Aussie actress Jenni Baird lists transformed one-bedroom Kurraba Point apartment

Some properties are bought to live in. Others are bought to imagine with. For actress-turned-interior-designer Jenni Baird, co-founder of Houselift Interiors, this one-bedroom apartment was always destined to be both. It became home and testing ground, studio and experiment, a flip-and-design showcase tucked quietly above one of Sydney’s most peaceful harbour pockets.

The apartment was still wearing its original 1979 bones when she first walked in – an untouched layout, dated joinery, original brickwork – the kind of place most buyers fear but that gets a designer’s pulse racing.

“It had an incredible view, was on a whisper-quiet street and had parking – there were hardly any detracting features,” recalls Baird. “As a boutique top-floor apartment in a small block, it also promised the neighbourly feel and quiet that apartment living often lacks.”

It was also the perfect canvas for Houselift Interiors, the design partnership she runs with Lidia Killeen. Their goal was to turn the apartment into a showroom, demonstrating how smart choices in materiality, colour and lighting can transform even the smallest spaces.

“The ‘add value’ was obvious due to its original condition, but it also gave us complete design freedom because we were the clients,” Baird says. “I wanted to show how texture, lighting and layout decisions play out in a finished space.”

The renovation was a complete reset – new floors, new bathroom, new wiring – but the most transformative moment came from removing the wall between the kitchen and living room. Suddenly, the apartment opened up to the harbour.

“I imagined someone standing at the bench each morning with coffee, watching the ferries in the sunlight, then cooking dinner in the evening while still seeing the water,” she explains. “It also meant I could create a generous dine-in kitchen – something I believe is synonymous with modern life.”

From there, colour tied the apartment to its setting. Blue was a natural extension of the harbour, appearing both at the entry and the rear of the home. The bedroom was totally drenched in tonal blues – calm, cocooning and low-contrast for rest.

The entryway, however, became the greatest triumph. Dark and charmless before the renovation, it now delivers one of the apartment’s biggest wow factors.

“I transformed it with a Sydney-themed mural from Milton & King for drama, adorned with brass shell wall lights for sculptural glow,” explains Baird. “I also brought natural light in by swapping out the bathroom door for an arched reeded glass insert door – I feel the most proud of that change.”

And because the space functioned as both home and studio, it has already lived a rich social life. Negroni afternoons. Thai takeaway nights. Coffee meetings. Working lunches. The curved sit-up bar became the gravitational point for both work and play.

“It’s supposed to be versatile, perfect for a single professional or couple,” Baird adds. “Sometimes, when we have dinner plans, we invite people up to ‘Billong’ for a pre-dinner champagne as the sunset is magic from up there – when we’ve had larger gatherings, people stand on the balcony while others stay at the bar.”

For all its compactness, the apartment holds rare personality and potential. The harbour gives it scale. The design gives it a story. And the lifestyle – calm, elevated and quietly luxurious – lingers long after the door clicks shut.

Selling, of course, was always part of the plan. Baird is already deep into her next design challenge at Kirribilli and knows this apartment is ready for someone new.

“I see the next owner experiencing it as a quiet place for refuge away from busy life,” she says. “A place that soothes and a place where they can invite friends up to enjoy that fantastic Sydney Harbour stretching out before them for miles.”

Price on Request

11/1 Billong Street, Kurraba Point NSW 2089

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