Editor’s letter
#BELLEMAGAZINE
It’s a well-worn line but it really is amazing how quickly this year has zoomed by. The onset of summer, the heady smell of jasmine and the first gorgeous gardenia buds always get me thinking about fresh starts. The year seems to have been both slow and instantaneous, no doubt spurred by my son sitting the HSC and being so very impatient to finish. A wall calendar with a page per month for the past year or so has been stared at from every meal at the dining table – the anticipation increasing as each page was ripped down. As I write he is sitting his final exam and about to dance out of there and get, as he would say, a life. I am about to recycle a lot of study material, including the calendar, and reclaim the interiors of my home. HSC students tend to rove – Fergus has studied next to the fire pit, in the man cave while playing FIFA, the loft, the dining room but, strangely, not often in his bedroom set up and styled for the purpose.
I am so inspired by the incredible interiors created by our design heroes in this issue. Greg Natale’s Rose Bay house exudes an elegant Art Deco glamour, p130; Maria and Eduardo Villa’s house is right up my alley with white-painted floors, ethnic pieces and a romantic story behind its purchase, p138; the Nick Tobias-conceived house at Bondi is a standout in a stunning location, p146; Matt Gibson has skilfully redesigned an Edwardian boarding house for contemporary living, p154; and Arent & Pyke applied their expert joinery lingo and a masterly use of colour to a house in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, p174. Melbourne designer David Hicks delivered a luxe, Milanese sensibility to a new Melbourne apartment, p168; Romaine Alwill, a former interior design editor at Belle, worked her minimalist magic on a Gold Coast home, p162; and Thomas Hamel created an absolutely beautiful home of my dreams in Melbourne’s Toorak, p182. These world-class homes, each with a unique Australian vernacular, explain our avid international following.
Speaking of which, our Architecture editor Karen Mccartney travelled to the London Design Festival and has curated her favourite finds, p55.
As we wind down, relaxing seems like the perfect reward. Steve Cordony, Belle style director-at-large, has assembled a chic collection of outdoor pieces for your viewing pleasure, p115, and our intrepid team has put together some gorgeous, luxe gift ideas for your favourite people, p97.
We hope you are as inspired as we are by the dazzling images on the following pages. Fresh starts and fabulous lives here we come!