00:02I had been on a walk in a rainforest in Queenstown in Tasmania, a really deep
00:09green rainforest, and this idea came to me that a green kitchen would be really
00:15nice in this space. The brief was just to introduce new contemporary joinery
00:22that could house a more modern life, leaving space for a little spontaneity to
00:29happen in the space.
00:39My name is Eleanor Paris, I'm an architect and I live in this 27m2 studio. Ballina is a
00:49pair of heritage brick buildings in Darlinghurst, which is an inner city, Sydney
00:55suburb that has loads of shops, pubs, cafes around the neighbourhood. We're on the
01:05Gadigal lands of the Eora Nation.
01:13So I used to go to inspections to look at the architecture details when I was studying
01:16architecture of these old Art Deco buildings. I just liked them. When this place came up
01:22for sale, I had started to look for something to invest in and I came in here and thought,
01:27I've been here before, this feels really familiar. I was like, oh yeah, I came here years ago and
01:31it felt good then and it still felt good.
01:36These are Art Deco buildings, so built around 1930 with special brick details at the entrances,
01:44coloured tiles in the entry floor and stained glass windows through the stairwell. These kind
01:51of buildings I think are really typical of Sydney. It was originally built for the nuns that volunteered
01:58at the nearby hospital.
02:05I wanted to make the space feel large and spacious but also provide a lot of storage
02:11and proper cooking facilities and all the tools for everyday life.
02:19When I first saw the space, it was a simple studio layout seating around the window that moved into
02:25a kitchen space quite separate and there was a partition wall separating the main living bedroom
02:31area from the kitchen. Removing that large cupboard allowed a continuous piece of bench height joinery
02:39to run from the back wall all the way through into the living space. And on the other wall,
02:44a longer, taller joinery element that incorporated a cooking nook.
02:58As you enter into the apartment, you see the original floors which have been sanded back and re-oiled.
03:06Above the door, all the technology like NBN and internet and a projector are hidden by a special art piece
03:13that my friend Ed made. On the back of the door and around the wall are hooks to hang your
03:20bags,
03:20coats, umbrella. Because storage space is tight, I use drawers underneath the bed by the door to store all my
03:29shoes.
03:32The first space you enter into is quite flexible. It's the living, working, dining corner.
03:40There's two large original windows here, which is one of my favourite parts of the apartment.
03:46They face east and they have this beautiful light streaming in in the morning.
03:50They have block out blind over both and a floor to ceiling shear curtain that really soften this corner.
03:57You get a great breeze flowing through these two windows and they're a really lovely memory of the original design.
04:08There's a set of stacking stools that move around the apartment as need be.
04:13If more friends come over, they store plants or I use them as a stool to get up to high
04:18cupboards.
04:22I love to collect books and have them on display in the space.
04:27Where the tall joinery meets with the living space was a perfect corner to integrate a small library.
04:34The best part of the new kitchen is that it no longer feels like a separate space.
04:39The mirror definitely makes the depth of the space feel great up.
04:44The bench itself is a stainless steel folded bench with the sink welded in.
04:51The green is a laminate material sprayed with a re-seen custom finish.
04:57We've built in a washer dryer mini laundry under the bench, an integrated dishwasher, general storage.
05:07On the taller side of the kitchen, there's an integrated fridge and freezer,
05:12a small wardrobe, an oven, drawers to stall all the cooking equipment.
05:21In the cooking nook, the same stainless steel bench top is used but to mount an integrated gas burner stove.
05:32The wall tiles in the kitchen are the same KitKat Japanese ceramic product.
05:39I wanted to create a special feature so I commissioned a friend to design a series of custom insert tiles
05:47to scatter around that almost create a small exhibition throughout the space.
05:55The new light in the kitchen uses the original electrical point and eye hooks to track new lighting
06:01across to different spaces where we needed it, so in the kitchen it's above the sink.
06:11The bed is a king. A lot of people suggest I have a smaller bed to make better use of
06:17the space,
06:18but the king feels palatial and creates so much storage underneath.
06:24Most of the things I own in the apartment are under the bed.
06:27Shoes, bags, jackets. In the middle underneath there's a large longer space for suitcases and larger items.
06:37The bedside table is a folded sheet metal shelf. I needed a space to have objects by the bed
06:45that still gave access to the drawers underneath and through to the bathroom.
06:52That rock, it's from a residency I did in the west coast of Tassie and one of my friends makes
06:58artwork
06:58with rocks and he gave that to me when he gave me a tour of the mines.
07:07The bathroom is the only space in the apartment with its own door, which is the original door.
07:13It's almost a hundred years old and stripped back the paint off that window to reveal this beautiful
07:18fluted glass. The floor towels in the bathroom are a new light terrazzo, which are a nod to
07:26features of terrazzo throughout the building. The bath is original and has just been sprayed with
07:32an enamel paint. I put in a floor-to-ceiling white shower curtain in this space so that when you're
07:39not showering the space feels as big as possible. And there's a large mirror cabinet mounted on the
07:45wall that creates this great shelf on top to store small objects that I collect.
07:54We're lucky that the apartment is on the corner because that means the bathroom has a window into
08:00the alleyway between the two buildings and that brings beautiful fresh air into the space.
08:08The wall tiles are the same as in the kitchen with small paintings by Angus scattered around.
08:17When designing a small space, I think it's important to make that space work hard so that living in it
08:26feels a little more simple. In designing a tiny home I was quite inspired by how Japanese people live
08:34in big cities, especially in Tokyo. Actually people end up spending a lot of their time outside the
08:40apartment and I think that's a really beautiful balance between creating a really peaceful place
08:44place inside but also in places where you have a sense of community.
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