COLOUR BURST

A joyful exuberance permeates this heritage home reinvented by interior designer Andrew Parr with zesty hues, lively contemporary art and iconic furniture.

- JUDY PASCOE 

Packed with personality and panache, this house is a masterclass in how to transplant a vibrant contemporary heart into a stately heritage property. No surprise that this is the family home of interior designer Andrew Parr, award-winning director of SJB  Interiors who is renowned for his innovative work on hospitality and residential projects. His dexterity with colour and his eye for collectable furniture is on full display here with extra flamboyance coming by way of a head-turning art collection.

The 1870s Victorian Italianate-style villa, a subdivision of the original Charnwood mansion in St Kilda, has had a varied history including being partitioned into nine flats before reverting to a single dwelling in the 1970s.

When Andrew purchased it in 2019, the attributes of the era – leadlight windows, soaring decorative ceilings, architraves, ornate cornices, balustrades and bifold panelled doors – were intact. But the property possessed a rather staid persona which Andrew set about converting into something more accurately reflecting his taste and way of living.

A total of 14 rooms in a square layout provided plenty of opportunity for expression. An indoor swimming pool which had been added in the 1970s and an original 1849 servants’ cottage at the rear of the property offered further scope for an exciting renovation.

Initially attracted by the home’s facade – a ‘chocolate box’ style with a three-storey turret – and the multitude of grand formal rooms, Andrew was also impressed by the amount of natural light that drenched the interiors.