Step into the penthouse with the polish of a hotel and the warmth of a home

What makes the ideal inner-city apartment?

While there’s no right or wrong approach, Romaine Alwill from Atelier Alwill says creating the perfect balance of light and dark is the secret to making it feel like home.

“It’s common to want to maximise every square inch and make an apartment light, bright, and open, but it can work against you,” she explains.

“A combination of dark, moody spaces balanced with light moments makes an apartment feel warm, inviting, and homely.”

It is a unique approach that Alwill adopted when tasked with creating a single man’s opulent Sydney bolthole.

The 270-square-metre one-bedroom penthouse goes beyond the conventional man cave; there’s no clutter, sports collectables, or pool table cluttering its spaces.

Instead, Alwill has deftly rejigged its layout and executed a dramatic colour and material palette.

“It’s top floor, two-storey with two balconies, which is unusual in Sydney,” she says. “It feels like a luxurious townhouse when you’re inside.”

Situated in Observatory Tower at Millers Point, the apartment offers views of the Sydney Harbour Bridge on one side, while the other side reveals the distant Blue Mountains.

“The building’s lobby has an old-world charm, but the apartment itself felt stuck in the late 1980s,” recalls Alwill, who says it’s an era challenging to update.

“Everything was so clunky back then!” she says.

“We wanted a clean slate, so we stripped the spaces down, leaving only the window frames and bathrooms, which luckily were classically aligned with the charm of the lobby.”

Transforming this blank canvas into an elegant, comfortable abode demanded the polish of a hotel and the warmth of home.

“The owner wanted it to have an inviting atmosphere conducive to wine, dining, and entertaining,” she says.

“Establishing a sense of rhythm and warmth – qualities often found in houses – is important when designing an apartment. We could’ve knocked out walls, but we wanted it to feel more like a townhouse with a dark entry and two lighter rooms on either side. It provides that beautiful flow from dark to light.”

The main structural work focused on the entryway, dining, and kitchen areas.

“It was a messy space with narrow doors and a bulkhead dropping down in odd places in the ceiling,” Alwill says.

“We cleared it out, relocated all the services, redesigned the narrow doors and disrupted floor plan and redid the stairs and balustrade.”

The apartment’s new entrance is impactful, opening to a stairwell lined in timber treads and a waxed plaster finish that gazes up into a dramatic double-height void and chandelier.

This first level features a kitchen, dining area, and a spacious living room.

A large screen, concealed by silver Japanese panels, transforms the space from an elegant entertaining lounge to an intimate cinema.

The main bedroom is on the upper floor and features a walk-in wardrobe adorned with walnut and solid oak finishes.

This level also includes bathrooms and a powder room, along with two additional rooms that have been converted into a wine room and a study, swathed in tweed-like wallpaper.

Wandering through the space feels like searching through a gentleman’s wardrobe – leather, velvet, tweed, silk, walnut and rich timber create an all-encompassing sensory experience.

“We wanted to establish a rich mood and aura through the selected finishes, giving it a subtly tobacco-smoky feel,” she says.

Central to this ambience are the 1930s and ’40s statement light fittings and solid oak parquetry floors, complemented by elegant stone borders that extend up the skirtings and wrap around the architraves.

“The original flooring consisted of straight blackbutt boards, and we knew we could enhance the base palette with something richer,” she says.

“The beautiful oak, stained in a tobacco hue, provides a warm undertone to the apartment and adds depth and texture. It creates a striking contrast with the stone, as well as with the silk wallpapers and rugs, which are elegant and offer warmth and acoustic benefits.”

For the designer, working on a unique brief and being entrusted with transforming this old jewel of real estate into a lush, masculine abode was a remarkable opportunity.

“It’s bold yet elegant, and a very different style of apartment,” she says.

“I think that’s what makes us proud the most.”