Sydney 1939

We step right back in our timeline and travel to SYDNEY for this issue's bonus feature - a sensitively restored ART DECO apartment in POTTS POINT, with an interior that masterfully blends CLASSIC, DECO and MID-CENTURY design.

- 

WITH ITS GENEROUS ROOM PROPORTIONS AND PERIOD DETAILS such as parquet floors, geometric cornices and stepped architraves still intact, this 1939 apartment building was a good example of residential Art Deco design in Sydney, Australia.

And its heritage significance was always top of mind for its new owner, Peter Stewart – especially since he had bought two mirror-image apartments and was planning to merge them into one.

“I imagined what might be possible if they could be joined,” he says. “Each had a logical layout and flow, so the design aimed to make as few changes as possible while ensuring that the finished apartment would feel coherent and original.”

Happily for him, the new space seemed bigger than the sum of its parts. Previous unsympathetic modernisations were reversed, mirrored walls were stripped back in the reception area, and bathrooms were restored to original condition.

Peter’s intention was to keep the appearance seamless and authentic, without it being a pastiche of a 1930s flat.