ELYSIUM HOUSE
Residential Decoration
Client: Private
Location: Caulfield, Victoria
Photography: Timothy Kaye
Media: Belle Magazine September Issue, The Local Project
Elysium House is a reworking of an existing architectural residence into a contemporary home for a young family—comfortable, elegant and built for gathering. Referred by past clients, the family sought a place to host friends and relatives, a setting for celebration and everyday life in equal measure. Nickolas Gurtler Office approached the brief by restoring harmony between architecture and interior, breaking down grand volumes and a monochrome palette to introduce human scale, warmth and continuity.
Colour and material carry the recalibration. Tonal variations of vibrant yellow and muted green move through the plan, layered with textures both raw and refined, patinated and polished. Venetian plaster meets aged brass and raw quartzite; surfaces that meet the hand are softened, edges that carry structure are tightened. The effect is measured and assured.
The vast formal living space—flanked on all sides by glass like an inverted greenhouse—was reconceived as a flexible “hotel lobby” for the home. It now accommodates whole-family Shabbat gatherings or divides into two intimate lounges as needed. Curvaceous, playful forms are set against sharper geometric moments; aged brass, Tiramisu marble, teak, velvet and leather create a dialogue of weight and sheen. Pieces were selected to blur time—historic references sitting easily alongside contemporary work.
The dining room, similarly encircled by glass, feels alfresco. Gentle sheer drapery modulates light and mood, while a custom lighting apparatus by Christopher Boots, in raw quartzite and aged brass, establishes ceremony. The in-house dining table seats 18: vertical walnut blades bisected by a brass rod evoke dam construction, topped with three book-matched slabs of rare Pearl Wave Onyx that read as a single monolith.
In the kitchen, a prodigious Jurassic leathered-marble island anchors the room beneath handmade aged-brass fixtures by Lost Profile Studio. Black cabinetry balances a pure white Venetian-plaster wall, a stage for an iconic beige-and-chrome cabinet that hosts collected objects, including a bronze table lamp by Henry Wilson.
A formal office is softened with Venetian plaster and sheer linen; an antique accounting table— a family heirloom—plays against modern classics. A secondary ground-floor living room retreats into informality, centred on a deep saffron wool sofa, with black-and-white accents layered over brass and walnut. In the master suite, Venetian plaster becomes an elevated canvas for a custom Daniel Boddam bed in charcoal wool bouclé, grounded by a juniper-green rug, ash bench and linen drapery.
Elysium House restores composure and connection—spaces tuned to ritual, family and time.