PAST & PRESENT
A youthful energy permeates through this sun-drenched historic Sydney property reinvigorated by interior designer Blainey North, who ably explored and expressed the blurring between the new and old
Heritage-listed homes are a bit like movie stars. They are culturally significant and full of spellbinding stories, but they also share the pressure of keeping up appearances, which means that face lifts can be precarious endeavours. Such was the challenge James and Rachel Cooper found themselves faced with when they purchased Allala, one of Sydney’s few Georgian Revival-style homes, in 2019. The handsome home’s ensuite, downstairs powder room and study all contained heritage features that couldn’t be tampered with. But rather than viewing this as an inconvenience, the team behind the project turned it into an opportunity.
“Instead of working against it we decided to embrace it, and make things even more fabulous and eccentric,” says interior designer Blainey North. “We wanted it to feel like this traditional, grand home from the outset. Yet from the moment you step in the front door, you know something is very different. The place is really quite young and fun.”
Between outfitting superyachts and designing interiors for high-end hotels like Crown Towers Sydney, North isn’t left with a lot of time for residential projects. But this one was special for a number of reasons. Firstly, North and the Coopers have known each other since high school. “Blainey is one of the most creative and passionate people I know,” says James Cooper, a property marketing and advertising entrepreneur. Both James and his wife Rachel knew that North would be the one to bring their dream home to life. “We really wanted to work with people who we knew and respected, and who knew and understood our family.”
Susan Rothwell, another family friend of the Coopers and North, also helped with the structural changes. “We’re all in bed together, buddies working on the same project,” says North with a laugh. “But James and Rach were really open to unique ideas, which is quite unusual because a lot of people are happy to do something they’ve seen before, but to do something genuinely new is always a risky thing. It’s exciting to work with people like that.”
Allala also presented North with a unique challenge. The heritage-listed estate — built in 1938 by Geoffrey Forrest Hughes, the father of Liberal politician Tom Hughes AO QC and Robert Hughes, the famous critic and author of The Fatal Shore — meant this was a two-pronged job. “It was a restoration project and a renovation project,” says North of the brief. “We really thought about reinterpreting an old home in a new way that respected the traditional architecture and interiors but that also did something different to subvert expectations and make it feel quite new. That became the obsession.”
For North and the Coopers, subtle echoes of the home’s traditional features in joinery, furniture and artwork played a key role in striking this balance. “It became about a repetition of form,” she says. The arch of the wall niches that line the entrance and staircase, for example, came to influence the curved surfaces seen throughout the rest of the house. The kitchen’s colossal marble-topped breakfast bar is one such highlight. It’s a hulking structure, but the rounded base creates the illusion of the bar hovering delicately above the floor.
Lighting is another point of intrigue. In the formal living room at the front of the house, a tubular creation from New York lighting company Roll & Hill punctuates the room’s more classical elements (a grand piano among them). A Carlo Scarpa original illuminates the circular table in the dining room. Textural moments elevate the more monochromatic rooms — a custom bouclé headboard in the main bedroom ties in surreptitiously with a set of Kelly armchairs from Jardan.
“These features are like art pieces in their own right,” explains North. “But we didn’t want it to feel like we’d just thrown a whole lot of interesting art pieces into an old home… I feel like this is a bit of a trend, where people throw in a bunch of art to ››
“We wanted to engage with the traditional elements of the house in a way that made it feel like a genuinely new project, rather than just a decorative project”
BLAINEY NORTH
‹‹ make a home look cool and interesting without really addressing the actual room and what the space is actually doing and how the elements might integrate with the architecture,” she continues. “We wanted to engage with the traditional elements of the house in a way that made it feel like a genuinely new project, rather than just a decorative project.”
In the main ensuite — which houses a heritage-listed bathtub reminiscent of an Italian grotto, gargoyle-shaped taps and all — and downstairs powder room, the essence of this approach is on full display with wallpaper from Pierre Frey allowing the coloured tiles to pop. These quirky, existing details are treated like heroes, not backdrops.
“We felt like custodians of the house,” says James. “We did a little bit of work on it but ultimately, because of the house’s heritage, we’re also responsible for the upkeep.” The Coopers plan to stick around for a while, too. With four children under the age of 12, they’re excited to continue Allala’s legacy as a true family home. James remarks that the home’s original owners, the Hughes family, resided here for many years. “We’re definitely not finished. We want to be here for at least 20 years, and we want to be able to layer it over time.” blaineynorth.com