Project Name:  Caroale

Location: Sydney Australia

Date Completed: December 2019

Interior designer: Stewart + Stewart

The design brief to Stewart + Stewart was to create a city residence for a client relocating from a large rural property, to open up the cramped three-bedroom space to create a sanctuary from the world.  The key was to accommodate the need for flexible private and communal living, dining and sleeping spaces as required.  To incorporate and reflect the stunning vista of water views and Botanical Gardens and NSW State Art Gallery.

Stewart + Stewart were able to highly personalise this project by sourcing and incorporating key salvaged elements from the client’s rural property.  The property is still a working farm that had once transported wool bales to the historic wool shed that the apartment is located, which are now converted into private residences.

Stewart + Stewart were able to highlight the significant and historic structure of the wharf through the design of warehouse doors similar to those on an industrial scale preserved throughout the wharf. These doors were layered with lanolin imbrued sheep shed timbers, dark glass and brass engraved wheels with the name of the owner’s farm. The doors allow the owner to open up or close down to intimate spaces within the structure. A dismantled and newly reinstated feature beam with a working pulley graces the entry. An uncompromising palette of steel, including original industrial brackets, seamlessly integrated with handmade artisan terracotta from Tuscany.

Much care was taken to incorporate and celebrate the historic and rare cultural significance of the Wharf, an imposing structure housing multiple private residence.  It is the largest and most distinguished timber wharf building in Sydney Harbour and reflects in its form and contents the history of Woolloomooloo and the principal role of the wool industry in Australia during the Nineteenth and early Twentieth century.  A team of artists carefully painted and aged the existing iron girders to reflect their original finish of galvanised steel, the same finish used for the Sydney Harbour Bridge.  They also hand mixed raw plaster and sieved earth from the owner’s property to finish the wall.