WORK OF ART
This fashion designer’s two-storey terrace in Melbourne’s east is packed with creative works and a burst of colour
As the founder and creative director of fashion label Skin And Threads, Penelope Cohen knows her way around a fresh colour palette and kitsch-cool design. You probably saw evidence of that all over your social feed recently thanks to the brand’s collaboration with your imaginary best friend Zoë Foster Blake, featuring a grey sweatshirt emblazoned with an Iced Vovo and a red knitted cockatoo jumper. So it comes as no surprise that the Victorian terrace she shares with her husband Andrew and children Sam, Phoebe and Tom has plenty of splashes of bold colour and texture. “The style changes depending on the room, but overall, I’d describe it as a little Scandinavian, with a strong contemporary Italian overlay,” she says. “That might seem like an unusual partnering, but both aesthetics are about sophisticated design through classic form. And it was interior stylist Simone Haag who was instrumental in pulling it all together.”
“ALL COLOUR, WITH A GOOD DOSE OF MELBOURNE BLACK, IS GREAT”
Despite the pops of blue, pink and purple in the expansive joint living and dining room, this clever creative is still influenced by the city she calls home. “All colour, in the company of a good dose of Melbourne black, is great,” she says. The inspiration for each room started with a hero piece (such as the blue rug in the living room or the trumpet pendant in the dining room) and was created around it.
The high ceilings and large rooms perfectly lend themselves to the family’s penchant for art. “I have two favourites on the walls. A Colin Pennock from Scott Livesey Galleries, which sits above the fireplace in the dining room. It has beautiful movement and a responsive, textured palette,” Cohen says. “The second is the Warlimpirrnga [Tjapaltjarri], which hangs near the kitchen [above]. I saw his work some years ago and was lucky enough to purchase it recently from Piermarq.”
With a busy business and an even more bustling brood, where does she find sanctuary? “The formal living room is a calm, quiet space – a rare thing with three children!” she says.
Unlike many lovers of handcrafted artisanal pieces, Cohen maintains that this family home is as much about function as it is form. “I don’t like a home to be too precious. Friends ask me if I let the kids roam freely, and yes, I do. If you knew my kids, you’d know I had very little choice in it,” she laughs.