Celebrated fashion photographer Georges Antoni and wife and model Phoebe have been diligently building their stunning Plateau Project, a mid-century modern Australian home on Sydney’s northern beaches that was recently featured on the cover of Vogue Living.
Five years in the making, the couples architecturally designed home certainly challenges the expected of not only what a young family’s home looks like, but the way it functions.
Thanks to their partnership with AEG and close relationship with leading Australian creative director and interior designer, Lara Hutton, the duo has found inspiration from Berlin crafted appliances and expertise to bring their grand vision to life.
“We hoped to create a mid-century forever family home that borrows some textures and flavours from the Mediterranean,” says Georges.
It’s been a huge project, but regardless of size - every design project is filled with many tiny decisions. Georges believes having a selection criteria has helped limit decision fatigue and keep the project progressing - and in synergy.
Georges Antoni’s Home Renovation Approach
Materials
“We have really kept things super simple on the shell of our house. We decided early on to use only natural materials - this alone knocked out 85% of our options. We also decided to use tones of oatmeal on the walls and floors inside the home. So, in the end there are only six textures used in the house. These include micro cement, lime paint, oak, aerated concrete, steel, and Travertine.”
Colour Palette
“With the furniture we selected, we needed to inject spice into the pallet - but not too much. The materials we chose had to fit with the natural palette of the exterior shell, being cohesive, while allowing the view to play a critical role in the aesthetic. Because of this, we only used leather, linen and plush velvets, in sage, taupe, brown and yellows.”
Home Appliances
“When it came to home appliances we thought “let’s get the best”, so we don’t have to replace them for years. After researching, we chose big names with architectural heritage and expertise, like AEG, whose Berlin craftsmanship goes back decades. As a photographer and model, we are both from aesthetic industries, wanted appliances that are both practical and beautiful. There was no room to compromise there.
Georges Antoni’s Laundry Design
1. Design
Our laundry had to look as cool and beautiful as the rest of the home. Think micro-cement, Iranian Travertine, hand-made sink, custom cabinetry and AEG’s 10kg 9000 Series Front Load Washer LF9C1612AQ) and 9000 Series 8kg 3D-Scan Heat Pump Dryer (T9DHC966C)* combined by their laundry stacking kit.
2. Functionality
Currently our laundry gets dumped on our sofa or bed, so in our dream family home we needed enough usable bench space to be able to organise and fold our laundry.
3. Washing Volume
With a larger family, and hopefully an always visiting extended family, we needed a good capacity washing machine and dryer that would satisfy our volume needs.
4. Energy Efficiency
We are making this home as eco-friendly as possible, using 10KVA solar, lime paint, micro-cement instead of concrete and efficient insulation for example, so we needed an energy efficient heat pump dryer to fit our ethos.
*Updated model linked
