This fashionable St Kilda East house is a testomony to Mark Coombes’ eye.
The artistic and model director bought the house — one in all three Federation cottages situated on the foot of a recent improvement — in 2007.
The bottom flooring residences of the constructing, together with Mark’s dwelling, stand a lot as they did over 100 years in the past full with their excessive ceilings and entrance bay window.
It was these options that attracted Mark to the property. With a couple of tweaks, he knew he might make the home really feel like a house.
Over the previous 17 years, Mark has painted virtually each floor within the dwelling. Stark white floorboards (Porter’s Paints Snow White) and kitchen partitions (Dulux Vivid White) mirror the look of a classy Parisian condominium, contrasted with black open fireplaces and doorways all through (Dulux Domino).
‘The end on the partitions is chalky which I really like and acts as a canvas for my artworks and furnishings, that are largely summary, shiny and vibrant,’ Mark says.
The interiors are styled with traditional items true to Mark’s wider artistic imaginative and prescient. He explains, ‘I attempt to make sure that manufacturers I work with talk each a singular and timeless proposition and in a way this has influenced my private fashion.
‘I preserve effectively away from developments preferring an eclectic mixture of intervals in artwork and furnishings that’s timeless and distinctive.’
The point of interest of the lounge is the custom-built, floor-to-ceiling bookshelf the place Mark showcases his love of popular culture, historical past, artwork, and design. Mark has been accumulating the books and magazines on show since he was 9 years previous, together with problems with The Face, i-D, and Vogue relationship again to the mid Nineteen Seventies.
‘It additionally acts as an set up and an ideal speaking piece throughout dinner events.’
The furnishings is simply as private to Mark, who has sourced well-known classic items paired with equally daring and architectural trendy artworks.
This home, and its ‘ridiculous’ proximity to the seashore, has made Mark a bayside Melbourne resident for all times.
When not entertaining pals in his courtyard, you’ll doubtless discover him strolling the canine — Louis the groodle and Rosie the labradoodle — alongside the seashore, or heading to one in all their many native haunts.
Mark says, ‘For my part, after you have lived in bayside Melbourne, nothing else in Melbourne compares!’
