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.
Battered by the Great Depression, the 1930’s 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’s 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 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.
In fact, this was Natale’s 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. “It was all black and white with pops of color,” he reports, referring to such style signifiers as checkerboard marble flooring, Chippendale-Chinoiserie dining chairs lacquered red, and blue-and-white dragon-patterned vases. “There was a lot of painted wood paneling and crown moldings, too,” he adds, noting that the spaces were above all rectilinear. Much published, the eye-catching project became an exemplar of Natale’s signature style.
Greg Natale Channels Hollywood Regency In This Sydney Residence
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.
In 2020, socialite Eleni Taylor bought the house for herself and her two teenage children. “The property checked a lot of boxes for her,” Natale says. “Not too big, in the right location, and it had a swimming pool.” 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. “Even though I hadn’t done a project like that before, Eleni got in touch with me,” Natale continues. “After meeting our team, she felt confident we could achieve what she had in mind, so she hired us.”
Once again, Natale gutted the place and started from scratch, which was a first for him. “I’ve gone back to projects to add rooms or layers to what we’ve already done,” he explains. “But here was a great chance to reinvent myself as a designer.” 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’ 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, soigné version of Ali Baba’s cave.
Spotlight On A Star-Worthy Home
The formerly rectilinear space has been softened with curving forms and a natural clay–plaster finish on the walls and ceiling.
Flanked by Lara Bohinc’s Celeste chair, a new sculptural staircase rises from the entry’s Patagonia Verde quartzite floor.
In something of an “open sesame” 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. “The colors remind Eleni of the beach,” Natale says of the flooring, which sets the stage for another of the home’s signature elements: the extensive use of marble in a variety of dramatic patterns and hues, enlivening the otherwise muted palette. “The client likes color, but she loves marble,” the designer discloses. “From day one, we knew it was going to be full-slab bathrooms.” 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.
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’ bedrooms, including a built-in desk with round travertine drawer pulls in the son’s study area. Gio Ponti’s 1931 Bilia table lamp sits on the work surface, which is served by Grant and Mary Featherston’s circa 1960 Scape chair—two 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’s steel-rod lounge chair and Vladimir Kagan’s slinky Serpentine sofa in the living room to contemporary pieces like Lara Bohinc’s space-age Orbit chairs and Marco Pagnoncelli’s 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.
Inside A Showstopping Home By Greg Natale
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.
Christopher Boots’s Sugar Bomb pendant fixture hangs above the powder room’s custom Verde Alpi marble vanity.
Kelly Wearstler’s Melange sconces bookend the mirror in a secondary bathroom wrapped entirely in jadelike Arcadia marble.
Beneath Marco Pagnoncelli’s Masai pendants, Bohinc’s Orbit chairs surround a vintage Lella and Massimo Vignelli table in the dining room, where the glass-block windows are new.
In the main bathroom, Natale’s customized Milazzo tub sits on a floor of Breccia Capraia slabs, which also compose the custom vanity and cover the backsplash wall.
Custom travertine drawer pulls ornament the built-in oak desk in the son’s bedroom, while Grant and Mary Featherston’s Scape chair faces Gio Ponti’s Bilia table lamp.
Beyond Patricia Urquiola’s Husk bed, new single-pane French doors and painted-iron balustrades enhance the main bedroom’s Juliet balcony from the previous renovation.
Matte black fittings make a graphic statement in the main bathroom’s all-Breccia windowed shower cubicle.
New skylights illuminate a felt wall hanging by Sarah Robson in the upstairs hallway, which has the chevron-patterned oak flooring that’s used throughout the house.
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.
GREG NATALE: VICTOR WONG; GEORGA GOODWIN. UNITEX: CEMENT WORK. LUSSO VENETIAN FINISHES: PLASTERWORK. CLEVER BUILT CONSTRUCTIONS: GENERAL CONTRACTOR.
FROM FRONTKNOLL: LOUNGE CHAIR (LIVING ROOM). SEM: COCKTAIL TABLE. BAXTER: SIDE TABLE. ARTILLERIET: EASY CHAIR. CHRISTOPHERBOOTS: SMALL PENDANT FIXTURES (LIVING ROOM, POWDER ROOM). APPARATUS: SCONCE (LIVING ROOM), PENDANT FIXTURE (KITCHEN). DIMOREMILANO: MULTILEG SIDE TABLE (LIVING ROOM), ARMCHAIR (MAIN BEDROOM). THROUGH 1STDIBS: VINTAGE SOFA, MIRROR (LIVING ROOM), VINTAGE GLASS TABLE (KITCHEN), VINTAGE TABLE (DINING ROOM). ICONE LUCE: PENDANT FIXTURES (LIVING ROOM, DINING ROOM, MAIN BEDROOM). TANIKA JELLIS: CERAMIC SIDE TABLE (LIVING ROOM, SECOND BATHROOM). ANNA CHARLESWORTH: PENDANT FIXTURE (ENTRY). BOHINC STUDIO: CHAIRS (ENTRY, DINING ROOM). ESSENTIAL HOME: BARSTOOLS (KITCHEN). INSTYLE: STOOL LEATHER. ALIAS DESIGN: ARMCHAIR. LO & CO INTERIORS: CABINETRY HARDWARE (KITCHEN, SON’S BEDROOM). VISUAL COMFORT & CO.: SCONCES (SECOND BATHROOM, HALLWAY). GLASS BRICK COMPANY: GLASS BLOCK (DINING ROOM). MEEK BATHWARE: TUB (MAIN BATHROOM). ARTÌCOLO STUDIOS: PENDANT FIXTURE. GRAZIA & CO: CHAIR (SON’S BEDROOM). FONTANAARTE: TABLE LAMP. GREG NATALE: MARBLE VASES. B&B ITALIA: BED (MAIN BEDROOM). KANTTARI: NIGHTSTANDS. THROUGH CONLEY & CO: VINTAGE TABLE LAMPS. GIOBAGNARA: SIDE TABLE. KELLY WEARSTLER: RUG. THROUGHOUTASTRA WALKER: BATHROOM SINKS, TUB, SHOWER FITTINGS. DESIGNER RUGS: CUSTOM RUGS. TONGUE & GROOVE: ENGINEERED OAK FLOORING. DULUX: PAINT.