Houzz Tour: Chic Revamp for Manly Penthouse Just Right for Retirement
A dated rabbit warren becomes an open-plan haven for a retired couple wanting to share their golden years with family
There are worse ways to spend your retirement than living a life of leisure from a penthouse overlooking Manly Beach, but before the future owners of this gorgeous property handed over their hard-earned dollars to buy their dream retirement home, they made sure to seek the advice of designers at C+M Studio. Fortunately, the apartment had great potential to become a wonderful home that made the most of its location, and the couple went ahead and bought it. Before they could move in and enjoy it, however, it needed a complete redesign. As it was, the apartment was a rabbit warren of disconnected rooms that failed to make the most of the stunning views.
“The strongest motivation for the clients was to create a beautiful, coastal home in which to retire,” says C+M Studio co-director Christopher Glanville. “They wished to create a home to house their large visiting family, with inviting living spaces for entertaining, a big kitchen as the heart of the apartment, a rumpus room and guest room to house the grandchildren, as well as a long dining table for family dinners, without compromising their private living spaces with the master suite and study.”
The designers saw this as an opportunity to juxtapose the warm, open living spaces with smaller, more tranquil private spaces. Using some clever engineering to remove the majority of existing walls, they craned in large steel beams to lengthen the spans and create an open, free-flowing living/dining space.
“The client was immensely happy with the project,” Glanville says. “The finished product was exactly what the client had asked for: a simple, beautiful, unique coastal home, with the perfect balance of open, public and tranquil, private spaces.”
Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here: A retired couple looking to create a sophisticated coastal home
Location: Set back a block from Sydney’s Manly Beach, with stunning views out to the ocean and over to Shelly Beach
Size: 200 square-metres, plus 50 square-metres of outdoor terrace. The plan includes a large open-plan kitchen, dining and living rooms, with separate private family room and study, along with a guest bedroom, master suite with ensuite, and separate bathroom/laundry space.
Renovation cost: $550,000
“The strongest motivation for the clients was to create a beautiful, coastal home in which to retire,” says C+M Studio co-director Christopher Glanville. “They wished to create a home to house their large visiting family, with inviting living spaces for entertaining, a big kitchen as the heart of the apartment, a rumpus room and guest room to house the grandchildren, as well as a long dining table for family dinners, without compromising their private living spaces with the master suite and study.”
The designers saw this as an opportunity to juxtapose the warm, open living spaces with smaller, more tranquil private spaces. Using some clever engineering to remove the majority of existing walls, they craned in large steel beams to lengthen the spans and create an open, free-flowing living/dining space.
“The client was immensely happy with the project,” Glanville says. “The finished product was exactly what the client had asked for: a simple, beautiful, unique coastal home, with the perfect balance of open, public and tranquil, private spaces.”
Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here: A retired couple looking to create a sophisticated coastal home
Location: Set back a block from Sydney’s Manly Beach, with stunning views out to the ocean and over to Shelly Beach
Size: 200 square-metres, plus 50 square-metres of outdoor terrace. The plan includes a large open-plan kitchen, dining and living rooms, with separate private family room and study, along with a guest bedroom, master suite with ensuite, and separate bathroom/laundry space.
Renovation cost: $550,000
Following the curve of the wall leads you to the main living space, with views out to the ocean visible between the floating linen curtains from Simple Studio.
The ocean views from the apartment are nothing short of spectacular.
The room is furnished with dark brown cowhide rugs over the sisal flooring, a long, tan leather couch from Staples and Co, and two linen lounge chairs from Jardan.
On the wall above the couch is a large-scale underwater photograph by Mark Tipple from Otomys.
The copper and brass E15 tables are from Living Edge.
As you head towards the kitchen, you pass a reading nook, with a limited-edition, all-black Eames Lounge, E15 timber side table, and Lean Light. The full-height white poly-joinery conceals the building services and houses the TV unit on one side and concealed bar on the other.
The open kitchen has honed stone floors in a pale grey.
The immense kitchen island dominates the space, and a custom-designed four-metre long American oak dining table is big enough to accommodate a crowd.
More: My Island Home: 10 Kitchen Islands for Families
More: My Island Home: 10 Kitchen Islands for Families
The kitchen island hosts the stovetop, and a built-in exhaust drops down from the ceiling. The island surrounds are built from Mafi timber boards to match the feature wall behind.
A number of doors are concealed within the feature wall. Two open to pantry spaces, and another hides the entrance to the family room, a private space to house the grandkids and to relax away from the busy entertaining spaces.
The family room, with custom curved oak joinery and floating sheer curtains, is furnished with a beautiful Milo couch from Jardan in grey, blue and green felts. More artwork from Otomys sits above the couch, which is littered with cushions from Sydney company Line on the Side.
A Hay Peas rug in grey, from Cult/Corporate Culture, is layered over the sisal carpet.
As you follow the wall around out of the kitchen, you enter a hallway with more concealed doors that lead through the timber walls into the tranquil guest room on one side, the rear bathroom utility space ahead, and through a white panel door into the master suite in the other direction.
A pivot door opens to the master suite and study.
The master suite has a timber robe along the length of one wall, and a timber feature bedhead and built-in bedside light along the other.
One of Glanville’s favourite features is the open design of the ensuite, enclosed only by a Simple Studio sheer curtain, as used throughout the project to add privacy and soften the spaces.
“It was initially a point of contention with the client, however after spending time in the boutique hotels of south-east Asia, they were happy to move forward with an open-plan master suite design.”
“It was initially a point of contention with the client, however after spending time in the boutique hotels of south-east Asia, they were happy to move forward with an open-plan master suite design.”
The curved curtain hides a bathroom of marble and penny tiles with timber joinery that draws warmth into the space.
The study is hidden behind a white pivot door, off the master suite.
The biggest challenge for the designers in this project was working with the cluttered existing layout and a strangely shaped building to create a warm and inviting space, as well as dealing with the restrictions of the body corporate when it came to form and finish.
“We overcame these issues by using them as an opportunity to change our perspective on the design and explore a range of different options,” Glanville says. In the case of the shape of the building, it allowed them to explore the use of curves, which became the strongest feature of the design.
“We overcame these issues by using them as an opportunity to change our perspective on the design and explore a range of different options,” Glanville says. In the case of the shape of the building, it allowed them to explore the use of curves, which became the strongest feature of the design.
The guest room features custom oak joinery and an open floating shelf with a curved stainless-steel rail above and space to keep sisal baskets for storage below.
A simple studio curtain floats behind the bedhead with Louis Polson lights from Living Edge dangling above Jardan marble side tables.
The guest room is home to a Trevor Mein painting from Otomys.
The utility room at the rear acts as both a bathroom and laundry, with Corian joinery and white penny tiles with white grout throughout. The shower sits above a floating bath, while the joinery along the back wall houses the laundry.
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The curved timber wall came about because body corporate requirements meant timber floorboards weren’t an option. “We decided we would place them on the wall instead and, using the pre-grooved Mafi boards, we were able to wrap them around the curves of the wall,” Glanville says. “The wall became the focus of the project, and is the major source of warmth and texture in the space.”