Lofty ambitions

An inspired makeover has raised this Sydney penthouse to new heights of comfort and sophistication.

- CHRIS PEARSON

This is one of the best views in Sydney,” says the owner of this four-bedroom penthouse poised above the harbour. While that might be hyperbole in a city blessed with vistas, anyone sitting in her living room would readily agree. It soaks up 360-degree paraglider-like panoramas from the bridge to the ocean. “I can look at this seascape for hours,” says the owner. “It’s ever-changing – never the same from one minute to the next. You feel so uplifted.” The only hints of routine are the ferries regularly plying the waters below.

But she felt less uplifted five years ago, when she inherited the apartment from an elderly relative who had lived there for more than 30 years. It seriously short-changed that multimillion-dollar spectacle. “Everything was heavy and brown, with dark-chocolate furnishings, English traditional with a hint of safari. Quite masculine, it did not reflect its location,” says the owner. Most notably, two clunky nubuck armchairs blocked sightlines to Sydney Heads.

So the Melbourne-based owner called in fellow southerner, architectural designer Shareen Joel of Shareen Joel Design, with whom she had worked in the past, to elevate the interiors to better reflect the spectacle beyond the walls of glass. Now the apartment is a prized pied-à-terre for the owner and her family.

In a V-shape, the apartment occupies nearly the entire 21st floor, with no neighbours to interrupt it, just gulls and the occasional, less-welcome, helicopter swooping past the windows. Open-plan living, including sitting and dining areas, a separate kitchen and two bedrooms occupy one wing, joined by a corridor to a second which accommodates the main bedroom suite, another bedroom and the laundry.