Bay House

On Mosman Bay, on Sydney's lower north shore, a couple beginning a quieter chapter asked Arent & Pyke to rethink their harbourside apartment. The home they had was heavy with brown marble and timber panelling; what they wanted was calm, a place they could lock up and leave, that still worked for long lunches with friends and visits from the grandchildren.

The studio started with how the couple would live. Two of the four bedrooms became his and hers studies, one fitted in sedge-green joinery to show off the owner's collection of stones, and a breakfast nook was added for slow mornings. Colour was used to follow the view: deep, saturated tones near the entry give way to pale shoreline blues in the living room, where the harbour fills the windows. The original limestone floors stayed, softened by blue wool and art-silk carpets in the bedrooms and studies.

Stone carries the drama. A curving kitchen island is clad in violet-veined Calacatta Viola, the powder room is wrapped in green Guatemala marble with bottlebrush-green joinery, and a glass-encased wine cellar sits beside the dining table. Commissioned pieces, from an entry console by Hugh McCarthy to sandstone perches by Den Holm, sit alongside the couple's art collection.

The hardware was chosen to be touched. Joseph Giles' Rolled & Hammered range, hand-textured and finished in Mid Antique Brass Waxed, runs across the kitchen, the study and the powder room door, while cast bronze Organo pulls dress the wine cabinet. Against so much smooth stone, the hammered surface is the detail you notice with your hand before your eye.