Interior Style - Laid-back Contemporary
“If you’re looking for a versatile and easy-to-live-with scheme that you can update down the track, this is ideal – simply switch out your cushions, artwork and ceramics, and you’ve got a whole new look.”
INTERIOR DESIGN MANAGER, JESSICA HODGES
Create the look
Exterior colours
Design a façade that embodies modern Australian style with swathes of smooth render in shades of warm grey that ranges from soft pebble to rich charcoal, paired with slender charcoal window frames, and touches of dark timber in your roof or balcony detailing. Opt for a glazed front door that fills your interior with light, and enhances the connection between inside and out.
Interior flooring
Create a warm and low-maintenance base for your scheme with wide, light oak floorboards, or large, matt-finish floor tiles in an earthy shade with some movement in the pattern, such as marble-effect Tundra grey. When it comes to rugs and carpets, opt for chunky weaves and light tones.
Feature lighting
Choose understated light fixtures with smooth, organic lines and matt finishes that won’t overpower the rest of your scheme. Consider curved metal pendants in white, soft sage or pebble grey above the kitchen island or dining table, simple floor and tables with touches of timber or travertine in the base in your living areas, and frosted-glass orb wall lights in bathrooms.
Kitchen styling
Draw your cues from nature, with textural, dual-tone joinery in white-washed oak and cream or grey-green, topped with soft grey benchtops. Keep detailing to a minimum with simple chrome tapware and either sleek stainless steel handles or push-touch cabinet mechanisms.
Maximise natural light and the sense of space with a white-tiled splashback, white bar stools, and a trio of curvaceous matt white or pebble grey pendants over the kitchen island.
Bathroom bliss
Strike the perfect balance between low-key and sophisticated with beige or soft grey stone-look tiles on floors and the lower portion of walls, with crisp white paintwork above them, a wall-hung vanity in oak with minimalist handles, a streamlined basin, and curved chrome tapware. Style the space with raw timber display shelves and artwork in fine oak or white frames.
See the Laid-Back Luxe look on display
Ashbourne Grand Pantry 23
Woodlea Estate, Aintree
Bridgewater 27
Coridale Estate, Lara
Edgewood 23
Eliston Estate, Clyde
Granada Grand 37
Olivine Estate, Donnybrook
Granville Grand Pantry 29
Mt. Atkinson Estate, Truganina
Oakmere Grand 34
Newhaven Estate, Tarneit
Piermont 29
Kaduna Park Estate, Officer South
Portland Grand Pantry 25
Minta Estate, Berwick
Provincial Grand Pantry 29
Peppercorn Hill Estate, DonnybrookView the Laid-back Contemporary gallery
Furniture & Styling
Keep it casual and uncluttered with simple oak furniture upholstered in beige or pale grey cotton and linen, paired with cosy woven throws, and scatter cushions in a medley of warm, earthy neutrals, muted green, and soft terracotta. If you’re keen to introduce some pattern, avoid busy styles and steer towards stripes and bold abstract prints.
Bring in some texture with battened-oak side tables or consoles, a rattan-backed accent chair or bedhead, drum side tables in coloured concrete or a tactile stone like travertine, and one or two leather pieces. Curvaceous, handmade ceramics and round oak-framed mirrors will add a low-key, contemporary touch.
Here are the shopping destinations our interior designers recommend:
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