TERRA AUSTRALIS
Residential Decoration
Client: Private
Location: Malvern, Victoria
Photography: Timothy Kaye
Media: The Local Project, Est Living
MEJ Residence (Terra Australis) reimagines a 1930s heritage home in Malvern as a layered, contemporary family interior grounded in the colours and textures of the Australian landscape. Following architectural works by Paul Gleeson, the owners engaged Nickolas Gurtler Office to carry the project to completion through furniture, art and styling—treating the refined shell as a canvas for warmth, tactility and nuance.
The brief asked for a house “coloured-in” with life while honouring both the original fabric and the new interventions. The response balances the formality of the 1930s with a sleek, playful counterpoint—formal arrangements on one hand; sculptural, textural pieces on the other—so order and individuality sit comfortably together.
Continuity is achieved through a choreographed flow and a palette that shifts gently from room to room. At the front, warm, earthy tones—rusts, caramels and forest greens—establish a grounded temperament before giving way to cooler notes of blue, silver and black toward the rear. A constant thread of green ties the sequence together, acting as quiet wayfinding that reads emotionally as much as visually.
Materially, the scheme is a dialogue between raw and refined. Bouclé, timber, velvet, wool and fur introduce softness and grain; smoked glass, polished chrome, honed granite and leather add clarity and sheen. Texture does the work of ornament, allowing light to become the embellishment. References to the Australian landscape are folded into a restrained, almost French artisanal sensibility without slipping into pastiche.
Furnishings were chosen for presence and longevity. In the main living room, Baxter’s Nepal chair converses with the Agent 86 sofa and Harvey armchairs by Grazia & Co, grounded by B&B Italia’s Alanda table and the studio’s own Acropolis side table. Elsewhere, European icons are set alongside local makers to keep the rooms vivid and personal rather than showy. Art and objects are placed with a curator’s rhythm so tone, silhouette and surface can converse rather than compete.
Across the home, practicalities are absorbed into joinery and placement, keeping the visual field composed while the rooms remain easy to live in. The outcome is an assured, collected residence—precise in detail, generous in mood—that feels anchored to place while confidently contemporary.