MASTER STROKES

While interior designer Greg Natale applied his masterly brushstrokes to this grand Georgian Revival home in Melbourne’s southeast a decade ago, the owners invited him back in 2019 to dab more lavish layers onto its vast canvas.

- CHRIS PEARSON

And this was not gilding the lily – by retouching his earlier efforts, he has made the home into, some would say, a work of art.

In such a huge home boasting seven bedrooms and nine bathrooms, not all the rooms were remodelled the first time around. And the rooms that were completed needed more warmth for a family now totalling six children and a little tweaking to even better serve their needs. “Evolution rather than a revolution,” says Greg, who embraced the chance to revisit the elegant 1930s mansion.

The owners bought it in early 2013, drawn to its palatial proportions. Two huge sitting areas and separate dining, study and media rooms offered break-out spaces for a boisterous family while also giving them room to mingle. Seven upstairs bedrooms gave the family room to grow. The owners were also seduced by the solid brick construction and the manicured garden, which boasted a pergola, pool and tennis court: a recipe for easy entertaining. But the recently renovated interiors were an avalanche of white, far too chilly for family living, and conspicuously short on glamour for such a gracious home. And the humungous entry, no doubt ideal for wedding receptions, was yawning and unwelcoming as indeed was most of the house.

“The house had amazing bones, but it was bland and the rooms disjointed,” says Greg. “We added intimacy by adding layers and textures.” Luckily, due to those bones, the only structural work needed was the removal of a wall between the main bedroom and the ensuite to create an open-plan parents’ retreat.