Lightly
Behind its prim and pristine classic facade, this grand Victorian terrace in Sydney’s inner west really lets its hair down as a versatile, practical home for an extended family. But that doesn’t mean good style has been shown the door – form and func
Belle2 min read
House Specials
VANCOUVER VANCOUVER STUDIO STE. MARIE HAS DESIGNED THE INTERIORS OF FLOURIST, A BAKERY WORKING CLOSELY WITH CANADIAN FAMILY FARMS, IN MALTY HUES WITH A FARMHOUSE-MEETS-SCANDI SENSIBILITY. FLOURIST.COM This organic red-wine remover is magic on spills.
Belle3 min read
Champagne Is Served
Being chauffeured from The Peninsula Paris hotel to the Champagne region of France in a glass-roofed BMW is one of the biggest ‘pinch me’ moments of my 37 years. My suit-clad driver’s English was impressively reasonable; my French was embarrassingly
Belle7 min read
A STYLIST’S GUIDE to TASMANIA
THESOCIETYINC.COM.AU INSTAGRAM @SIBELLACOURT For an exceptional sense of place and breathtaking landscapes, you cannot go past multi award-winning Pumphouse Point, Lake St Clair. The drive to the destination sets the tone for your stay as eucalypts,
Belle2 min read
Escape Rooms
OSTUNI CATHEDRAL CEILINGS AND NEO-CLASSICAL FRESCOES ARE A FEATURE AT PARAGON 700 IN PUGLIA’S OSTUNI (ABOVE). SPEND LAZY DAYS BY THE POOL THEN BY NIGHT ENJOY PREMIUM APULIAN WINE FROM THE HOTEL’S ON-SITE CELLAR. PARAGON700.COM AUSTIN Design doyenne K
Belle5 min read
QUIET Luxury
Indonesia is one of Australia’s nearest offshore tropical holiday destinations, enticing tourists each year to its islands. Although this country is known for its heightened sensory experiences, whether on the back of a scooter or at a buzzing beach
Belle1 min readRegional & Ethnic
Gardening Leave
IT’S NOT OFTEN that multiple calendars sync up over Christmas and 40 of our design industry companions can take the time out of their busy schedules to join us for a celebratory summer lunch. But when it does occur, it’s an occasion to remember. The
Belle3 min read
Rowena Talacko Match maker
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR OFFICE? Minimal and uncluttered as I mostly work away from home. The palette is fairly neutral, but artworks by artists including Tom Cole, Jodie Whalen and Sean Rafferty inject splashes of colour and give me something to

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