Kate Cowen’s stylish St Kilda West condo is inside one in all two neighbouring Victorian mansions inbuilt 1861. Whereas one in all them stays a stately 14-bedroom residence, the opposite has been remodeled right into a set of 4 flats shrouded in inexperienced ivy, with enviable views of St Kilda Seashore.
‘The constructing is loaded with historical past,’ Kate says. ‘Every kind of attention-grabbing folks have lived right here together with a number of creatives – movie maker Bob Weis, gallerist Anna Schwartz, backyard designer Rick Eckersly and restaurateur Donlevy Fitzpatrick to call just a few.’
She first got here throughout her condo at a wake hosted there for a good friend’s mom, and was ‘gobsmacked’ by the 4-metre excessive ceilings, arched hallways, and understated grandeur.
‘In an act of supreme dangerous style, I discussed to my good friend I’d like to know if it ever got here available on the market. I used to be able to downsize and liked the concept of the ready-make neighborhood on this constructing,’ she says. It was a case of proper place proper time, as she rapidly snapped it up from the homeowners with no negotiations!
The earlier homeowners had retained the two-level condo as two monumental rooms each with bifold doorways within the center. However with two daughters and frequent houseguests, Kate enlisted Bower Structure & Interiors and LBA Development to create three bedrooms, new loos and substitute the kitchen – which was ‘too small’ to even accommodate a full-sized fridge.
‘I wished one thing timeless, seamless, and chic that will be a foil for artwork, rugs and the eclectic furnishings and objects I’d gathered over time,’ she says.
Walnut timber flooring upstairs are paired with white partitions and marble accents within the kitchen, offering an ideal canvas for Kate’s distinctive collections sourced at public sale homes, markets, and travels to India and Africa. Indigenous artwork and playful sculptures deliver daring pops of color and new character to the unique interval structure. She says in addition they ‘had a little bit of enjoyable with the loos’, designing an egg-yolk yellow powder room upstairs, and emerald inexperienced toilet with a step-down ‘hammam-style’ bathtub and bathe.
‘I like that I inhabit each inch of this residence and there are areas for all my moods and wishes – the squashy sofa finish for TV within the evenings, a heat entertaining area and the kitchen’s proximity to all of it – I don’t miss any juicy dialog at dinner events.’
The condo’s glamorous black-and-white tiled balcony is one other spotlight, giving Kate the final word ‘front-row seats’ to each waterfront occasion all-year spherical.