elbourneasterpiece interior design by thomas hamel photography by matt lowden

produced by leslie newsom rascoe written by david masello

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Opening page: Dennis & Leen lanterns, mirrors, benches, and a console, set with a lamp from Arteriors, are positioned in the foyer of a home in Melbourne, Australia. These pages: Centered in the living room is Thomas Hamel’s custom-designed coffee table. Hamel’s armless sofas are positioned next to chairs from Madeline Stuart covered with fabrics from Holly Hunt and David Sutherland. Coffee tables are J. Robert Scott.

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very time Thomas Hamel walks through the front door of a house in Melbourne, he looks for changes. But he never finds any. Paintings still hang

on the same hooks, pillows rest plumped and positioned at the edges of sofas, and seating arrangements remain unchanged. After he finished designing the interiors of this seven-bedroom home in the suburb of Toorak, he expected some of the furnishings to be moved or certain decorative elements altered by the married couple. After all, it was a new home and the young parents have five active children.

“Even though the house has been finished for awhile, it’s exactly the same as I left it,” says Hamel, an American-born designer who has lived and worked (and thrived) in Sydney for more than twenty years. “It’s a great honor to see that what I’ve done has remained. These are the kinds of clients who know how to maintain a finished project in such a caring way. I love going back inside.”

Hamel and his creative director Dylan Farrell met the couple shortly after they had relocated from California. (The wife is from California, the husband is Australian.) The house was then under construction, combining the look of classic San Francisco residences with wrought-iron detailing, French Colonial motifs, and the kind of casual outdoor and indoor spaces that exist only in temperate Melbourne. “At that point,

we came in and designed the cabinetry and millwork,” explains Hamel, “including elements in the dressing rooms, vanities, and wardrobes. Later, we went on to the furnishings, many of which we designed.” Farrell is the chief furniture designer for the division of the firm known as Hamel + Farrell for Jean de Merry, and many such pieces are used in the home. “Jean de Merry reached out to us,” explains Hamel, “because they knew our fabric collection and wanted to expand their global vision by having designers from around the world do collections for them.” The collaboration resulted in Hamel + Farrell for Jean de Merry winning the Interior Design magazine Best of Year 2014 award for the design of module side tables.

In a house already awash in sunlight, with multiple accesses to the outdoors, the homeowner wanted even more brightness within. “She’s all about pure white,” says Hamel. “She doesn’t like beiges, creams, even shades of off-whites. That was a bit of a challenge to my aesthetic, since I like a variety of whites.” Hamel’s solution for introducing color was to use white silk-and-wool rugs that incorporate gray tones and to use double-thick, natural-hued woven blinds in the living room. “Fussy

Living room elements include a custom Carini Lang rug, a pair of three-tier side tables from Julian Chichester, ceramic table lamps from Michael Taylor, a Thomas Hamel sofa covered with Pierre Frey fabric, and Hartman & Forbes roman blinds.

Sydney-based designer Thomas Hamel fashions

a home for a large family in Australia

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Left: A view into the dining room reveals Thomas Hamel’s custom-designed dining table with silver-gilt finish set with chairs by Dylan Farrell for the Thomas Hamel Collection. The pattern on the custom Carini Lang wool and silk rug echoes the watery motifs of the painting, as well as the custom-designed crystal chandelier from Zia Priven. Above: The sideboard, with mother-of-pearl inlay, is a Hamel + Farrell for Jean de Merry piece.

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Left: Thomas Hamel’s armless sofa, with Holly Hunt fabric, is fronted by an antique coffee table; the low side table, fashioned of antique brass, is from McGuire, designed by Jacques Garcia. Two swivel chairs from A. Rudin are covered in a cypress Holly Hunt fabric. This page: The Rachis walnut and aged-brass side table is designed by Hamel + Farrell for Jean de Merry. The custom rug is by Behruz Studio. MILIEU-MAG.COM136

The marble-clad kitchen island is bathed in light from a grouping of Casanova chandeliers from Baker. Brass Bolier stools are covered in supple Baker leather. To give the room an added luster and texture, Hamel used both Dulux satin and gloss finishes on the custom cabinetry.

“In the kITcHen, we combined a gloSS with a SATIn finish on the cabinetry. A kitchen that’s Too SHIny is disastrous.”

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window dressings are not appropriate to this climate or atmosphere,” Hamel stresses, “and I always love having natural texture in a room.”

Other colorful moments in the house are provided by the couple’s artwork. “I knew that the paintings would become strong visual features,” says Hamel. “The vibrancy of hues meant I could play down the furnishings, that I didn’t need patterned sofas.” Evidence of that is seen in the living room, but also in the foyer, designed to be spacious enough to accommodate the wife’s receptions for the charities in which she is involved. Like all the rooms, the entry hall manages to be both grand and intimate, a difficult dynamic to accomplish. There, Hamel positioned silver-leafed Versailles lanterns, gold-framed mirrors with blue beveled edges, and a shimmery composition of blue glass and mirrors.

Hamel admits that one of the biggest challenges for any home is the dining table and chairs. “Every table, it seems, is big and brown and just looms,” he says. So Hamel designed two tables, each with a silver-gilt finish, that appear to recede into the room. Farrell designed open-backed chairs covered in a dove gray. To complement a turbulent seascape painting

in the room, Hamel fashioned a diaphanous chandelier of crystal droplets that appear to rain down from nickel plates. “It has a watery, bubbly feel to it,” he says, pointing to a rug with an aquarium motif that he likens to “a reef of coral you might see from a low-flying seaplane.” Even the surface of the sideboard, a Hamel + Farrell design for Jean de Merry, has a watery illusion about it.

Recognizing that a family of seven needs a welcoming, versatile kitchen, Hamel was determined not to furnish it with a clinical all-white island that might appear as big as the landmass of Australia itself. To soften its effect, he used a veined white marble set atop a brass armature. “One of the twists in the room is that we combined a gloss with a satin finish on the cabinetry. A kitchen that’s too shiny is disastrous.”

The young homeowner is a classic, traditional woman in that she wants a home where guests can gather, but also one where every room is infused with a sense of family. “The couple will now really get into the process of living in the home and raising their family,” says Hamel. But in a few years, it might be time to make some changes, to add yet another layer of design.” n

Far left: The countertop of the reflective vanity (far left) is stone; fixtures are Zucchetti. Walls are painted with Dulux. Near left: A lamp from Zia Priven illuminates the husband’s dressing room. This page: A Jean de Merry bench with Jean de Merry fabric anchors the master bed fitted with Zimmer & Rohde fabric. Armoire is custom by Thomas Hamel & Associates. A seating area includes a Christopher Hall side table.

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“We pushed back the wall of the property by the swimming pool so that we could establish a large green expanse visible from the house,” says Hamel. The exuberantly scaled planters are antiques; pool materials are from Eco Outdoor.

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