• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

The Interiors Addict

Heart Your Home

@interiorsaddict on Instagram   @interiorsaddict on Facebook   @interiorsaddict on Pinterest  
Subscribe
  • Job Board
  • About
  • Before & Afters
  • RENO ADDICT
  • Kitchens
  • Bathrooms
  • Kids Rooms
  • Bedrooms
  • Living Room
  • Shopping
  • Expert Tips
  • Recipes
  • Parenting
  • Travel
Interiors Addict
  • Job Board
  • About
    • Our Story

      Australiaโ€™s largest interior design, styling and renovation blog for the everyday Aussie. By former journalist and magazine editor Jen Bishop, the original interiors addict!
      READ MORE

      Weโ€™re big on Instagram!
      @interiorsaddict

      • About
      • Contact Interiors Addict
      • Work with Interiors Addict
      • Advertise / Find a job in Interiors
      • Press
      • Get Your Free Ebook

        This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
    • bookcover-jens-reno
  • By Room
    • Browse by Room

      Where you can search for all our posts about a specific room. Only interested in kitchens and bathrooms? We got you!

      • Kitchens
      • Bathrooms
      • Kids Rooms
      • Bedrooms
      • Living Room
      • Home Office
      • Dining
      • Laundry
      • Outdoor & Exteriors
      • Renting
    • bookcover-jens-reno
  • Before & Afters
    • Before & Afters

      Who doesnโ€™t LOVE a good before & after? If you want to be inspired by the whole reno process, and not just the shiny photos at the end, this is the place for you!

      View Articles

      • Before & Afters
      • Jen’s reno
      • Real Renos
      • RENO ADDICT
    • AFTER lounge room1980’s arch inspires amazing apartment before and after
    • AFTER lounge80’s beach shack now an eclectic, retro-inspired holiday home
  • Reno Addict
    • RENO ADDICT

      Looking for reno inspo? Find it all here, from other peopleโ€™s projects to the latest trends, tools and products, whether youโ€™re DIY-ing or employing trades.

      View articles

      • Reno Products
      • The Block
      • DIY
      • Reno Trends
      • Before & Afters
      • Real Renos
    • EnsuiteLuxury lakeside living on NSW South Coast: A fab reno
    • AFTER lounge room1980’s arch inspires amazing apartment before and after
  • Shopping
    • Shopping

      Want to know where to buy the latest furniture, homewares, rugs, art and more? Weโ€™re always sharing our latest finds and telling you where you can buy them.

      View Articles

      • Furniture
      • Homewares
      • Art
      • Smart Home
      • Appliances
      • Reno Products
    • AilantoThe best new interior finds for kids + designer chair giveaway!
    • Greg Natale accessoriesGreg Natale debuts new lifestyle collection at Maison&Objet Paris
  • Inspiration
    • Inspiration

      While Jenโ€™s a legitimate interiors addict, sheโ€™s no design professional, so she calls on an army of the countryโ€™s best to share their expertise with you. Be inspired by their stories too!

      View Articles

      • Decorating 101
      • Interviews
      • Expert Tips
      • Before & Afters
      • House Tours
      • Designers
      • Styling
      • Renovating
      • Real Renos
      • Covet my coffee table
    • Lounge room90’s era abode now bold and fun holiday home
  • Lifestyle
    • Lifestyle

      Weโ€™re mostly about the home but Jen also likes to share other things she thinks youโ€™ll love, like food and travel.

      • Recipes
      • Travel
      • Parenting
    • 0Q7A5539Foodie Friday: Confit salmon with preserved lemon & pomegranate
    • Burrawang HouseNew Hamptons style luxury retreat in the NSW Southern Highlands
  • Jobs
    • Advertise on our job board
    • Job Board FAQs for advertisers

Apartment living with kids: interior designer shows how he does it

November 20, 2020 3 Comments

FacebookPinEmailTweet

By Lorenzo Logi

Balancing a growing family, a new job and a renovation is no small achievement. Further complicate that with heritage restrictions on a company titled property and competing design objectives in a compact space, and you have a truly acrobatic undertaking. 

Such was the challenge facing Spanish interior designer Jesus del Toro and his family as they embarked on the redesign and build of a 1920s Walter Leslie Nielsen apartment in inner-city Sydney. After months of open houses and budget-busting auctions, and having reluctantly abandoned their hopes of finding an affordable home near the beach, Jesus and his wife Agnes were charmed by the central location and Art Deco setting of an elongated unit in Potts Point with views of St Maryโ€™s Cathedral and the CBD skyline.

Jesus del Toro’s family of four are loving life in their tiny Potts Point apartment

The apartment was in sore need of renovation, however, with a dated, compartmentalised layout that squandered the abundant natural light. And, bound by exacting heritage conservation regulations, the task of adapting the space to the needs and tastes of a modern family of four promised to be challenging. 

โ€œThis unit was not in our brief for house-hunting,โ€ says Jesus. โ€œWe were looking for something completely different. But this was very eccentric, urban, well-connected, and we were excited by the classical style and also the potential to do renovation works.”

The old, early thirties layout was dark with one long corridor and single rooms. Moreover, the kitchen was designed as a cubicle to be occupied solely by household staff, and the bathroom needed decades worth of updating.

โ€œBut there was huge potential to turn it into something awesome, to flip it around and make it contemporary, while respecting the existing features and empowering them with new ones in the same style,โ€ Jesus explains. 

Even with the freedom to rearrange the layout, the task of how to coax all the needs of a young family out of an 80sqm space remained complicated. For Jesus, however, finding resourceful solutions in limited spaces was a familiar challenge. โ€œIn my house when I was growing up, we were nine people, including my four older brothers and two grandmas. That means everything inside the house needs to do two or three things. My room was shared with one of my older brothers. I still had my little desk for studying, which doubled for table tennis and foosball. My mum or my grandma was, usually, doing the ironing or the washing in there too. It was a multi-use sort of room, with fold-down beds.โ€

Unsurprisingly then, Jesus’ design included a number of occasional or versatile areas: โ€œIn the living space, we have a day bed, a massive standing desk and a library. Here we dry our clothes, practise yoga, play soccer, do ballet, play the ukulele, perform theatre acts for the kids and even take salsa lessons!

โ€œEven though it may seem a little bit scary to have such an open plan home and not be able to have your own space, it is surprising how many little spots you can be in by yourself or as a family in the exact same way,โ€ he observes. โ€œYou donโ€™t even realise that it’s the space doing that for you. Plus we get the advantage of having the Art Deco designed glass doors with blackout velvet curtains, blocking visually and acoustically as needed.โ€

As well as pairing the constraints of the unit with the needs of his family, Jesus wanted to preserve as much of the buildingโ€™s heritage flavour within the apartment as possible, sustaining elements from common areas in the unitโ€™s interiors. From the preference for pendant lights over downlights, to the French panelling chosen to match existing cornices and ceiling bands, the rich details of the Art Deco era peek through an otherwise more contemporary, pared back aesthetic. The ensemble is completed by a lashing of industrial texture, courtesy of the exposed steel trusses of the portal frames with their Harbour-bridge evoking lattice steel motif. 

Storage has also been carefully considered and integrated wherever possible beneath or behind furniture and joinery, and the family tradition of multi-functional spaces lives on. Their four-year-old daughter Noahโ€™s 8sqm play area morphs into her bedroom with a wall-mounted fold-away bed. The homeโ€™s spaces comfortably satisfy a variety of functions, with the added advantage of promoting an intimate, convivial environment.

Jesus was also committed to preserving a sense of fluidity and play in the apartment, especially in his daughterโ€™s room. He chose to experiment with the ceiling, and developed a simultaneously sophisticated, simple and economical decorative feature in the form of hanging sheets of paper arranged to create a flowing, wave-like effect. 

โ€œIt adjusts its height to the shelving edge. It reacts to where the lamp is. It adjusts its curvature to the window to allow more light in. It’s one of those little exercises that is in fact really inexpensive. It’s just paper and Blu-Tack.โ€

The ceiling featureโ€™s affordability and ease of execution, however, are contrasted by the masterpiece that is the bathroom! Riding a wave of creativity and inspiration, Jesus recalls how one morning he was browsing designs for tiles, frustrated at their prohibitive cost. Deep in a YouTube tile-manufacture-video rabbit hole, he was surprised to see how mechanised the allegedly โ€˜handmadeโ€™ process was. โ€œThey were absolutely spotless and perfect, as if they were manufactured by a machine,โ€ he criticises. โ€œIt didn’t have the impression that it was actually made by hand.โ€ 

He remembers thinking, โ€œI donโ€™t have the budget but I do have patienceโ€. So was born a DIY tile-making project that would see Jesus, his family and friends hand-make more than 3,000 glazed, fish scale tiles over the course of 15 weekends โ€“ including preparation and testing of clay, glazing and moulds. And, while at times he questioned his initial enthusiasm, the end result speaks for itself: the bathroom nestles among walls clad in the cool, mossy green tiles, each slightly different to the next, carrying in their warp and weft the story of their origin. With a wry smile, Jesus reflects: โ€œIt was a much more lengthy approach. It was absolutely, totally worth it.โ€

With its blend of modern and heritage, work and play, and its deceptive ability to accommodate a multitude of activities and moods in a limited space, the apartment is a role model for how we might intelligently and happily embrace inner-city living โ€“ an ever more pressing aim as more of us grapple with the demands of working from home. Coupled with Jesusโ€™ attention to detail and investment of personal creativity (and time), this compact home is ready to host many years of comfortable, beautiful family life. 

Photography: Jesus del Toro

For more on this renovation

Heritage home brought back to life for family living
This Federation home on Sydney’s lower north shore was in a bad state when Jon and Nikki Moss bought it in late 2015. But you’d never know it now, looking…
Ballarat heritage terrace becomes moody boutique holiday abode
โ€œI love contemporary design overlaid on a historical backdrop,โ€ says retail designer David Cook-Doulton who, together with his partner Martin Shew, is responsible for the gorgeous overhaul of this grand…
Kitchen
Chic Perth heritage reno a seamless blend of old & new
The heritage home with modern extension, is certainly not a new concept. Regardless of heritage restrictions, many a run-down old character home has been lovingly restored simply because people love…

FacebookPinEmailTweet

Primary Sidebar

Popular This Week

  • Terrazzo and character are in and grey is out, says designer
  • AFTER lounge 80’s beach shack now an eclectic, retro-inspired holiday home
  • Lounge room 90’s era abode now bold and fun holiday home
  • Palette Cam 15 apps to help you build your dream home
  • Australian kitchen dimensions: standard sizes for every last detail

Follow us on Instagram

While we featured a gloriously colourful home on M While we featured a gloriously colourful home on Monday, this one is a masterclass in serene neutrals! And how good is this bunk room?!

Take the tour on the blog now. Via link in bio.

#neutralhome #neutralhomedecor #bunkroom #bunkbed #bunkbedsforkids #builtinbunkbeds #skylights #interiorsaddict #theinteriorsaddict #jenbishop #heartyourhome #realhomes #holidayhousesofinstagram #nswsouthcoast #wollongong #wollongonghomes

@projection_build @lumiere_collective @shersonarchitecture 
๐Ÿ“ท@the.palm.co
Washable rugs, eco-friendly play mats, reversible Washable rugs, eco-friendly play mats, reversible linen, gorgeous wallpaper and the chance to win a beautiful bouclรฉ recliner chair!

Today's kids room roundup is full of loveliness if we don't say ourselves!

Via link in bio now.

#kidsroomstyling #kidswallpaper #playmats #feedingchair #nursingchair #nurseryroomdecor #washablerugs #washablerug #bouclechair #interiorsblog #interiorsblogger #interiorsaddict #theinteriorsaddict #jenbishop #heartyourhome
A glass shower screen is not the only option! In A glass shower screen is not the only option!

In this 80s villa reno, @trentinidesign took inspiration from an archway typical of the era and used it throughout the home.

The bathroom was transformed from a classic three-piece set up that included a shower, bath and vanity. Kathryn removed the bath and split the room in half and designed an arch to sit between the two zones. 

โ€œI wanted something spectacular. Rather than having a vanity with a piece of glass like you would typically see, I was really trying to push myself as a designer. It was costly but it worked out well and the feedback has been great."

Swipe for the before and follow the link in bio to see the rest of this home.

#bathroomdesignideas #bathroomtrends2023 #showerscreen #showerscreens #archways #apartmentrenovation #interiorsblogger #interiorsaccount #interiorsaddict #theinteriorsaddict #jenbishop #realreno
One half of popular parenting podcast @wedonthavet One half of popular parenting podcast @wedonthavetimeforthis, turns out former Neighbours actor @gemma_peanut is even more multi-talented than we thought! Will you check out the joyful and colourful reno of her holiday home (and airbnb) @yo_caba_caba?!

Head over to the blog via link in bio to read all about why she went bold and full of pattern in this project, which is a stark contrast to her zen and neutral Northern Beaches abode.

There's also plenty of details about where things are from etc.

"Iโ€™m not an interior designer so I just chose what I liked and followed my gut. Ultimately this home has been an opportunity to explore my alter ego โ€“ it allowed me to do things that I wouldnโ€™t normally do.โ€

๐Ÿ“ท @tanikablair_photography 

#interiorsblog #interiorsaddict #theinteriorsaddict #jenbishop #gemmapeanut #wedonthavetimeforthis #parentingpodcast #parentingpodcasts #holidayhousesofinstagram #cabaritabeach #airbnbstyle #airbnbstyling #colourandpattern #wallpapergoals #patternedtiles #featuretiles #poolgoals #sparkjoy #yocabacaba #boldinteriors #funinteriors #colourfulkitchen
Not many friends in life fall into the unofficial Not many friends in life fall into the unofficial family category and they're a special gift. So ends three weeks with @danisteve81 who left her husband and son in the UK (I'm forever grateful they lent her to me!) to come and cheer me up and help me in the most practical ways after I spent Christmas and New Year in hospital. There were tears and I miss her so much already but how amazing to have had all that time together as adults. Such a rare treat and would never have happened without having been through something so challenging. Silver linings and all that. So many other friends have also been incredibly thoughtful and kind. There aren't many times I'd say this without cringing but I am 100% blessed!

I still cannot believe we have been friends since we were 12! 12! Are you still close with your childhood besties?
The renovation of this 80s beach shack @camillo_ho The renovation of this 80s beach shack @camillo_house is a work of art and while almost every surface was updated, the decision to keep the original slate floor was genius if you ask us. 

Owner @clarehillier__ says: "With its purple, pink, red and brown tones, the slate was the starting point for our interior palette."

Come and check out the before and afters via link in bio now and read the reno story. It's a real beauty.

And you can book it for your next holiday too!

Blair Smith Architecture @kateshanasy

#slatefloor #slatefloors #80shouse #80sbeauty #camillohouse #interiorsblog #interiorsblogger #interiorsaddict #theinteriorsaddict #jenbishop #realreno #holidayhousesofinstagram #morningtonpeninsulahomes #morningtonpeninsula #morningtonpeninsulasmallbusiness #blairgowrie #blairgowriebeach #airbnbstyle
Me and my boys ๐Ÿ’— Me and my boys ๐Ÿ’—
Just a couple of dorks who've been friends for thr Just a couple of dorks who've been friends for three decades going out for a child-free dinner ๐Ÿ’“๐Ÿ˜
Excuse me while I die of a cute attack ๐Ÿฅฐ @damia Excuse me while I die of a cute attack ๐Ÿฅฐ @damianfrancis 

This doesn't happen often these days!
Follow on Instagram
Visit Jen's profile on Pinterest.

Get Your Free Ebook

Ebook cover

Never miss the latest renovating and interiors products, news and inspo again! Sign up for our newsletter and we'll send you the best bits from the blog, direct to your inbox. Plus you'll get our latest eBook: What Made The Biggest Impact in Jen's Own Reno.
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
Avatar

About Guest Poster

If you have high quality, original, relevant content to share, we might be interested in publishing your guest post on Interiors Addict. Please email [email protected] with your submissions.

More from Architecture

AFTER lounge

80’s beach shack now an eclectic, retro-inspired holiday home

Hardie exterior cladding

New exterior cladding product perfect for the Scandi-barn look

Burrawang House

New Hamptons style luxury retreat in the NSW Southern Highlands

Bedroom

Art and colour star in cottage reno inspired by Kit Kemp

The Fabric

Mirvac’s new stylish and sustainable display home in Melbourne

Master bedroom

Sophisticated Melbourne home an ode to its owners’ Italian roots

Download digital house plans & schedules from The Designory

A modern interpretation of the Arts & Craft movement in London

Lounge and dining

Apartment transformed with luxury finishes and space saving ideas

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. AvatarArthur K says

    November 22, 2020 at 5:24 am

    Looks like they have that home under control. Great location.

    Reply
  2. AvatarMarie cottier says

    November 26, 2020 at 9:58 am

    What a great article.. very clever design. We have a lot to learn from Europeans in regard to small spaces.

    Reply
  3. AvatarJesus del Toro says

    April 25, 2022 at 10:55 pm

    Thanks Marie!

    That has been the most common compliment I receive since we landed in 2012 and it comes down to ‘how we grew up’ all crammed in a city unit in the 80’s. Lots of the things we did are based on that childhood ๐Ÿ™‚

    Cheers

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Footer

Interiors Addict

Interiors Addict

  • About
  • Contact
  • Work with Jen
  • Press
  • Jobs
  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclosure Policy

Browse

  • RENO ADDICT
  • Jen’s Reno
  • House Tours
  • Real Renos
  • Interviews
  • Styling
  • Designers
  • Bedrooms
  • Covet My Coffee Table
  • Expert Tips
  • The Block
  • Art
  • Furniture
  • Recipes

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RENO ADDICT

Copyright © 2011–2023 Addicted Media Pty Ltd
Website care by ClickWP ยท Log in

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!