Inside the Melbourne interior design boutique that dares to surprise

If you’re not sure what to expect when you walk into design store CRITERIA, entering comes as a surprise.

Located down a graffiti-peppered street in Cremorne, one is greeted by an unusual, curated collection of furniture that you can’t always identify.

Is that a lamp? (No, it’s a side table.)

Is the curiously shaped wooden chair for sale? (Of course, but expect to splash out with four figures.)

CRITERIA, the brainchild of American transplant Rachael Fry, prides itself on the eclectic, the hard-to-get and the investment pieces.

Just don’t expect budget shopping. Says Fry, “The cheapest thing we have here is a bottle opener for $150. The most expensive? Um …”

You’d better not ask.

Fry is the first to admit that if you’re comparison shopping for a new dining table, hers is probably not the store for you.

Their range of designers includes Baxter (Italy), De La Espada (Portugal) and the work of local design studio Broached Commissions.

“We’re a showroom and a gallery, representing both production work and edition work,” she explains.

“But we’re really a space to inspire and show progressive work, and it’s through the lens of contemporary American and European design. We bring it together through the idea that our pieces should be sculptural by nature and have integrity in materiality and concept.”

Among the store’s stars, Manhattan-based Gabriel Hendifar and Jeremy Anderson, of Apparatus, shine brightly. In Australia last week to launch their latest collection, they are good representatives of CRITERIA’s approach to design.

Metal finishes are done by hand; they also use unusual materials, such as horse hair.

One of Fry’s favourite memories, since opening CRITERIA four and a half years ago, centres upon one of their products.

“A woman purchased an Apparatus light from me for her 40th birthday, and she’d obviously thought long and hard about what she wanted. When she hung it, she rang me and started crying, because she said it was so beautiful and she felt so lucky she had it. I don’t take for granted that I’m facilitating this; it made my year.”

For Apparatus’ Hendifar, the joy is shared.

“In Melbourne, there’s a design-savvy audience who have a real hunger for our products. Whenever we launch a new collection, our first orders come from Australia.  Maybe it’s because of the distance – it’s harder to get things here – or maybe as an audience, Australians are more comfortable to order online from an afar. They’re early adopters.”

For Fry, who had an art direction background when she moved to Melbourne with her Australian husband and now six-year-old daughter (they since had a son, now two), her adopted city has proved to be an unexpected mix of cutting-edge approach and newly-acquired comfort. (For instance, the first thing she does when she arrives back here from abroad is head to a cafe for a hit of coffee culture.)

The one way she’d like to sway Melbourne dwellers? “I would love to see more use of colour and taking more risks, and move away from safe and grey and beige. Have some fun!”