Drummoyne Apartment: New Styling Work Notes

31 Oct

Styling objects in spaces and crafting beautiful mini vignettes is one of my favourite things to do and can instantly bring personality into our homes. How we compose our beloved pieces can form an intimate narrative while also bringing us joy. We spend so much time in our homes, I try to see it as an opportunity to tell a story, and to play!

I recently did some styling work for my friends Carla and Craig Waghorn from Design Artistry on a recently completed apartment renovation they did. The extensive renovation included a new bathroom, kitchen and laundry/powder room. I’m always impressed with the space planning layouts that Carla creates and really loved how much storage was added to the kitchen and a new servery area they created that opened out onto the balcony. Then it was just up to me to add the few finishing touches for the photoshoot.

I hope my styling process offers you some insight and inspiration to tinker about in your space. And for notes on all the objects I used you can find all the links and sources below.

Styling notes

1. Work in 3D. For my kitchen styling here, a tall vintage vase is placed on its own under the pendant lights, offering vertical interest. It provides differentiation not only in height, but also in colour, texture, age, form, and tonality.

2. Recognise the colour story. In this shoot, I focussed on the colour scheme. The blue colour in the kitchen and powder room and the stone grey colours in the bathroom. Just remember, if you choose to throw in a polarising colour wild card, as I did by introducing black objects in an otherwise all-neutral bathroom space, use more than one object so that it allows that rebel object to feel intentional. The cohesion and the clashing of form, scale, and materials are precisely what creates friction and intrigue.

3. Consider scale and negative space. Add objects of varying heights and density. Consider the grey area in between and step back from your vignette placement to see it from a distance—assess if everything feels balanced or crowded. Then remove one piece, add another—minus and subtract like this until you feel like it’s landed on the right formula. Play is key!