An interior designer’s own home is generally expected to be quite special and Kate Walker’s recently completed ‘modern farmhouse’ in Mt Martha certainly lives up to expectations. From a home that had dual kitchens and a layout that catered to the previous owner and their carer, the home has been transformed for family living, incorporating a stunning selection of exotic materials and bespoke finishes.
Reshaping the home came with its fair share of obstacles, “My main objective was to create a family home where the focus was on communal spaces to bring us all together. Many home designs these days are about creating separate zones, whereas at KWD (Kate Walker Design) we are all about bringing families together, we therefore focused on creating small intimate spaces rather than vast areas”, says Kate. Meticulously curated, each room of the home tells its own story but like chapters in a book they all seem to flow together and make sense. The inspiration came from American home design and the bespoke finishes that are less commonly seen in Australian homes such as, detailed joinery and complex tiling that require the skills of master craftsmen.
“Because it’s my own home, I was involved in every facet of the project and was able to design everything to my own specification” says Kate. And the range of highly specified and unique finishes are certainly in abundance.
In the kitchen, soapstone from Brazil ‘ruined’ by rubbing olive oil into it to create a unique patina has been used on the island bench. Black Indian limestone was hand-aged to create just the right look for the laundry floor and in the bathroom a custom-made olive coloured bath from Luxe by Design is surrounded by hand-made Spanish terracotta tiles, that have been individually chiselled to give an aged appearance. The result is a beautiful home that from start to finish epitomises ‘custom-design’.
KWD is a community minded team of design professionals, dedicated to realising dreams with innovative, streamlined and worry-free solutions for our clients. Providing an end-to-end design service, the KWD team can facilitate every facet of the interior and exterior design of your new build or renovation, from concept to completion.
Experts in hard finishes, KWD specifies, sources and supplies solutions for all your hard finish requirements, and we have the experience, the contacts and the buying power to get your project completed with exceptional result – smoothly and efficiently. KWD has the solution for you.
