In The Pink

- Chris Pearson

This room is evocative of Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady, dressed in a pink chiffon gown,” says the owner of this home on Sydney’s lower north shore, surveying her blush-pink living room. “It’s light, fresh, flowery and so pretty.” Like that Cecil Beaton creation, the room is elegant, romantic and, as with the famous lm, this showstopper represents a dramatic transformation, for the house, the owners and even partly the designers themselves.

After buying the grand, two-storey, six-bedroom brick Federation house in 2014, the owners contacted interior designer Thomas Hamel of Thomas Hamel & Associates and his team of Brendan Guy and Carla Barton to create a new chapter for their young family. “Typical of the grand Federation merchant homes of Sydney, the 3.6-metre ceilings and large gardens had so much potential to create a modern dream home while honouring the original structure,” Thomas says. Luckily, most original features, such as the ornate plaster ceilings, ceiling roses, archways, architraves and leadlights were intact.