Bondi Penthouse sits behind a heritage façade, and that tension between old and new became central to the design thinking. For Lawless & Meyerson director Jo Lawless, this heritage layer was a key feature to work with.
Lawless summarises the brief succinctly as ‘barefoot luxury.’ It’s a concept that translates as quality materials, considered detailing and liveable spaces – the kind of luxury that’s felt with the senses.
The studio began the design process with an aerial photograph of Bondi Beach, which highlighted the pale sand and blue-white foam at the water’s edge. This soft, tonal interplay became the project’s compass with every surface drawn into a cohesive aesthetic. A light beige of textures, matched across stone, timber and furnishings, so the palette reads as one continuous, enveloping warmth.
Tone and texture are the guiding principles, and here Eveneer Raw ALPI Xilo 2-Flamed White earns its place as the project’s defining surface material. The designers selected it for its crown cut grain – a pattern that introduces naturalism and depth. The washed-out tone sits precisely within the sandy palette, and critically, it matches the timber floorboards and a custom dining table.
The joinery throughout the home is vast, including a single run that stretches metres through to the kitchen, concealing a bar with wine fridge, storage and entertainment systems. The designers found ways to bring unique touches, all while using the same veneer throughout. For example, in the bathroom the veneer grain runs horizontally, whereas on tall cupboard faces it shifts to vertical, with a very intentional placement of the grain as pattern repeat. Elsewhere, a fine trim detail on every joinery edge introduces a subtle traditional inflection. These directional changes bring movement across the surfaces without the need to introduce a new material.
Part of the project’s success for Lawless & Meyerson comes from confidence in specifying Elton Group products for over two decades. “If you keep specifying something for twenty-five years, it’s because you’re happy with the brand and you trust it. If you have bad experiences with products, you tend to look elsewhere,” she says.
Joinery, she notes, is one of the most significant investments in an interior fitout, and getting the material specification right means understanding how a product details, how it edges, and how it will wear over time.
Bondi Penthouse is a project defined by what it holds back, and by letting material, texture and tone do the work.
Project: Bondi Penthouse
Architecture: MHNDU
Interiors: Lawless & Meyerson
Photography: Dave Wheeler