Arent & Pyke show children and stylish living can go together

The third and final instalment of the Belle Mirvac Life Series saw a colourful, family-friendly apartment by Arent & Pyke unveiled last night.

The Life Series is a collaboration between Belle magazine and developer Mirvac at Harold Park in Sydney’s Glebe. Pop-up display apartments have already been created and decorated by Belle’s Steve Cordony and Greg Natale, each representative of a different stage of life.

Designed with the family buyer in mind, this third and final apartment by Sarah-Jane Pyke, who is a mother herself, dispels any notion that children and stylish design are mutually exclusive.

“For families the important thing is to make the home feel comfortable,” said Sarah-Jane. “There is a need for intimacy and privacy, a natural feeling that is uncontrived and warm. To achieve this we have used lots of layering of colour, texture and materials. Colour is one of our signature elements in design and we have brought that to the fore in the main living area with some wonderful Australian art sourced from Artbank, a multi-coloured buffet from Zuster and an assortment of scatters.”

Key furniture, artwork and accessories were provided by Artbank, Great Dane, ECC, Corporate Culture, Zuster, Cosh Living, Koskela, Spence & Lyda, Fred is here, Garden Life, Bemboka, Rachel Castle, Porters Paints and Quercus & Co.

Belle editor in chief Neale Whitaker said the new design provided a great contrast to the previous collaborations with Steve and Greg. “Arent & Pyke’s Harold Park apartment placed an inventive and colourful spin on the brief. As a family home it worked brilliantly; robust and practical with a sense of fun, creativity and energy.”

While Sarah-Jane does not subscribe to the idea that precious things have to be locked away until the passing of childhood, she says it is important to acknowledge that children live there too. “It’s just about finding a balance. You don’t want to have furnishings that are so precious that you’re constantly telling children ‘don’t touch’ or ‘don’t sit’.

“We have selected a solid timber dining table from MCM House that is beautiful and will age with the family. The Gubbi dining chairs are easy to wipe down and the sofa is not so expensive that you have to stress about it.”

The design of both bedrooms began with the selection of wallpaper; in the master bedroom, Anna Spiro’s Rosey Posey Trellis from Porters Paints and in the children’s room, Kilim from Quercus & Co. “Wallpaper is something that I grew up with but a lot of people are afraid of colour and pattern in case they become tired of it,” said Sarah-Jane. “Things in my life that I passionately love, I only love more with time. I don’t get bored.”

Mirvac development director Stuart Penklis said it rounded out the Life Series with a design that tapped in to the increasing number of families choosing inner-city apartment living over a house in the suburbs. “The Life Series was conceived to showcase the diverse appeal of Harold Park and Sarah-Jane has interpreted her brief of making a family-friendly apartment in a way that shows how comfortably a family could live in a well-designed two bedroom apartment. The trend towards families living in apartments is well underway and is only going to grow in the future as a new generation of parents places a higher value on staying connected to the vibrancy of the city.”

The Arent & Pyke display can be viewed at Harold Park, Corner Wigram Rd and Ross St, Glebe, 11am to 4pm seven days a week.

Read last year’s interview with Arent & Pyke’s Sarah-Jane and Juliette.

Find out more about Harold Park by Mirvac.