A Fine Vintage

OPULENCE MEETS OLD-WORLD CHARM IN AN INTERIOR DESIGNER’S HISTORIC HOME ON SYDNEY’S NORTH SHORE

- Tamara Davis

It’s not uncommon to find Karlie Ungar up in the early hours of the morning, poised over her computer, ready to make a virtual bid on a rare piece of furniture. With a flair for sourcing items from auctions abroad, the Sydney-based creative is also something of an expert when it comes to international time zones.

Her collection of antiques, storied artworks and one-of-akind curios is on dazzling display in her home, a quaint sandstone cottage in the leafy suburb of Hunters Hill. The house, named Glenrosa, was built in 1883 by an Italian stonemason. When Ungar moved in with her husband and first son in 2013, she embarked on a careful refurbishment, letting the property’s rich heritage guide her design direction.

“We wanted a home that had a lot of character and something we could potentialise, but the historic part of the property really appealed,” Ungar says. “People buy a character home like this, and then they push it in a completely different direction. This house always wanted to be a little cottage. It was always going to be dark because of the sandstone and small windows, and I thought, ‘well, it’s really beautiful and moody and intimate, so let’s just go with that.’”