Inside the colourful transformation of artist Charles Blackman's former Woollahra house

When interior designer Nicholas Kaiko set foot in the former home and studio of renowned artist Charles Blackman, a renovation was already underway. Demolition and earthworks were in progress, and the house was, in his words, “mid-surgery”.

The Woollahra property had great bones with its steep corner site and north-eastern aspect, but unlocking its potential would require significant structural intervention and a complete rethink of how the three levels connected.

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The structural work, however, was not without its challenges. The steep, constrained site meant a new garage and mudroom required serious engineering, while the house itself had to be propped as earthworks took place beneath it.

For Kaiko, the restrictions became an opportunity to create the volume that ultimately came to define the house.

“The slope gave us height, so we used it,” he says. “The double-height void and the skylights turn a constraint into the best thing about the house. It has fabulous volume.”

At the centre of the new spatial arrangement is the spiral staircase. It was part of the original plans but has been transformed into a fantastical feature lined in rich terracotta-hued carpet.

Closing in the spiral turned the stair into one continuous ribbon, connecting all levels through a double-height void. Its effect is stunning and changes throughout the day, with its high-gloss finish catching the morning sun before becoming softer in the afternoon.

Every level was reworked, with the top floor transformed from what had once been Blackman’s studio into a private retreat incorporating a bedroom, en suite, walk-in wardrobe and sitting area. New windows to the eastern face open the upper level to light, while new skylights draw daylight deep down through the house.

Rather than attempting to recreate the past, Kaiko responded to the history of the house through atmosphere. “Almost nothing physical from Blackman’s era survived, so what we retained was the idea of the place rather than its fabric,” he explains.

The connection to the artist is subtle but ever-present, with eye-catching references such as a custom horsehair pendant hanging in his former studio space, referencing the brushes he used to paint.

Blackman’s penchant for colour became the defining principle of the renovation. “Colour was the first decision, not the last,” Kaiko says. “Most interiors start neutral and add colour as an accent. Here, colour is the envelope.”

There is no white to be seen throughout the four-bedroom home. Walls, ceilings, skirtings and joinery are treated as continuous surfaces, with a dirty pink establishing the main spaces alongside shades of terracotta, green, warm timber and nutty grass cloth.

Stripes, checks and geometric patterns are peppered throughout, from a printed velvet bedhead to dramatically veined quartzite and green mosaics in the en suite.

“Colour on its own is flat,” Kaiko says. “Leathered stone absorbs light, gloss reflects it, terrazzo scatters it, mosaic breaks it into a grid.”

Sheer, natural-toned drapes filter the light, and beautifully crafted bespoke cabinetry features throughout. A couple of sofas and every floor rug were made to Kaiko’s specifications. They sit vividly alongside a melee of furnishing styles ranging from minimalist to maximalist.

The family’s brief was: “A house people would love or hate. Nothing pedestrian, nothing safe. Feminine but fearless and unmistakably Australian.”

For the designer, that meant following the brief without compromise. “The house feels like it belongs to these people because so much of what’s in it was made for them or already loved by them,” he says.

The finished house is bold, but never arbitrary. “Surprise first, then calm,” Kaiko says. “On paper and with the finishes viewed in isolation, it all sounds like too much. In the room it feels settled, because everything answers to the same set of rules.”

Buyers guide $10,000,000

12 Attunga Street, Woollahra NSW 2025

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