I had been on a walk in a rainforest in Queenstown in Tasmania.
Really deep green rainforest,
and this idea came to me that a green kitchen
would be really nice in this space.
The brief was just to introduce
new contemporary joinery that could house a more modern life.
Leaving space for a little spontaneity
to happen in the space.
My name is Eleanor Peres
I'm an architect, and I live in this 27 meters squared studio.
Ballina is a pair of heritage brick buildings.
in Darlinghurst, which is an inner city
Sydney suburb that has loads of shops, pubs, cafes
around the neighborhood.
We're on the Gadigal Lands
of the Eora nation.
So I used to go to inspections to look at architecture details,
when I was studying architecture, of these old art deco buildings.
I just liked them.
When this place came up for sale, I had started to look for something
to invest in and I came in here and thought, I've been here before.
This feels really familiar.
And I was like, Oh yeah, I came here years ago.
And it felt good then and it still felt good.
These are Art Deco buildings,
so built around 1930 with special brick details
at the entrances, colored tiles in the entry floor
and stained glass windows through the stairwell.
these kind of buildings
I think are really typical of Sydney.
It was originally built for the nuns
that volunteered at the nearby hospital.
I wanted to make the space feel large and spacious,
but also provide a lot of storage and proper cooking facilities.
and all the tools for everyday life.
When I first saw the
space, it was a simple studio layout seating around the window
that moved into a kitchen space quite separate and there was a partition
wall separating the main living, bedroom area from the kitchen.
Removing that large cupboard allowed a continuous piece of bench height
joinery to run from the back wall all the way through into the living space
and on the other wall a longer taller joinery element
that incorporated a cooking nook
As you enter into the apartment,
you see the original floors which have been sanded back and re oiled
above the door.
All the technology like NBN and internet, and a projector, are hidden
by a special piece my friend Ed made.
On the back of the door, and around
the wall, are hooks to hang your bags, coats, umbrella.
Because storage space is tight,
I use drawers underneath the bed by the door to store all my shoes.
The first space you enter into is quite flexible.
It's the living, working, dining corner.
There's two large original windows here,
which is one of my favorite parts of the apartment.
They face east and they have this beautiful light
streaming in in the morning.
They have a block out blind over both and a floor
to ceiling sheer curtain that really softens this corner.
You get a great breeze flowing through these two windows
and they’re a really lovely memory of the original design.
There's a set of stacking stools
that move around the apartment as need be.
If more friends come over,
they still plants or I use them as a stool to get up to high cupboards
I love to collect books and have them on display in the space.
where the tall joinery meets with the living space
was a perfect corner to integrate a small library.
The best part of the new kitchen is that it no longer
feels like a separate space.
The mirror definitely makes the depth of the space feel greater.
The bench itself is a stainless steel
folded bench with the sink welded in
The green, there's a laminate material sprayed with a resene custom finish.
We've built in a washer dryer
mini laundry under the bench, an integrated dishwasher.
general storage
On the taller side of the kitchen there's an integrated fridge and freezer.
a small wardrobe and oven, drawers to store all the cooking equipment
in the cooking nook, the same stainless steel benchtop is used,
but to mount an integrated gas burner stove.
The wall tiles in the kitchen
are the same Kit-Kat Japanese ceramic product.
I wanted to create a special feature so I commissioned a friend
to design a series of custom inset tiles
to scatter around that almost create a small exhibition.
throughout the space.
The new light in the kitchen uses the original electrical point,
and eye hooks to track new lighting across to different spaces where we needed it.
So in the kitchen, it's above the sink.
the bed is a king.
A lot of people suggest I have a smaller bed to make better use of the space.
But the king feels palatial and creates so much storage underneath.
Most of the things I own in the apartment are under the bed.
Shoes, bags, jackets.
In the middle underneath, there's a large longer space for suitcases and larger items.
The bedside table is a folded sheet metal shelf.
I needed a space to have objects by the bed
that still gave access to the drawers underneath and through to the bathroom.
That rock, it's from a residency I did in the west coast of Tassie,
and one of my friends makes artwork with rocks
and he gave that to me when he gave me a tour of the mines.
The bathroom is the only space
in the apartment with its own door, which is the original door.
it's almost 100 years old
and we stripped back
the paint off that window to reveal this beautiful, fluted glass.
The floor tiles in
the bathroom are a new light terrazzo,
which are a nod to features of terrazzo throughout the building.
The bath is original and has just been sprayed with an enamel paint.
I put in a floor to ceiling white shower curtain in this space
so that when you're not showering, the space feels as big as possible.
and there's a large mirror cabinet mounted on the wall that creates
this great shelf on top to store small objects that I collect.
We're lucky that the apartment is on the corner
because that means the bathroom has a window into the alleyway
between the two buildings, and that brings beautiful, fresh air into the space.
The wall tiles are the same
as in the kitchen, with small paintings by Angus scattered around,
when designing a small space.
I think it's important to make that space work hard
so that living in it feels a little more simple.
In designing a tiny home,
I was quite inspired
by how Japanese people live in big cities, especially in Tokyo.
Actually, people end up spending a lot of their time outside the apartment
And I think that's a really beautiful balance between creating a really peaceful
place inside, but also places where you have a sense of community.